Polar Bear Plunge

Bare it and Bear it!

I am planning on celebrating New Year's Day by doing my third annual Polar bear plunge. Perhaps this is your cup of tea as well–I have seen a few of you doing it and I would like to apologize for my choice of swim wear last year. I got some bad advice.

For those of you unfamiliar, this is the practice of jumping into a large body of water on New Year's Day. This is probably one of the least stupid environments to do it in as well so if you have an interest, now is your time. Or wait for global warming to kick in more.

We usually get a talk before hand to remind us about the diving reflex wherein if you submerge your face in very cold water, your body reacts by involuntarily gasping for air and having your heart beat very fast before ultimately starting to beat very slowly and shutting down your respirations. It is all part of the body's grand plan and why if you are going to drown, doing it in the dead of winter is probably your best chance to survive. This actually happened to my old chief of medicine on a Christmas vacation a few years ago and he survived, albeit some unwanted CPR and a long flight later.

If you are planning to go ahead with this today, take a quick read through of this article so that you know what to look for and know how to do it safely.

Your Body on the Polar Bear Plunge

And have a safe and happy new year!

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Hey Doctor Scott ...

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