We used to think that people who took a dip in cold water were freaks looking to get their rocks off with any sick, degenerate adrenaline rush they could find. And then science started suggesting that maybe there are some health benefits to these cold plunges, to the point where a cold plunge became its own health fad.

Now that science has its eyes fixated on the effects of cold water on the body, some research from the University of Ottawa suggests that swimming and cold water might be detoxifying your cells.

Researchers got 10 young, healthy men to take daily, hour-long plunges into cold water (around 14°C or 57°F) while keeping track of their bodies’ responses on a cellular level. After a week of cold dips, researchers noticed that their cells started showing signs of improved efficiency in a process called autophagy, which is a cell’s process for clearing out waste.

Swimming In Cold Water Might Make Your Cells More Efficient

They also saw reduced levels of apoptosis (that’s when cells die off on purpose, usually when they’re damaged) and inflammation, which spiked initially but settled down as the week went on.

Our bodies can adapt surprisingly fast to cold stress. At first, it’s a chaotic mess—cells freaking out, inflammation rising—but by the end of the week, things calm down, and your body’s response becomes more protective. Essentially, cold water might be teaching your cells to handle stress better, which could eventually lead to better overall health and potentially even slow down the aging process.

There were some caveats. The study only involved a tiny sample of 10 young men, so we can’t exactly call it a one-size-fits-all miracle cure just yet. Also, the controlled lab conditions don’t fully capture the chaos of actual cold-water swimming. There are other factors at play, like windchill and temperature fluctuations, that could affect participants in ways a lab-controlled study could not.

A lot more research needs to be done before we can definitively claim that cold water swimming can reverse the aging process or some such miraculous claim, but so far, it does seem like taking a dip in cold water might be worth all the shrieking and teeth-chattering.