"I'm all for the attitude of 'let's do something that makes us feel good, '" says Traill.

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Limited, also based at 9 Traill Street (this time spelt correctly) are over eight months overdue and the business has been dissolved.

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But Dr Bondeson reckons the story was fabricated by James Brown, the curator of the cemetery, and John Traill who owned a nearby restaurant.

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Many donated money to the kind-hearted Mr Brown for taking care of him and almost all dined in the next door restaurant owned by a John Traill.

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"Alcohol makes you lose heat much more quickly and makes it harder to regain heat afterwards, so don't drink until you come out of the water and rewarm, " says Traill.

CNN: Are polar bear plunges good for you?

"Your muscles get cold and are instantly paralyzed by the hyperventilation, and you can become very weak, " says Dr. Thomas Traill, a cardiologist and professor of medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

CNN: Are polar bear plunges good for you?