Queen of Diamonds - Cold Shower
What is it?
The cold shower is basically a treatment with water of different temperatures and pressures called hydrotherapy. This form of treatment has been used in many ancient cultures and has been used historically in places such as Egypt and China for both mental and physical health. Hydrotherapy is the external or internal use of water (liquid, ice or steam) for health advancement or treatment of various diseases using various temperatures, pressures, sites and durations.
How to do it?
The benefit from cold showers is it is free, easy to add to your routine and has no adverse side effects. Try turning your shower to a colder temperature gradually and increase from 1 minute to 5-10 minutes as you build up your threshold for the cold. If you do have a known sensitivity to the cold, please check with your doctor before undertaking any kind of cold therapy.
Why do it?
Cold showers offer several important health benefits including enhanced immune function, increased metabolism, improved mood, reduced pain and promoting post-exercise recovery. Cold showers can be used to produce many therapeutic effects. For this reason, they can help to maintain general health and wellness, and prevent or manage certain conditions. There are also physiological benefits for stress, sleep and even weight loss.
What’s the science behind it?
Firstly, when it comes to weight loss, an icy cold shower will lower your body temperature and initiate non-shivering heat creation which leads to an activation and expansion of brown fat tissue and also activates pathways in skeletal muscles which results in an increase of metabolism.
Furthermore, cold showers have been shown to help post-exercise recovery. Cold showers are ahead of active recovery, after working out in warm environments, as they promote relief from the feeling of hot temperatures by facilitating a faster heart recovery 30 minutes post-exercise and reduce cardiac stress compared with doing nothing (passive) recovery. Cold exposure reduces the level of serotonin in most parts of the brain, which can help reduce exercise-related fatigue. Cold showers can also increase the metabolic rate and activate hormonal pathways which gives rise to a modest increase in cortisol. This increased cortisol and higher metabolic rate is thought to help decrease fatigue by reducing muscle pain and by also accelerating recovery of fatigued muscle.
Moreover, current research indicates cold showers may help to generate an overall mood boost and help to reduce depression. Exposure to cold activates our ‘fight-or-flight response (sympathetic nervous system) and increases both the level of endorphins, hormones which influence mood, and noradrenaline, a chemical which mobilises the brain to action, and these both may boost overall mood level. When a person has a cold shower, the high density of cold receptors found in the skin transmit a large number of electrical signals to the brain and it is thought this lessens depression. Cold hydrotherapy research proves it relieves depressive symptoms rather effectively with no noticeable side effects or risk of dependence.
Finally, cold exposure or showers can help stimulate an immune system response. Exposure to cold temperatures increases the levels of both immune cells and their activity. White blood cell (Leukocytes, granulocyte, and monocyte) responses were enhanced by pre-treatment with exercise in water (18°C) and therefore this shows immune-stimulating effects.
Prof Aj says:
I’ve been practicing cold showers for several years. And, even after all this time, I still feel very apprehensive getting into a cold shower. And, my mum and my kids think I’m mad for doing it – especially on cold, winters’ days! Here’s the funny thing, I actually feel ‘warmer’ after I get out of a cold shower. As the warm blood returns towards the skin I get this sensation of warming up from the ‘inside out’. Cold showers also help me stay in the present moment and this practice is an important part of my daily routine and forms part of post-exercise recovery. Take the plunge – try it out and see if it works for you!
Do you want to know more?
https://www.subzerokings.com/blogs/news/the-surprising-health-benefits-of-cold-water-therapy
References
Rehman, R. (March 14, 2022). The Potential Health Benefits of Cold Showers. https://fullscript.com/blog/cold-shower-benefits
Lassila, L. What Are the Benefits of Cold Showers? (January 30, 2021).
https://bodyice.com/en-nz/blogs/all-things-bodyice/cold-showrs-for-recovery-fact-or-fiction
Mooventhan, A., & Nivethitha, L. (2014). Scientific evidence-based effects of hydrotherapy on various systems of the body. North American Journal of Medical Sciences, 6(5), 199–209. https://doi.org/10.4103/1947-2714.132935
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