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The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work (2016)
- avocado4 7y agoSo if you take a cold shower you'll be less likely to want to call in sick.
- jph 7y agohttps://hbr.org/2018/03/cold-showers-lead-to-fewer-sick-days https://hbr.org/2018/03/cold-showers-lead-to-fewer-sick-days The link is an interview with the study author, and excerpts are below. This is the first high-level evidence showing that cold showers can benefit your health. People who took them for at least 30 seconds for one month called in sick 29% less than our control group — and 54% less if they also engaged in regular physical exercise. Participants who took the cold showers actually reported feeling ill just as many days, on average, as the people who showered normally. But either their symptoms were less severe or they felt more energetic, so they were better able to push through the sickness and function anyway. The exact effect on the immune system is unclear, but we do have some knowledge of the pathway through which it works. Cold temperatures make you shiver — an autonomous response to keep your body temperature up. It involves a neuroendocrine effect and triggers our fight-or-flight response, causing hormones like cortisol to increase, shortly before we shift to a relaxation response. Moreover, cold temperatures activate the brown — or good — fat in the body. Brown fat doesn’t have any proven connection to immunity, but it does affect the body’s thermoregulation. When activated, it keeps the body warm by burning calories. It may also increase your energy and metabolism and help control your blood sugar. That could reduce your risk of obesity and diabetes.
- lbj 7y agoThat doesn't sound healthy at all. If the only difference is that they went to work sick, then I see little benefit. Except to the disease of course, it get spread around more effectively.
- lucideer 7y agoThe problem you're describing sounds more like a societal/work-culture problem that's completely orthogonal to the study. Cold showering improved individual health: the fact that those experiencing said improved health made unwise decisions that may increase the spread of disease doesn't change the fact.
- feintruled 7y agoPerhaps what we have here is a concrete example of the principle put forward by Mark Twain - “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.”
- joncrane 7y agoThe takeaway I get is that it increases perseverance. So basically, "doing something physically unpleasant every day increases ability to push through/withstand other physically unpleasant events" is my big takeaway. Seems pretty straightforward. Not necessarily novel, especially when you add in the exercise portion. I think there's some value to pushing yourself harder than the minimum to be comfortable and survive. But I don't think that's a eureka.
- gwd 7y ago> The takeaway I get is that it increases perseverance. So basically, "doing something physically unpleasant every day increases ability to push through/withstand other physically unpleasant events" is my big takeaway. Yeah, that's the hypothesis I need to see falsified before I start taking cold showers. I reckon my 'perserverance' muscles get enough of a workout from fasting.
- viceroyalbean 7y agoThere are some parallels to Stoic philosophy there. Ancient stoics would exercise regularly but state the health effect as a secondary benefit, the primary benefit being the virtuous exercise of discipline.
- edf13 7y ago> Brown fat doesn’t have any proven connection to immunity, but it does affect the body’s thermoregulation. When activated, it keeps the body warm by burning calories. It may also increase your energy and metabolism and help control your blood sugar. That could reduce your risk of obesity and diabetes Wonder what effect this would have on a weight loss program?
- blowski 7y agoSounds spurious to me. I imagine people that take regular cold showers are also more likely to push themselves at work. To make this really interesting, you'd need to have a blind control group of people who are paid to have cold showers, and see whether their absence rates go down when they start.
- acqq 7y agoMy bigger problem is too short time span of the experiment: “The intervention period was 30 consecutive days from January 1st-30th 2015. During the following 60 days January 31st-March 31st 2015 participants of all three intervention groups were instructed to shower as preferred.”
- blowski 7y agoIndeed. The whole article has a strong whiff of confirmation bias to it.
- OJFord 7y agoAnd the time of year - I think absence (for any reason) is lower in January anyway as a lot of people have just come back from a week or two off.
- akuji1993 7y agoWe also don't know, but can highly suspect that the subjects in the cold shower group knew or could guess, what was wanted from them in this study. See, Prison Experiment by Zimbardo for the most extreme example, but people will behave in the way they "should" when you tell them the reason of your study. The fact that the illness days didn't decline makes this study less viable. I'd like to see a followup, but it's hard to imagine a solid base to keep the participants in the dark. It should also be much longer than 30 days.
- kiliantics 7y agoYou couldn't have a true "blind" control group, as there is no way a person could not tell that they are being showered by cold water as opposed to warm water.
- Clomez 7y agoThis seems almost more dangerous, so people who took cold showers feel just good engouth to become vector for more infections? that's pretty crazy and i would argue the overall effect is then very very negative.
- everdrive 7y agoWhat does it mean to “activate fat?”
- ericmcer 7y agoIt makes sense to me that our body would behave as conservatively as possible with nutrient stores in normal conditions. Plunging them into a crisis state, like a cold shower, would then trigger some kind of “use it all we are in trouble” type response.
- ripsawridge 7y agoI'm interested, and will probably try it. But! I'll keep the # of sick days the same. They are wellness days, when I take care of other business.
- downtide 7y agoJust read the summary. For me personally a hot to cold shower isn't nice. But a cold shower although initially repulsive becomes very enjoyable. And when it ends the thaw feeling is magic. When you are freezing, even cold feels warm. Some days I get so cold in my bones I feel a hot bath or hot shower is the only way to sort me out. If I'm proper dirty, a cold shower doesn't do.
- bsaul 7y agoi wonder if there are studies about hot bath. Onsen are extremely popular in japan, and i'm absolutely certain the relaxation you get from hot water is beneficial to health as well
- exdsq 7y agoI recently read that a Finnish sauna practically counts as exercise for the cardiovascular system, I assume onsen have a similar benefit. I'm sure I read somewhere that cold showers can be dangerous for people with per-existing heart conditions too. I can't cite either right now but they should be easy to find with a Google search.
- trumbitta2 7y agoI know I have a heart condition (atrial fibrillation) and extreme cold, just like extreme heat, triggers my heart in ways I surely want to avoid at all times.
- Pete_D 7y ago> cold showers can be dangerous for people with per-existing heart conditions I think cold showers trigger the diving reflex[0] ("most noticeable effects are on the cardiovascular system, which displays ... in humans, heart rhythm irregularities"). I don't have a real source for that, but I tried cold showers a few times and found it impossible to breathe when I had cold water spraying on my face, like I could feel my airway closing involuntarily. Warm/hot water doesn't do that. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_reflex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diving_reflex
- SuoDuanDao 7y agoI've only heard about them (I think from Dr. Rhonda Patric) but I believe that there are studies showing that extreme temperatures in either direction have positive effects.
- ChrisRR 7y agoI'm not sure what the take-home from this is. Fewer people called in sick. Does that mean more people who were actually sick were tricked into a false feeling of health and went into work to spread their germs? Or does it mean that healthy people that were just feeling a bit groggy were re-invigorated by a cold shower?
- mnsc 7y agoThis SciShow-clip discusses this study and others. https://youtu.be/HsonXuJs8-s https://youtu.be/HsonXuJs8-s I do it most mornings for (anecdotal) "waking up the mind" when I'm tired. Sometimes it feels like the world goes from SD to HD. I don't do it 90 seconds though more like 30 tops and I don't believe that I'm less sick because of it. For me it's also a psychological test of "can I chose to do something that is tangibly uncomfortable when it's super easy to just stay nice and cosy".
- tralarpa 7y agoThe sentence "routinely showering (hot-to-) cold resulted in a 29% reduction of self-reported sick leave from work but not illness days" raises some alarms. Also the fact that so many participants discontinued the intervention "because of its burden or a sickness" (much fewer discontinuers in the control group).
- Hitton 7y agoThey lumped together morning and evening showering, which I suspect to have significant differences. But common sense thought is that cold shower will excite metabolism and result of that will be most likely quite different for normal waking hours versus sleep.
- dfcowell 7y ago30 days seems too short an observation period. I have 1-2 incidents of sickness per year and I don’t live a particularly healthy lifestyle.
- michalu 7y agoI've been taking cold showers exclusively for 11 years now. It doesn't get much easier but you'll get addicted to the great feeling after. It's similar to running or exercise, it sucks to do but you do it anyway because the benefits far outweigh the temporary discomfort. The trick for me was to never use warm shower again and never compromise ... only coldest water available counts. First thing in the morning. It makes everything easier as once you experience that comfort of warmer water you'll have to fight with it again and again. That's why I don't believe in James Bond showers and similar stuff. Only last year I started to take warmer showers if I need to take one late at night and want to get a good sleep fast (I took about 4 so far) ... to build this habit, for me personally, it was paramount to leave no other option. For the first 7 years I haven't been sick at all. At the same time, I don't think it's a miracle practice for your health. You will get sick if you expose yourself to risks of getting sick often enough - it's simple. In the early days, I used to procrastinate in the bathroom ... a good trick was to start timing my showers. I would leave a timer set for 5 min and paper to log time, I tried to get in and out beating 5 min time-frame. In less than couple of weeks it became a habit that I enjoy for some 8 years now. Other than health, energy and willpower, I suspect it has some solid psychological benefits ... you get out in the morning you feel like a superhuman, imagine starting your day in such way and how that compounds over the years. It's great habit to start.
- eequah9L 7y agoI was doing this for several months. I remember the biggest drawback was that cold water does not dissolve soap and shampoo as well as warm does, so it takes more effort to wash yourself well. I stopped because I got sick, and never got the habit back.
- zhynn 7y agoI do hot-cold-hot, so: stage 1: hot, get clean (soaps) stage 2: cold (focus, empty mind, ~1m) stage3: hot (reset, new day feeling, sometimes I save hair conditioner for this step, ~2m) My showers take ~10m.
- folli 7y agoWhat's a James Bond shower?
- jokoon 7y agoDuring winter I never heat my home above 18C, so I never use any heating. My computer and I are the only sources of heat and it's enough (not to mention the fridge, etc). If it goes below 16 I do some pushups and dress accordingly. If the bed is really cold, I just use a hot-water bag. I like the cold. To be honest, I'm also wondering if getting used to the cold might result in some form of slight weight loss, since your body would naturally burn additional calories to maintain a normal body temperature, but it's just a guess.
- Dolores12 7y ago>I'm also wondering if getting used to the cold might result in some form of slight weight loss Your body burns calories to keep its temperature - 36.6C. Another trick to force your body to burn calories is to drink cold water.
- chownie 7y agoNote that "burn calories" in this context equates to a pretty negligable number, iirc it's ~25 calories per litre of ice water. You can make the same number with a long stair journey or 3 minutes on your bike.
- Dolores12 7y agolets say you drink a liter of 16.6C water per day. your body will heat 365 litres of water to 36.6C. Energy needed is (36.6 - 16.6) * 4200 * 365 = 30 660 000 joules ~= 7328kcal its 2-week of intensive workouts for free.
- gambiting 7y agoThat's fine, except that the humidity in your house must be insane. I see it a lot in some British houses, where people either don't have heating on or run it very rarely - everything has this damp, musky smell of mildew. It's gross frankly. And the only way to fix it is to either run a powerful dehumidifier almost non-stop(not cheap, but at least you can keep the house cold if you want to), or....put the heating on. Opening the windows does nothing if the humidity outside is also pretty high.
- s5ma6n 7y agoFor me, one of the important elements in the results is the reduction in influenza with 60 and 90 sec. cold shower group. On the other hand seeing this adverse effect also made me nervous: "One participant in the 90 seconds intervention group died unexpectedly of occult chronic pulmonary embolism at 56 days follow-up." I know it is not because of the trial but it is unfortunate.
- javajosh 7y agoAs a side note, if you ever do a Vipassana 10-day retreat (dhamma.org) try taking a cold shower during the course. It's a nice challenge, and an application of the "non-reaction" practice. (Personally I found myself far, far more tolerant of the cold water, to the extent I was kind of amazed that my previous self was so averse to it).
- mapleboi 7y agothe period seems way to short to get any comparable results. should've tried at least three months
- AstralStorm 7y agoThe study explicitly says no reduced days of illness, just fewer days off. Means people were going in sick or worked harder? So there are no actual results on health in the short time they studied.
- discobean 7y agoThey probably just didn't feel like calling in sick after a cold shower
- saberdancer 7y agoExactly. Assuming they took a cold shower in the morning, sounds like this would wake them up in an aggressive way, probably raise their adrenaline level which made them less likely to call in sick. Once at work and levels wore off, you were already at work so you'll push through. Once you need to write things up, you have same day of sick days but more days when you were at work. If there was a long term (day long) effect in reducing "feeling sick" there should be less sick days as people who are borderline sick start to feel fine and don't report being sick. But if your feeling is temporary, let's say 2 hours then you can get to work and after the fact report that you were sick.
- dardie 7y agoAlternative hypothesis: The 79% who were able to complete the trial had already selected for 'grit', or folks who wouldn't skip a day's work for a minor ailment. To check, instead of just comparing the test group to the control group you would need to compare the test group to itself, before and during the cold shower period.
- cies 7y agoIn other words: correlation is not causation. I remember I've heard looooong time ago they used a similar method in Siberia to make primary school students stronger. Not sure if that's still practiced. But that cold exposure strengthens the body always stayed with me. (and now we have Wim Hof)
- watwut 7y agoI can compare that on myself - I was very often sick (with common colds and such) and it got slowly better after I started cold showering regularly. Cold swimming (which should include showering with cold water if you follow guidelines) is not exceptional here and people do report improvements in immunity. That is common reason for starting it - you are often sick and this is last desperate attempt to make it better after more pleasant methods did not worked.
- carlmr 7y agoMaybe you just got mentally hardened. What you used to treat as a sick day now doesn't feel that bad. Not because you're less sick, but rather because a light cold doesn't seem so bad anymore.
- watwut 7y agoI am 100% sure it is not the case. It is also completely absurd to think that daily cold shower will mentally harden you so that you don't perceive sickness. What I am confused about is the level of investment people have in idea that it can not possibly do something with body on physical level and absurdity people go to argue that.
- kieckerjan 7y agoI have been taking cold showers for a couple of years now. Although I wouldn't claim any health benefits since none have been proven, I will claim some other obvious benefits that everyone should consider. Cold showers are unheated. Cheaper and better for the environment. Cold showers seldom last longer than a few minutes, whereas hot showers are so comfortable that many people make them last way too long. Cheaper, better for the environment and for your time management. Cold showers wake you up, whereas hot showers are more like extended snooze time. Cold showers make you feel like a bad ass. Secret tip: eat some breakfast before the shower, to crank up your engine.
- javiermares 7y agoSomeone knowledgeable please advise: Do cryotherapy or cold showers increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in the long term? "Tau phosphorylation is exquisitely sensitive to temperature, increasing by 80% for each degree below 37°C, due to exponential decrease in PP2A activity during direct hypothermia, or anesthesia-induced hypothermia." This means that one might expect a significant increase in tau phosphorylation from modest decreases in body temperature, possibly leading to increased risk of Alzheimer's in the long run. Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/srep00480 https://www.nature.com/articles/srep00480
- pknight 7y agoNot an expert, and I don't think this is a factor at all, but the cold showers are in part meant to help you tap into a natural ability to stay warm (without shivering), so you're not get an appreciable dip in core body temperature in the first place if you do it right. I believe it is thought that long term Tau accumulation in the brain is what worsens or accelerates alzheimers in patients, but a healthy person is clearing Tau build-up all the time, primarily during sleep. Any behaviour that improves sleep quality is therefore likely to be a boost in preventing and decelerating the development of alzheimers and cold showers promote good sleep and help keep our circadian rhythms aligned in a way that encourages good quality sleep. One of the reasons why a hot bath before bed is good for sleep is because it decreases body temperature.
- javiermares 7y agoThanks, all of that is quite interesting. I want to learn more.
- Angostura 7y agoThe group studied seem to have a extraordinarily high rate of sick-days no? Around 30% taking a sick day in a 90 day period? I've probably had 2 sick days in 3 years (data point: mid 50s, a nice hot bath with my toe stuck out of the bubbles, good book, cup of tea).
- greesil 7y agoI have two kids and I have been sick six times in the past four months. I thank my lucky stars that my employer does not limit sick days. 30% amongst parents doesn't seem that strange to me.
- Angostura 7y agoI was a stay at home dad, so I understand the dangers of continuous stream of snot. Still seems very high. I can't find if they say what time of year the study was carried out.
- Izkata 7y agoIf I'm doing my math right, and your two sick days aren't correlated with each other, I think you would have had a 16% chance of one or both of them occurring during a random 90-day period. Multiply out a few hundred of you, and that 30% in the study would be about 16%. So no, doesn't seem like an overly high rate at all to me. (4 sick days in 3 years would jump to 29%)
- Angostura 7y agoThank you for doing the maths. Insightful
- xbryanx 7y agoIt would be interesting to investigate this based on the subject’s climate and time of year. Up here in Minnesota I could imagine doing this in the summer, but right now, when it’s grey and 18F outside, um no.
- skizm 7y agoA cold show temporarily jacks your heart rate up just enough to get you out the door. It doesn’t make people less sick, just less likely to take a sick day. The article even says subjects that were sick just felt slightly more energetic and not less sick. I’ve still seen no evidence that cold showers have any real health benefits.
- Duke-Nukem-64 7y agoI only shower at night before bed. Are there any benefits for cold showers at night? Seems like many of you shower in the morning.
- hourislate 7y agoFrom what I understand (Matthew Walker - Why we Sleep), you will have a better nights sleep if you take a cold shower before bed. According to the information I read, you want to bring your body temperature down for a more restful sleep. As a bonus, cold showers likely bring on Hormesis, which in turn can also be beneficial for ones health.
- clarry 7y ago> According to the information I read, you want to bring your body temperature down for a more restful sleep. I've heard the same thing, except the suggestion was for a hot shower, because supposedly the heat makes your body work less to stay warm and the end result is actually lower core temperature.
- kaolti 7y agoIsn't it obvious that cold showers will make you more resilient to cold? Even if we assume there aren't any health benefits - which would be foolish IMO, being resilient to cold is a benefit in itself. If you're waiting for science to put a number on everything before you consider it you'll be disappointed in the long run.
- scbrg 7y ago> Isn't it obvious that cold showers will make you more resilient to cold? No? It might, but I wouldn't call it "obvious". There's plenty of things where exposure doesn't increase resilience.
- chrshawkes 7y agoI live in the United States. I remember this story as a kid and always assumed cold temps and weather makes you more susceptible to viruses like the Flu. https://www.history.com/news/did-william-henry-harrisons-inauguration-speech-kill-him https://www.history.com/news/did-william-henry-harrisons-ina...
- TheSoftwareGuy 7y ago>Outcomes >All outcomes were self-reported using web-based surveys. >Conclusion >A routine (hot-to-) cold shower resulted in a statistical reduction of self-reported sickness absence but not illness days in adults without severe comorbidity. I'm always a tad skeptical of self-reported data. In this case, seeing as the more objective measure shows a much smaller effect, I am inclined to think this is more a placebo effect than anything else. Still, a placebo effect that makes you feel better seems like a good thing, so I might just start taking some cold showers now
- Amarok 7y agoanedoctally, my dandruff cleared up after I switched from cold showers to lukewarm
- andrewseanryan 7y agoWim Hoff had to have something to do with this. It came out of the Netherlands.
- kyuudou 7y agoIf this is the only bathing you do, I would think all the fatty and oily residue particularly on the face, neck and chest would be harder to wash off. That's kind of the point of a hot shower, IMO. Still, I do experience the aftereffects of a cold shower and I think it's useful to do from time to time. But every day? Ew!
- michalu 7y agoIf you shower every day and use a soap, you will be clean no matter the water temperature. Hygiene is a matter of good habits and ethic.
- kyuudou 7y agoTrue but it's more scrubby. Soap usually has an emulsifying agent that breaks up fat molecules but there's still a physical component to it. If you want your cold showers you can keep your cold showers!
- ericmcer 7y agoYour skins natural oils are healthy. I wonder if some of the health benefits of cold showers come from not scouring all your bodies natural oils off everyday.
- dangus 7y ago> A routine (hot-to-) cold shower resulted in a statistical reduction of self-reported sickness absence but not illness days in adults without severe comorbidity. In other words, it does nothing. Maybe it gives you some kind of refreshing feeling afterwards but that’s it. I’ll pass on this upcoming health fad.
- thebeardisred 7y agoGlad that at least one other person read the same thing as me rather than engaging in more self-reporting about how great it was for _them_.
- m23khan 7y agoBack in 1994, my Grandfather started off his day as always with taking a shower. Now, he suffered from high blood pressure and was in his 60s and he liked cold showers. Anyways, he ended up getting stroke/brain hemorrhage and died. Whether it was a co-relationship or not, as kids we were told from that point on not to take pure cold showers (at least let it be lukewarm). I personally want to take cold shower but this one event from my history keeps me from taking it.
- MockObject 7y agon=1.
- hackerNoose 7y agoMost probably the high blood pressure had already caused the changes that lead to the stroke. If it was going to happen the time of highest physical stress was the most probable. You can make the same argument against exercise, but then it sounds even more false. Everything is a trade-off.
- kaliali 7y agoConclusion: "A routine (hot-to-) cold shower resulted in a statistical reduction of self-reported sickness absence but not illness days in adults without severe comorbidity." So less people were sick but everyone still took just as many sick days. Hmm....
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- marz0 7y agoThere are also benefits to hot showers [1], so I wouldn't write those off completely. [1] https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327461.php https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/327461.php
- yters 7y agoI've been taking cold showers for quite a number of years and haven't noticed any significant benefit, except they are short :)
- paulcnichols 7y agoRelated, being really cold is one of the reasons surfing (at least in Northern California) feels so great. The rest of the day afterwards nothing hurts, assuming you didn't hurt yourself ;)
- florin0x01 7y agoI swam in the jokulsarlon glacier lagoon, Iceland, for 3 minutes. When I re-emerged, I could not stop shivering for about 10 minutes. Before this event, I took cold showers for about 1 year (including in winter), then I stopped. Thinking of resuming, but not sure. Would I go and swim again in the glacier lagoon or similar? Probably. It has this refrigerator serene like feeling. So, cold shower is one thing, swimming in near freezing temperature is another thing.
- surfsvammel 7y agoWhat about the effect on saving water?
- astannard 7y agoI wonder if the benefits are the same as using 'plunge pools' I know Tony Robbins is a huge fan of cold showers: https://www.tonyrobbins.com/health-vitality/the-power-of-cold-water/ https://www.tonyrobbins.com/health-vitality/the-power-of-col... I tend to go for the warm show to get clean and then go cold for the last 20 secs.
- overcast 7y agoI haven't been to doctors, or taken any type of medication in 25 years. Rarely do I sick, and it's basically the sniffles that I can sleep off. I take long hot showers.
- GrayTextIsTruth 7y agoYou’ve probably never had cancer either!
- riku_iki 7y agoNew study: hot showers prevent cancer!
- treve 7y agoAnecdotal and a sample size of 1.
- ploxolo 7y agoNot sure, seems like the ones that did it already were self-determined enough to work. You would need to compare intra group before and after. From a metabolic viewpoint cold showers might have some short term energy boost from the stress hormones it releases. However highly dubious whether that is healthy or sustainable long-term. 10-years down the line my bet is you would look like a marathon runner, all wrinkled and with bad skin. Hot showers can increase prolactin so I guess, moderation in both would be the way to go.
- wensheng 7y agoIt says old showering reduced self-reported sick leaves but not illness days. So it's not conclusive it has real benefits. I guess lots of HNers shower cold, they like hearing it having potential benefit so they can feel good about themselves. Lots of confirmation bias here. The top voted comment doesn't discuss TFA, but just how great cold showering is. In the study, a 90-seconds subject died, most likely not because of cold shower, but you never know, without the the experiment, he/she probably would have lived. His/her family members probably blamed cold-shower for it. Dr. David Sinclair advocates cold-showering, said it increase brown fat. But the evidence he cited[1] (Lifespan page 110), the short term cold exposure is 4 hours, the temperature is probably lot colder than cold shower, so it's doubtful a 30/90 second cold shower help growing brown fat. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5558157/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5558157/
- tbihl 7y agoJust feels like sampling bias. As someone who likes to take cold showers (typically with 60-64F water), the thing that usually stops me is feeling sick. I think it's likely that a significant portion of attrition (19% after 90 days) was due to people feeling too sick to suffer a cold shower, which should pretty closely track with people feeling too sick to go to work.
- uniacid 7y agoFloridian here! I've been taking cold showers as well for the past few years and I can certainly say it makes a difference in the way you feel afterwards compared to a normal hot shower and regardless of the weather of the day as well, obviously it's more enjoyable when it is a warmer day or after some physical activity and exercise. As some mentioned I think it has more to do with the shock put on your body which releases endorphins and other chemicals beneficial for brain function, it has shown to also be beneficial for some suffering from depression and such [1][2]. [1] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17993252 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17993252 [2] https://www.lifehack.org/448180/how-cold-showers-can-change-your-brain-and-boost-your-mental-health https://www.lifehack.org/448180/how-cold-showers-can-change-...
- zackmorris 7y agoTons of strong(wo)man competitors take ice baths after their workouts to reduce inflammation and speed recovery: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=world%27s+strongest+man+ice+bath https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=world%27s+stron... IMHO it's not so much about the numbing or pain reduction, but the increased blood flow afterwards. I ice almost all injuries for about 3 days after they happen. I also tend to find heat to be a waste of time or that it actually exacerbates injuries. But, alternating hot and cold MIGHT be effective (I haven't done it enough to know). In general though, I'd worry that icing after every workout would train the body to require it as a crutch, which means that missing an ice bath could lead to injury, so I won't do it. Also, I'd hate to miss out on the comfort of warm showers. I'm just not that stoic!
- minikomi 7y agoA recent study shows that people who regularly take cold showers are 100 times more likely to mention it than people who take warm showers.
- iLemming 7y agoIn Russia, there are groups of swimmers who practice swimming in cold water. They are called "walruses" and they swim even at minus 10-20 centigrade. It's insane. I once watched a very old looking, skinny gentleman coming out of water. He still had his t-shirt on. He then took off his wet t-shirt, squeezed out the water couple of times, and then put (still wet t-shirt) back on, then grabbed his belongings and walked away. He wasn't even shaking. It was around late November. There was snow. I understand that the temperature of the river was maybe slightly even warmer than the air's, but damn, he put his cold, wet t-shirt on, and walked like it was July in Jamaica.