Are you scared of cold shower? Do you think cold shower will get you sick? So here, in this blog post, I can explain more about cold shower. I live in Bangalore, India where most of the days normal tap water is cold. When I came to Bangalore in June 2013, I started taking cold shower and caught cold and cough. But slowly my body got accustomed to the cold shower.
Sharon Hame, MD, an orthopaedic surgeon from UCLA says that, “Cold showers are a convenient way for a weekend warrior, amateur athlete or anyone who enjoys exercises to get some of the benefits of cold therapy after a workout.” Cold therapy is also known as cryotherapy. It is used to cool down the stressed and overworked body tissues.
Benefits of cold shower:
1. Increases your immunity
Initially, you might catch cold and cough after taking cold water shower, but slowly you get accustomed to cold showers. Recently, a study was conducted in the Netherlands that, people who take cold showers for 30, 60 or 90 seconds are less falling sick. Their sick leaves at work reduced by 29% and they didn’t switch back to hot/warm showers. It eventually protects you from virus circulation.
2. Improves symptoms of depression
It might sound ridiculous that, how cold shower can help in reducing the symptoms of depression which is a mental disorder not a physical illness. Not many researches were done on this, but a new clinical study says that people who are combatting depression are feeling better after taking cold showers at least for a month. Cold showers increases the blood circulation quickly and it gives you a hit, that’s how it elevates the mood and reduces depression.
3. Improve blood circulation
Cold showers hit your nervous system pretty quickly. Thus, you go into the “survival mode”. Our brain and central nervous system starts to maintain the body’s core temperature. It elevates the blood circulation and all the organs of our body get good blood flow. Dr. Hame also says that, “increasing circulation redistributes blood and delivers freshly oxygenated blood to areas of the body that need to recover”. It heals your stressed muscles and relaxes the body faster.
4. Increase metabolism
Metabolism is the chemical process happens inside our body to keep the normal function of our body in place. A normal man should have a BMR (basic metabolism rate) 7,100 kJ per day and a woman should have a BMR of 5,900 kJ per day. So when you take a cold shower, your body try to maintain the core temperature. While doing this our body burns a few calories, thus increases metabolism. But to maintain a good metabolism balance in your body, you need to maintain your diet, exercises and resting hours too.
5. Decrease inflammation and relieve pain
Cold shower therapy is excellent if you want to relieve your body pain or prevent muscle soreness. Regular workout can increase muscle soreness, that needs to be rested and taken care off. Cold shower relaxes your muscles and works as a quick pain relief. Cold water tighten up your blood vessels and it circulates blood to all the organs of your body. It naturally oxygenate your blood. It also reduces inflammation all throughout your body, which increases the energy level.
There’s a psychological explanation to cold shower too. Dr. Hame says that, when we get injected, most of the times we are given cold sprays. That quickly numbs the area and we feel less painful. That’s why cold water shower numbs the problematic areas of our body on its own and helps in repairing. She also opined, “it works by decreasing how quickly the pain sensation travel through your nerves.” It dulls the nerves and send the neurotransmitters to our brains.
Since, I ditched warm/hot showers, I have been feeling great. It reduced my type 2 diabetes numbers too. Its hard to believe but it’s the real result I found. I don’t catch cold and cough so often now. My heels used to ache due to diabetes, and now that joint pain is gone forever. Cold showers also keep your skin and hair quality intact. So try some cold water therapy at home today. Happy cold showering!!!