7 Reasons to Take Cold Showers

I'm not a devotee of ice baths — maybe even the opposite. What's become a trend spanning continents is also a very extreme event that shouldn't become routine for most people.

That said,

hydrotherapy has been used as a healing method for thousands of years. And using water at different temperatures has different kinds of benefits for several organ systems in the body.

And the channeling of cold showers into my life has been nothing short of life-changing.

So in this post I want to invest a few minutes and focus on cold exposure!

Bathing in cold showers puts the body into a kind of stress called hormesis, which forces an adaptive response from all the cells in the body.

This stress response is beneficial in many ways, and ultimately creates mainly gene pathways involved in regeneration.

Here are 7 reasons to start considering cold showers (even if it's only sometimes).

1. Cold showers can affect your mental health

Cold water exposure increases the synaptic release of noradrenaline and raises the blood levels of beta-endorphin and noradrenaline. Endorphins are our little happy hormones associated with a sense of well-being. In other words, they reduce the perception of pain and also act as sedatives. They're produced in the brain, the spinal cord, and other parts of the body, and they're released in response to brain chemicals called neurotransmitters.

2. They can reduce inflammatory pain

If you suffer from joint pain or muscle pain, cold water treatment should be at the top of your list for pain relief.

The skin has an especially high density of cold receptors, which, when stimulated, fire electrical impulses from peripheral nerve endings to our brain, producing an analgesic, or pain-relieving, effect.

In one Finnish study, subjects suffering from inflammatory arthritis took cold mist showers twice a day for 2 minutes over 5 days. At the end of the trial period, the subjects reported a significant decrease in inflammatory arthritis pain. Cold water treatment has also been shown to relieve musculoskeletal pain, including knee and lower back pain, as well as relieving painful symptoms associated with fibromyalgia.

3. They can help burn fat …

Humans have brown adipose tissue (brown fat) and white adipose tissue (white fat). Brown fat tissue is thermogenic, meaning it produces heat. And the more of it you have, the more heat you can produce. Brown fat cells have a lot of mitochondria, which are the power plants of energy production in our bodies. Exposure to cold temperatures increases the consumption of serum triglycerides by our brown fat tissue to use as energy — meaning you literally burn fat! When stimulated through the sympathetic nervous system, as in cold water treatment, brown fat tissue distributes the energy it produces as heat throughout your body.

Studies have shown that cold acclimation can significantly increase brown fat tissue. Brown fat not only fights obesity, it slows the aging process, reduces the risk of degenerative diseases, and has an increased capacity for glucose uptake with cold water stimulation.

4. They can boost circulation

Cold showers improve blood flow. Naturally, when we're exposed to cooler temperatures, our body's blood vessels constrict. This increases blood pressure and blood flow. Warmer temperatures allow blood vessels to dilate, and the dilation of our blood vessels leads to a drop in blood pressure. Alternating warm and cold temperatures allows the body to flow oxygen-rich blood to areas that may not have an adequate supply of blood when we're constantly "in comfort mode." This method of improving blood flow may have an invigorating effect on the walls of the blood vessels, strengthening them over time.

5. They can improve memory function

Studies show that cold water treatment can also improve memory. This is partly due to the strong increase in the neurotransmitter noradrenaline, which plays a key role in executive function that regulates cognition, motivation, and intellect. The battery of positive effects doesn't end there: exposure to cold water can cause a significant decrease in stress and fatigue, and you're already aware of its potential to boost mood. The ability of cold water to reduce stress may be a central mechanism through which it can improve memory.

6. They can shorten recovery time from a workout

Delayed muscle soreness is something many of us experience in the days after a workout. When we work our muscles, we create microscopic tears that then repair and allow muscle growth. Such a process can cause inflammation that contributes to muscle soreness and a painful recovery. Because of the anti-inflammatory effect of cold water exposure — partly due to the constriction of blood vessels — cold showers have been shown to speed up this healing process. So the next time you start to feel the soreness, jump into a cold shower so you can do it all again sooner!

7. They can stimulate and strengthen your immune system

Cold exposure can strengthen the immune system. Not only do cold showers increase the production of endogenous antioxidants, it's also been shown that the number of immune cells and their activity multiply.

So what does all of this mean? We don't need to avoid cold in order to avoid catching a cold.

But it also doesn't mean we want to suffer from cold for longer than the short shower itself.

Tips for getting started

Take a regular shower, and in the final minutes gradually cool the water until it's completely cold, and stay there for up to a minute.