Dr KellyWhen you step in to the bathroom for a cold shower the sudden shock brought by cold water puts your circulatory system into overdrive.
Your heart rate increases making your blood flow increase to warm and protect your vital organs. But that doesn’t mean cold showers are the main source of treatment for any condition, they may help improve symptom relief and your general well-being. The question is whether it’s worth the stress for you to put your body through the process.
Lets talk about cold water immersion and cryotherapy
Cold water therapy is the practice of using water that is around 59°F (15°C) to treat health conditions or stimulate health benefits in the body. It is also known as cold hydrotherapy.
The most popular form of cryotherapy involves sitting in a cryotherapy booth for 3–5 minutes.
Doctors also use cryotherapy. For instance, very cold temperatures can be used to give relief to painful joints, freeze off warts or cancerous cells.
Some people undergo cryotherapy facials, which apply cold to the face only.
Though unpleasant to begin with, cryotherapy tends to get better with each treatment, as the body adjusts to the low temperature.
Recent adaptations include ice baths, brisk daily showers, outdoor swims, and cold water immersion therapy sessions.
It is generally safe, but it is important to talk to a doctor before trying cryotherapy.
Pregnant women, children, people with severe high blood pressure, and people with heart conditions should not try cryotherapy.
A person must never sleep during cryotherapy, and they should time each session to ensure it is not longer than the recommended timeframe.
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Benefits of a cold shower
Increased Energy: If that morning coffee isn’t doing it for you, try a morning shower. Cold showers slightly shock your body, increasing your heart rate, which gets more blood pumping through your system. This gives you a natural dose of energy, which can help improve your productivity.
Improves circulation and immune system: The colder you get, the more your natural body temperature causes the body to work slightly harder to maintain its core temperature. When done regularly, cold showers can make your circulatory system more efficient by releasing white blood cells and activating the immune system.
Better skin and hair: Hot showers might feel nice, but they dry out your skin and hair. Cold water, on the other hand, tightens your cuticles and pores and increase blood circulation , which can improve your appearance. Showering in cold water may help your skin look smoother, and your help your hair be more shiny and healthy. It also helps calm itchy skin after a shower.
Weight loss: Studies have shown that immersion in cold water can speed up your metabolic rate. This is the rate at which your body uses energy and burns calories. Additionally, cold showers cause hormonal changes that trigger the production of brown fat, which unlike white fat, is more common in lean people and actively burns calories to produce heat.
Soothed sore muscles: Taking a cold shower can help relieve muscle soreness from exercise. Studies show that cold water baths taken not long after exercise can relieve delayed-onset muscle soreness that happens one or two days after a hard workout.
Improved mood: Cold hydrotherapy has been shown to reduce stress, balance out levels of the feel-good hormone called serotonin, and even fight anxiety and depression. Cold water can help soothe the sympathetic nervous system, which results in a therapeutic effect.
How to use cold water therapy
If you want to test the benefits of cold water therapy for yourself, you can try it out in different ways. Here are some suggestions:
1.Take warm-to-cold showers. Start with warm water and, after a few minutes, gradually drop the temperature.
2. Skip the warm-up and go straight to a cold shower. This may be especially helpful if you’ve just finished working out.
3. Immerse yourself in an ice bath: Add ice to water until the temperature is between 50°F and 59°F (10°C and 15°C), and stay submerged for only 10 to 15 minutes.
4. Consider a short swim in colder waters.
If you want to do it, here are the safety tips:
Talk to your doctor first
Because cold water immersion affects your blood pressure, heart rate, and circulation, it can cause serious cardiac stress. Discuss the risks with your doctor and make sure it is safe for you to immerse yourself in cold water before you try it.
Be sure to warm up when you get out
Your body temperature could keep dropping even after you get out of the water, increasing your risk of hypothermia.
Keep immersions brief
To get the health benefits of cold water therapy, a few minutes may be all you need.
What are the risks?
1. The most noticeable side effect of an ice bath is feeling very cold when you immerse your body in the cold water.
2. Cardiac arrest: The decrease in core temperature and the immersion in ice constricts blood vessels and slows the flow of blood in the body. Putting you at risk of a cardiac arrest or stroke.
3. Hypothermia (abnormally low body temperature, below 35°C): This happens especially if you’re submerged in the ice bath for too long.
If a hot shower is what your body craves in the morning, you’re not alone because it has its own benefits. But cold water causes blood in your deeper tissues to circulate at faster rates to maintain ideal body temperature.
Thirty seconds under the cold stream can deliver some of your desired responses and results. The potential benefits of the cold water session begin to ebb after three minutes. Let’s try to consult our health care providers before we engage ourselves in such practices.
Thank you for reading
Dr Kelly
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