7 Health Benefits of a Cold Shower

Cold showers have been shown to increase testosterone levels, ease anxiety and depression, improve sleep quality and boost immunity. Though it sounds grueling at first, you’ll be hooked after your cold shower routine for the first time!

Cold showers are good for your health. They can help you lose weight, lower your blood pressure, and improve your mood. Read more in detail here: why cold showers are bad for you.

I was a huge James Bond fan as a child. I saw all of the films and read all of the books. One thing I observed about the book version of James Bond was that he would start out with the water nice and hot, then turn it down to chilly for the final few minutes of his shower. This little aspect of Bond’s personal bathing routine might have been a covert means for Ian Fleming to emphasize Bond’s Scottish background, since this sort of shower is known as a “Scottish Shower.” Who knows what will happen.

As a young child who was easily influenced, I began to do the same. Because I didn’t know what to call this style of shower, I simply named it the “James Bond Shower.” It was rather refreshing to take a shower that began hot and finished chilly. It jolted me awake and gave me a boost throughout the day. I’ve carried on the James Bond Shower tradition into adulthood. Along the way, I found that cold water baths have been used to cure numerous disorders for generations, and that recent research back up the health claims made about this age-old therapy.

The advantages of the James Bond Shower are briefly discussed here.

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A Quick Overview of Cold Water Therapy

“Nothing invigorates and enlivens the senses like soaking in an ice cold bath with nothing but my bare buttocks in it while reading the newest Dickens book.” “Tally ho!” exclaims the crowd.

The advantages of a shot of cold water were not discovered by James Bond alone. Hot water was considered a luxury in ancient times. To experience the luxury of a hot bath, people had to live near a hot spring, therefore throughout the majority of human history, people bathed in cold water. However, even after developing heating systems for their public baths, the Ancient Greeks continued to bathe in cold water for the health advantages.

Hard-asses that they were, the Spartans believed that hot water was for the weak and unmanly. They only had baths once a year and only used cold water because they believed it tempered the body and made it energetic for ass kicking.

Finnish people used to sweat it out in saunas before jumping into an ice cold lake or stream, a practice known as “avantouinti” or “ice hole swimming” that is still practiced by contemporary Finns and other wild and woolly Scandinavians.

A cold water dousing was used in religious rites in many civilizations. Some Native American tribes would alternate between sitting in a sweat lodge and leaping into a freezing river or snowdrift. Ancient Russians also bathed in icy rivers on a regular basis for health and spiritual purification. In ancient and current times, Shinto practitioners would stand beneath a cold waterfall as part of a rite known as Misogi, which was thought to purify the spirit.

In the 1820s, a German farmer named Vincenz Priessnitz began promoting “hydrotherapy,” a revolutionary medical technique that utilized cold water to heal anything from fractured bones to erectile dysfunction. He converted his family’s property into a sanitarium, and people flocked there in the hopes of benefiting from his cold water therapy. Dukes, duchesses, counts, countesses, and a few princesses were among his clients.

Hydrotherapy developed by Priessnitz quickly expanded across Europe and finally to the United States. Celebrities and other well-known people flocked to it like ducks to water, helping to promote the cold water therapy among the general public. For example, Charles Darwin (a chronically ill man with an awesomely masculine beard) advocated for hydrotherapy. The first hydrotherapy institution in the United States opened in 1843, during the height of the sanitarium mania. By the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had over 200 hydrotherapy/sanitarium resorts, the most notable of which was John Harvey Kellogg’s Battle Creek Sanitarium. You’re aware. The man who came up with the idea for corn flakes. And she believed in the incredible power of enemas and the importance of having a “squeaky clean gut.”

Hydrotherapy’s popularity started to wane in the twentieth century, as many doctors turned to pharmaceuticals to cure ailments. More holistic treatments were seen as quackery while physicians focused on traditional medicine. While physicians were prescribing hydrotherapy less and less to treat sickness, it was still used to heal injuries including strained muscles and broken bones. Athletes nowadays use ice baths to speed up their recovery from injuries and strenuous training.

The Advantages of Cold Water Showers

While physicians no longer advise patients to take a cold bath and call them in the morning, a shot of cold water may still provide significant health benefits:

1. It helps to improve circulation.

The importance of good blood circulation to overall cardiovascular health cannot be overstated. Blood circulation is also important in reducing the time it takes to recuperate from rigorous sports and jobs. Showering with hot and cold water alternately is a simple approach to enhance circulation. To keep your organs warm, cold water helps your blood to flow to them. Warm water reverses the impact by forcing blood to flow closer to the skin’s surface. Proponents of cold showers believe that activating the circulatory system in this manner maintains them healthier and younger-looking than their hot-water-loving rivals.

2. Helps to alleviate depression.

Many great individuals throughout history have struggled with depression. One such individual is Henry David Thoreau. Thoreau’s bathing in the frigid Walden Pond may have helped him keep his black hound at bay. Short cold showers may activate the brain’s “blue spot”– the brain’s major source of noradrenaline — a hormone that may help reduce depression, according to research from Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine’s Department of Radiation Oncology. After all, a case of the blues isn’t that awful.

3. Maintains the health of the skin and hair.

Skin and hair are dried out by hot water. Reduce the warmth of your showers if you want to prevent an uncomfortable itch and ashy elbows. Also, by sealing off your cuticles and pores, cold water may make your macho mane seem shinier and your skin look healthier.

4. It improves immunity.

Individuals who took regular cold showers had a higher amount of virus-fighting white blood cells than those who took hot showers, according to a research conducted by the Thrombosis Research Institute in England in 1993. Researchers think that the higher metabolic rate, which is caused by the body’s desire to warm up, stimulates the immune system and causes the production of more white blood cells.

5. It improves fertility.

Are you attempting to become a father? Your tiny swimmers will benefit from cold showers. Because your testes are designed to dangle outside of your body, they aren’t supposed to become too heated. When the temperature of a man’s testes rises, sperm counts drop. Hot baths were shown to be an effective contraceptive in 1950s experiments. For the following six months, men who had a 30 minute hot bath every other day for three weeks were infertile. More recently, the University of California at San Francisco conducted a research with males who were subjected to 30 minutes of “wet heat” every week (hot baths and other such activities). When the males stopped being exposed, their sperm count increased by 491 percent, and the mobility of their sperm improved as well. While moving from a hot to a cold shower may not have the same dramatic impact, it certainly won’t harm if you’re trying to start a family.

6. Boosts vitality and general well-being.

I always feel refreshed and motivated after taking a shower with cold water. Your heart begins to beat, and the surge of blood through your body helps you shake off the drowsiness from the night before. The energy boost lasts many hours for me. It’s similar to drinking Diet Mountain Dew without the aspartame. While it hasn’t been scientifically proven, many individuals claim that cold showers are a stress reliever. I am a firm believer.

How to Begin Using Cold Water Showers

If you’ve spent your whole life taking hot showers, suddenly changing the dial in the other way might be jarring. For a few months, I took a vacation from the James Bond Showers. When I decided to start working with them again, my heart practically leapt out of my chest, and I nearly passed out from hyperventilation as the icy water touched my body. It’s just too much, far too soon.

My recommendation (based on personal experience) is to gradually lower the water temperature to allow your body to acclimate.

Which reminds me, because of the shock to the body’s system, certain persons with specific ailments should avoid cold showers. If you have any of the following conditions, you’ll have to find another means to channel your inner James Bond:

Heart disease is a serious condition. Imagine how a sick heart will feel if my regular, healthy heart feels like it’s going to burst.
Blood pressure that is too high. Cold water may trigger blood vessel contractions, which can lead to a stroke. Apparently.
Feverish or overheated. In order to expel heat, your blood vessels must dilate. They constrict when exposed to cold water.

Okay. Here’s how to have a James Bond Shower if you’re in good health.

1. Begin with the boiling water.

2. Use Pinaud Elixir shampoo to wash your hair, exactly like 007.

3. When you’re ready to rinse, just lower the temperature to cold. Bond would meditate for a few minutes in the freezing water, either on a lost love or on how amazing his profession is.

4. Using nothing but a towel and a Scotch tumbler, murder the hitman lurking in the closet as you exit the shower.

5. Finish putting on the suit with a witty one-liner.

You’ll notice the advantages as soon as you take your first shower, and they’ll only grow greater as time goes on. Cold water showers won’t give you 007’s charisma or talents, but they will make you feel like a new man.

Listen to our audio about the advantages of exposure to cold:

Cold Showers Get Eugene Sandow’s Seal of Approval
22 Ways to Get a Better Night’s Sleep
What Really Works for Workout Recovery (Podcast)
How to Make Workout Recovery Easier
How to Develop James Bond’s Savoir-Faire

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A cold shower can help you achieve 7 health benefits. The first is that it helps to lower your heart rate, which in turn helps to reduce blood pressure. It also releases endorphins and oxygenates the body. Cold showers are good for your skin, hair, and nails as well. They are a natural way to cleanse your body of impurities and toxins. Lastly, they have been shown to improve mood and relieve stress. Reference: what does a cold shower do sexually.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do cold showers actually do anything?

A: No, cold showers do not actually have any health benefits. This is a myth that has been circulating for many years now and there is no truth to it whatsoever.

Is taking a cold shower everyday good for you?

A: No, taking a cold shower everyday is bad for you.

What does a cold shower do for a girl?

A: A cold shower is a natural way for girls to cleanse their bodies, and do some much-needed detoxing. It can also help clear out the vagina and relieve menstrual cramps, which many women suffer from.