Cold Showers: Health Benefits and More

What are the Benefits of Cold Shower?

Cold shower is the act of taking a shower with water at a temperature below or outside the normal body temperature. During the shower, your stress levels decrease, it gives you more energy, and it is also beneficial for your blood pressure and resistance. Cold showers have numerous health benefits, which is why they are considered essential in many people’s morning routines. But why is a cold shower so healthy for your body and mind?

A cold shower is a form of thermotherapy. It has surprising benefits that contribute to a fresh and vibrant appearance, prevent skin aging, and improve the overall health of your skin. It is even believed to promote the burning of brown fat, according to some research^[1]. By combining breathing techniques with cold water training, you can strengthen your resistance and observe the positive effects on your blood circulation. Here are the benefits of a cold shower for your body:

Makes You Feel More Refreshed

While taking a cold shower may not seem like a pleasant way to start your day, it is ideal for waking up and continuing the day with energy. A cold shower instantly awakens you or makes you feel refreshed. The cold water induces deep breathing, which increases oxygen intake. The increased blood flow to your brain makes you feel more alert. This is perfect for starting the day with a fresh beginning^[1].

Provides Energy

After taking a warm shower, you generally feel relaxed, sluggish, and warm. While it may be perfect for the end of the day, it may not be suitable for starting it. Stepping under a cold shower activates your body as a whole. This provides you with a significant boost of energy and increases your alertness^[3].

Strengthens Your Immune System

One of the benefits of taking a shower with cold water is that it helps strengthen your immune system. Showering with cold water causes your body to perceive the outside temperature as cold, and it works harder to warm up. To achieve this, blood circulation increases, which supports your immune system (your body’s natural defense system). Therefore, a cold shower is good for all functions of your body^[3].

Contributes to Blood Circulation

Blood flow increases, but due to the effect of cold, blood vessels constrict and work to keep the organs in the body’s core warm. This is recommended for improving vascular flexibility and cardiovascular health, but whether a cold shower is dangerous for cardiovascular diseases depends on the individual’s overall health condition. If you have an ongoing treatment, it is advisable to consult your doctor^[4].

Helps with Weight Loss

A cold shower stimulates your metabolism in a unique way. Your body consists of two types of fat tissue: white fat and brown fat. White fat is the type of fat that your body stores when you consume more calories than you burn. Brown fat, on the other hand, is highly important for your body. It comes into play in extreme cold conditions to keep you warm. Research shows that cold showers promote the production of brown fat. Additionally, brown fat significantly speeds up your metabolism, allowing you to burn calories even while at rest^[7]. However, there is no exact answer to the question of “How many calories does taking a cold shower burn?” as it varies depending on your diet and exercise routine. Cold showers merely play a supporting role in this regard.

What Are the Effects of Cold Shower?

Taking a cold shower has many important effects, both physically and mentally. It makes you feel better, stronger, and more energetic. Also, there are benefits that reflect on your skin and appearance. The following are the benefits and effects of cold showers that will be noticeable in a short period of time and will bring you more enjoyment when incorporated into your routine:

• Emotional Resilience: Are you frequently feeling irritable, anxious, angry, or stressed? Taking a cold shower can help you in this regard. Cold showers train your nervous system to be more flexible and cope with stress. Cold water applies a small amount of stress to your nervous system, allowing your body to learn to deal with it over time^[3].
• Depression: Research indicates the potential positive effects of cold showers on depression. Cold showers stimulate a specific area of the brain that produces norepinephrine. Individuals with low levels of norepinephrine often feel depressive and emotionally unstable. Cold water counteracts this by increasing the production of norepinephrine, thereby alleviating symptoms of depression^[2].
• Skin Radiance: Hot water can disrupt the balance of oil and moisture in your skin, leading to dryness. Hot water strips your skin of its natural oils. Among the benefits of taking a cold shower is the restoration of a natural pinkish glow to the skin. Cold showers also help maintain the lipid layer on the hair strands after shampooing, resulting in shinier hair^[1].
• Discipline Building: Doing something you dread every day requires a lot of mental strength when you start your day. Therefore, you need some discipline to make cold showers a part of your morning routine. In short, it’s an exercise. Once completed, it provides a sense of accomplishment and motivates consistency.
• Pain Relief: Applying an ice pack to a painful body area is a well-known remedy. Cold helps reduce localized or tissue swelling. It also slows down the transmission of pain signals from nerves to the brain, thereby reducing the sensation of pain^[5].
• Post-Exercise Cooling: When you don’t have time for proper cool-down after exercise, taking a cold shower is recommended. Even more effective is a cold bath. It is considered an effective method as studies have shown faster recovery of the body. Additionally, this process can help reduce inflammation^[6]. Cold showers after exercise also have benefits such as relaxation and reducing pain^[3].

Psychological Effects of Cold Shower

Taking a cold shower causes you to experience symptoms similar to the energetic and happy sensation that occurs after a workout. The reason for this is the release of endorphin hormones and the feeling they create in you^[2]. Additionally, stimulated nerve endings send an electrical signal to the brain, which can create an antidepressant effect. Moreover, being exposed to a constant stress stimulus can make you more resilient. This allows you to manage stress and act more calmly in your daily and work life. Because when cold showers become part of your daily routine, they may initially cause a short-lived stress response, but repeating this process helps you adapt and manage it.

It can provide a feeling of happiness similar to activities like yoga, fitness, or any kind of exercise. This can be achieved in many ways. Successfully completing a challenging task and feeling physiologically more alert and energetic contribute to feeling happier and more positive. Similarly, the health benefits of cold showers enable you to approach events and situations with a more positive outlook. With increased energy and belief in your ability to accomplish more, this reflects in your work life as well. This activity, which enhances motivation, also helps you prepare a daily plan and gain discipline. As a result, you can engage in regular exercises and start your day fully refreshed after a cold shower.

How to Incorporate Cold Shower into Your Routine?

A 10-minute cold shower has the same effect as a 1-hour bike workout^[8]. This beneficial and advantageous practice, which is actually a forgotten exercise model in today’s world, has resurfaced over time as the benefits were well-known to ancient civilizations such as the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans. However, the effects of cold water have only gained popularity in the past few decades. The reason for this is the use of hot water, which was discovered after the 18th century. Hot water has caused all these effects to be forgotten and ignored. Nonetheless, thanks to doctors like John Floyer, scientists like James Currie, and therapists like Sebastian Kneipp, hydrotherapy developed from the 18th to the 20th century. Later in the 21st century, the benefits of cold showers were quickly forgotten due to the prevalence of indulgent hot baths. Therefore, the idea of a cold shower may seem strange at first, but you can try it and incorporate it into your routine in a few steps due to its benefits.

Starting by directly stepping into cold water can create a shock effect. Therefore, it’s best to begin the adaptation process slowly. Start by adjusting the water temperature to a level you’re accustomed to and then gradually lower it. This will always be a good place to start.

If necessary, allow the cold water to only reach your arms and legs at first. This way, you can regulate your breath and gradually direct it toward your body.

Pay special attention to your breath. Continue to breathe calmly. Avoid holding your breath or tensing up. The best approach is to use abdominal breathing. Once your breath is under control and you have become somewhat accustomed to the cold water, you have received the stimulus for exercise. This usually takes about 1 to 2 minutes.

Just as you don’t start with the heaviest weights in strength training, you also need to gradually develop your cold shower routine. Start with 30 seconds and try to extend the duration with each subsequent session. Initially, you can enter and exit the cold shower in short time intervals, and as your body adapts, you can increase the duration.

Try to make taking cold showers a habit. Aim to take cold showers daily for 30 to 90 seconds consecutively for 30 days. Taking cold showers for 30 days helps complete your adaptation process and allows you to better observe its benefits.

If you continue to shiver and feel cold for an extended period after a cold shower, it may indicate that you have taken it too far. For the next session, you can plan a slightly warmer and shorter duration cold shower.

After the cold shower, focus and be aware of your breath for a few minutes. Pay attention to how the warmth spreads back into your body. If everything goes well, you might soon be ready for a real ice bath.

If you want to start cold shower routines and engage in a practice that will benefit your body and mind, you can gradually acclimate yourself to cold water and increase your physical resilience.