Underappreciated power of cold showers
By Kumar Vikrant
Cold showers can change your life and have positive physical and mental benefits. The idea of taking cold showers daily year-round may sound insane. Who in their right minds would choose to subject themselves to the suffering of standing below running cold water in the shower?
Nevertheless, a growing community of global advocates backed up by scientific data are pushing forth the idea of daily cold showers into normalcy. I, too, have been taking cold showers daily for about four years now. And I can tell you there is nothing better than starting my day with a refreshing cold shower, even if it's snowing outside in the dead of winter.
The science behind cold showers is easy to understand. When the water temperature is lower than that of the body, the circulatory system needs to work at a heightened efficiency to maintain homeostasis. Such a process improves blood circulation. It is the same reason why ice lowers inflammation when applied to bruises.
The ice lowers the bruised area's temperature to enable the delivery of freshly oxygenated warm blood to the affected area. Over time, the daily dose of external stress imparted to the body in the form of cold showers can enhance the circulatory system's efficiency. Being exposed to the cold water also makes us breathe deeper to enable an increased amount of fresh oxygen to be circulated throughout the body.
Apart from the physiological benefits, cold showers profoundly affect mental well-being as well. Of course, cold showers should not be used as an alternative to standard depression therapies. Nevertheless, cold showers enable the release of brain chemicals and signals often associated with alertness and focus. Arguably, such a mindset allows for us to take on the day at full force.
There is a sense of accomplishment associated with knowing that you overcame a difficult task while most other people do not have the courage to take on such a feat. You feel good about yourself. Many proponents of mental health and personality development often push the notion of seeking discomfort to boost our mental ability and accomplish peace.
Other studies have also shown that cold showers can help fortify the immune system to fight off influenza and other sicknesses. Cold showers can also help with fatigue and other conditions. I will not go into detail about them here. A more recent phenomenon in the world is Wim Hof (colloquially known as the “iceman”), a Dutch extreme athlete, holder of multiple world records, and an advocate of cold therapy.
One of his most astonishing feats, in my opinion, is his 2007 Mount Everest climb (to an altitude of 23,600 feet) in nothing but shorts and shoes. I recommend readers to check out his unique breathing methods and training exercises. Although we all cannot be as extreme as Mr. Hof, inspiration can indeed be drawn to incorporate daily cold showers in our lives.
There is a sense of something primal in subjecting yourself to discomfort. Our ancestors were always on alert due to environmental stress factors. We have become too accustomed to pleasure and comfort in the modern world.
The cold shower is a small means of incorporating that primal instinct into my daily life. Even in Western philosophy's underlying threads, the hero mythos often pushes the young individual to seek discomfort to gain something meaningful in life.
If you are new to this, I recommend taking a cold shower for a few minutes each day and gradually prolonging the duration to eventually reach the level of taking a complete shower with nothing but cold water.
A word of caution will be to consult your doctor before trying full cold showers if you have some heart condition that might make you vulnerable to the powerful stimulus of cold water exposure.
Kumar Vikrant (kvikrant071@gmail.com) is a doctoral student at the department of civil and environmental engineering at Hanyang University in Seoul.