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Taking a cold shower in the early mornings can be a traumatizing experience. But, what if I told you that the health benefits of cold shower surpass the momentary feeling of trauma? Yes, you heard me right. Taking cold showers in the morning can help boost your overall well being.
If you are still skeptical about how taking a cold shower can give you anything but fever and cold, we are here to change that perception for you.
Here, we are going to lay down some of the best benefits of taking a cold shower that you possibly had no clue about.
Health Benefits Of Cold Shower
Let us take a look at some of the reasons cold showers are good for you, shall we?
1. Enhances Your Alertness to Take on The Day
The first and possibly one of the most important cold shower benefits that many aren’t even aware of is that it promotes your alertness.
If you take a cold shower in the morning, chances are that the same will end up helping you become more alert to your surroundings. But, that doesn’t mean that you jump into the shower straight after waking up.
Take some good 30 minutes to an hour before you hop into the shower. Let your body adjust first and then give it a sudden shock to cope with the temperature changes in the body.
Taking cold showers in the morning has been found to have amazing impacts on helping your body gain a better impact of energy to get you through the day.
The primary reason why the cold showers in the morning work are because of the fact that it quickens the heart rate (R), further helping kick-start the body to take on the day.
2. Promotes Better Weight Loss
Given that the body is exposed to a sudden cold temperature, it pumps up the normal body temperature, thus helping boost and stimulate the brown fat functions in the body.
This is what has been found to help in faster oxidation of the excess fats in the body, thus promoting weight loss.
Brown fat (R) is the type of fat which raises the temperature in the body to withstand the cold. So, when you are taking a cold shower, the amount of brown fats in the body is increased which further helps in weight loss by burning off the fats in the body.
Additionally, the same has also been found to have beneficial impacts on one’s metabolism, which is an added bonus.
3. Boosts Your Immunity
Yet another one of the benefits of cold showers is the fact that it helps boost one’s overall immunity.
If you are wondering how the same is possible, it is mainly because of the fact that subjecting yourself to a cold shower has been found to boost the levels of the white blood cells in the body, even studies (R) suggest so.
The better the levels of the white blood cells in the body, the better is the immunity of the individual.
It is believed that taking a cold shower helps in boosting the overall metabolism of the body which further helps in boosting the levels of the white blood cells in the body.
In yet another one of the studies (R), the researchers exposed 3000 participants to endure a cold morning shower with 30, 60 and then 90 seconds blast of the cold water.
They found that the ones who did adhere to the cold shower routine were 29% less absent in comparison to the ones in the control group.
This itself is enough to indicate the fact that taking a cold shower has direct impacts on one’s immunity.
4. Helps Boost the Emotional Resilience
Even a conducted study (R) showed that even though the cold showers do have impending impacts on the oxidative stress on the body, the same can also help in making your body sensitized to the same.
This further helps in warding off the prospects of stress and helps in building the emotional resilience that is much needed for your overall well being.
The first wave of shock with a cold shower is what can be painful but the more you do it, the better it feels and does help in calming down one’s mind.
Adapting to the repetitive oxidative stress is what helps in molding the body to ward it off in the long term for better impacts on your body and overall well being.
5. Boosts your Skin Health
Thus, one of the primary reasons cold showers are good for you is because it helps in keeping your skin healthy and nourished which you can’t necessarily achieve with the hot and scalding water.
The primary reason why the majority of the skin experts and even dermatologists suggest avoiding hot showers is that it has a tendency of stripping the natural oils off of the skin.
Cold water, on the other hand, has been found to help with the condition of constriction of the blood vessels as well as the pores which has amazing impacts on keeping the overall well being of the skin in check.
It also makes the skin firmer and keeps the pores closed to further prevent the onslaught of acne and pimples that many tend to suffer from. It also promotes faster healing as well.
6. Promotes Blood Circulation
Given the fact that the cold shower has direct impacts on one’s heart rate, the same has been found to have important impacts on the overall blood circulation of the body as well.
It also helps in getting rid of clogged arteries and even the blockages that could be restricting the normal blood flow around the body.
7. Better Drainage of the Lymphatic System
Your lymphatic system is the one that helps contribute to better immunity, body functions and helps ward off the risks associated with the infections.
If you have been on the lookout for better ways to help with the drainage of the lymphatic system, it is best suggested that you do opt for the cold showers.
This is considered yet another one of the health benefits of a cold shower because the same helps in reducing the toxin accumulation in the body, thus keeping you healthy.
8. Improves the Fertility in Individuals
In a conducted study with healthy male individuals, it was found that the ones who switched from hot to cold showers experienced a rapid increase in the sperm count in their body and that too within a matter of six months.
The cold showers are especially beneficial for men and to prevent the problems associated with their fertility, mainly because of the fact that the testes need a cool environment to ensure better sperm production.
9. Helps Manage Stress
It has been found to reduce the levels of uric acid in the body and simultaneously cause an upsurge in the levels of glutathione which help in keeping the stress levels in check.
10. Boosts Hair Health
The primary reason why it is effective enough is because of the fact that the cold shower helps in restoring the moisture and the hydration in the scalp and even keeps your hair strands luscious and silky.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that a hot shower is a bad option for the hair because it is not. It has been found to have beneficial impacts in helping out with the condition of the better penetration of the shampoo and the conditioner like no other. But, if you want the best for your hair, it is best to finish off the shower with some cold water.
Cold shower, in the end, helps in locking in the moisture in the scalp and even promotes better scalp and root health and help in better growth of the hair strands. It boosts the shine of the hair as well and prevents excessive hair loss too.
11. Promotes Better Muscle Recovery
This is why the majority of the fitness trainers suggest taking cold showers following a tedious workout routine.
Additionally, apart from helping in the recovery of the muscles, it has also been found to help prevent or mitigate the muscle soreness that many often tend to experience because of the high-intensity workout that they indulge in.
This is one of the best recovery practices that the athletes tend to adhere to.
12. Lowers the Risks of Depression
For the most part, it is believed that the main reason why cold showers help mitigate the condition of depression is because of the fact that it helps promote the secretion of nor-adrenaline around in the brain which has impacts against the condition of depression that not many are aware of.
More research needs to be conducted to get a better outlook on the same and to find why it is effective enough in its discourse.
13. Boosts the Levels of Testosterone
This has better impacts on muscle growth and development and in also imbibing better secondary characters in them as they grow and develop.
If you have been consistently taking hot or warm showers, it is best suggested that you do make better switches and a cold shower can help for that condition.
A cold shower has been found to help in boosting the overall levels of testosterone in the body, especially in men.
14. Better Sleeping Cycles
If you are worried or concerned about how that even happens, it is mainly because of the condition of the better realigning of the body’s sleeping pattern which contributes to providing you with better sleep during the night.
It also keeps you charged through the day, thus preventing any kind of drowsiness that many often tend to struggle with, and thus helping with better sleep that you have been seeking for.
15. Promotes Better Mental Sharpness
Taking a cold shower in the morning makes you more alert, boosts the heart rate and metabolism, enhances the oxygen intake and thus has beneficial impacts on the overall productivity that you churn on throughout the day.
All of these combined have been found to help in providing with a boost to one’s overall mental lift that helps in better promotion of the overall mental sharpness too.
16. Better relaxation
If you want to wash off all the stress and the muscle knots, a cold shower can help do that for you like nothing else.
The only thing that you need to adhere to is to ensure that you keep an aligned time and dry yourself well to avoid getting sick when you take a shower at night.
17. Helps Overcome Opioid Addiction
The main reason why it is touted as a potent remedy for such conditions is because of the fact that the cold shower helps in boosting the levels of beta-endorphin in the body. These hormones then go and bind to the opioid receptors present in the brain, thus helping in reducing the relapsing progress that many suffer from.
This has been found to have beneficial impacts on combating the signs of withdrawal.
18. Better Cognitive Functions
Given that it promotes better alertness and helps in getting rid of the struggles that one face because of the sleepiness, it can help in promoting better cognitive abilities that you have been on the lookout for.
It is best suggested to ensure that you do take the time out to assess what is holding you back and then analyze the changes that you experience once you start taking cold showers.
Possible Side Effects Of Cold Showers
When it comes to the side effects of cold showers, there aren’t many.
For the most part, the health benefits of cold shower do overshadow the side effects which are something that you just can’t forego.
If you have been struggling to keep things in line for yourself, it is best suggested that you know about all the possible pros and cons and then move forward with the process.
For the most part, cold showers are harmless and don’t inflict and side effects but some of them include:
Getting Sick
It is possible that if you take a cold shower during the extreme temperature conditions and that too during the odd times of the day, the same can end up causing a riot for your body. It is always best to completely dry yourself first and prevent sitting under direct air if your hair and your body is wet because that is what induces you to become sick
Oxidative stress
This is yet another one of the factors that you are bound to experience in the initial stages of you starting with the cold shower. It is very important to ensure that you take the time out to handle the shortcomings. But, this isn’t permanent and gets over quickly when you take a cold shower as part of your routine n a daily basis.
When it comes round to the health benefits of a cold shower, the possibilities are abundant out of which, 18 best ones have been mentioned around here. It is very important that you focus on the good and maintain a healthy timing with the same to experience the positive results that we have mentioned around here.
