7 Surprising Benefits Of Taking A Cold Shower
7 Surprising Benefits Of Taking A Cold Shower
Taking a cold shower instead of a hot shower provides surprising health benefits, from fat-burning to depression relief. Turning the temperature down to freezing at the end of your shower, referred to as ‘Scottish Shower’, provides great benefits for your skin and body. These are the 7 Surprising Benefits Of Taking A Cold Shower:
1. Increases alertness
Taking a cold shower first thing in the morning sounds like the worse idea. As a response to the cold water, our body responds with deep breathing to help us keep warm and simultaneously increasing oxygen levels. Our heart rate will increase, releasing a rush of blood through our body and your energy levels.
2. Refines hair and skin
Hot water has a tendency to dry out our skin and opening our pores. Coldwater will tighten your cuticles and pores, which will prevent them from getting clogged. Coldwater seals the pores in the skin and scalp. Coldwater can make your hair appear shinier, stronger, and healthier.
3. Improves immunity and circulation
Coldwater can improve circulation as it increases our heart rate that leads to our arteries being efficiently pumped. It also lowers blood pressure, clear blocked arteries, and improves our immune system.
4. Stimulates weight loss
The human body has two types of body fat, white and brown. White fat is accumulated when we consume more calories than our body needs and we don’t use these calories up. This body fat piles up around our waist, lower back,, thighs, belly and is the one we struggle to get rid of. Brown fat is good fat, which generates heat to keep our body temperature up. This fat is activated through cold and cold showers activate brown fat. Hence why you lose weight.
5. Speeds muscle soreness and recovery
Cold showers are great for relieving muscle soreness, professional athletes are known to take ice baths after training to reduce muscle soreness, but a quick cold shower can be as effective.
6. Relieves stress
Stepping into the shower without letting it heat up, or going for an ocean swim can help increase tolerance to stress and even disease.
7. Relieves depression
Cold showers have shown to decrease depression symptoms due to the result of the impact of cold receptors in the skin, which send a great amount of electrical impulses from the peripheral nerve ending to the brain. This will in turn, produce an antidepressant effect, boosts mood.
Seeing that there are so many health benefits in having a cold shower it might be an idea to start today. Cold showers have great physical health benefits but also build mental toughness to face the world and your daily life.
