Healthy Skin Cold water can make your skin look healthier by closing your pores. One of the best ways to improve your skin (and hair) is by taking cold showers. Plus it's free! According to some dermatologists, cold water can help our skin by preventing it from losing too many natural oils.
As this takes strength and dedication, Wim advises to gradually build up the duration and intensity. If you have no prior experience with cold showers, start with a regular shower and finish the last 30 seconds cold.
Cold showers can help reduce inflammation, relieve pain, improve circulation, lower stress levels, and reduce muscle soreness and fatigue. Hot showers, meanwhile, can improve cardiovascular health, soothe stiff joints, and improve sleep.
Are there risks? The primary risk of contrast bath therapy is that you could damage your skin if the water temperature is either too hot or too cold. It could also cause a heart arrhythmia. Contrast bath therapy isn't safe for every condition.
Poor skin blood flow results in dry, dull, and aged complexion. Given that cold water improves blood flow, you're essentially helping your skin prevent premature skin aging every time you shower using cold water.
Disadvantages Of Cold Showers
Cold showers can make you feel worse if you are unwell as it can have an adverse effect on your immune system. If you already have a cold, cough or fever, you will feel colder and your body will take longer to warm up.
Get the water cold enough that you start to feel uncomfortable. Then, stay underneath the water for 2 or 3 minutes. Breathing deeply will help decrease your discomfort in your mind.
Risks of taking a cold shower
Your body's reaction to cold water puts added stress on your heart and could lead to an irregular heartbeat, or arrhythmia. “It's going to tax your heart in a way that could be dangerous,” says Carter.
Hot showers and baths can inflame the skin, causing redness, itching, and even peeling — similar to a sunburn. They also can disrupt the skin's natural balance of moisture, robbing you of the natural oils, fats, and proteins that keep skin healthy.
Cold exposure helps boost metabolism and fat burning, but the effects of a cold shower are minimal. Sure, a cold shower might help you burn a few more extra calories and keep you more alert, but it is not a long term, effective solution for weight loss.
Use therapeutic hot water sparingly.
While it's an attractive and inviting way to let loose, be careful not to overdo it. When done in excess, they can age your skin faster.
Stronger immune system
A study in the journal PLoS One found that people who take cold showers are 29% less likely to call in sick for work or school. The study enrolled 3,018 people who took a hot shower then used applications of cold water for 30–90 seconds based on their research group.
There are plenty, according to Dr Google: improved energy, alertness, concentration, better circulation, weight loss, improved immune system, better moods, reduced inflammation, glowing skin and hair, and reduced muscle soreness after exercise, to name a few.
Cold water immersion causes your lymph vessels to contract, forcing your lymphatic system to pump lymph fluids throughout your body, flushing the waste out of the area.
Cold water will initially help constrict blood vessels in your skin to temporarily tighten pores and decrease redness and puffiness, she adds. What's more, cold temperatures boost circulation (it's your body's way of keeping warm). For your face, that might mean a healthy glow.
A 15 minute cold shower can burn as many as 62 calories. For a deeper insight into the benefits of cold showers, take a look at our dedicated blog, Cold Shower vs Hot Shower – What Are The Benefits?
Benefits Of A Cold Shower Before Bed
When you sleep, your body temperature lowers. By taking a cool shower before bed, you're showing your body that bedtime is near by starting the temperature-lowering process. The cool water helps trick your whole system into sleep mode.
The hot water causes blood vessels to dilate, thereby pushing the blood to the skin's surface, and cold water causes blood vessels to constrict, causing the blood to go deeper into organs. When trying a contrast shower, it's best to alternate between hot and cold for three to four cycles.
In general, switching back and forth between heating and cooling modes won't cause any problems. However, sometimes switching back and forth can cause your system to shut off. You could potentially “short-cycle” the air conditioner which could blow a fuse.
Bae adds some in dermatology also theorize cold showers have even more benefits, too, such as "a little bit of (skin) tightening or at least also temporary decrease in redness of the skin. "If you are a healthy person, then taking a cold shower every day would be much better for your skin.
Cold water increases heart rate and metabolism, according to The British Journal of Sports Medicine. For that brief moment in the shower, your body becomes shocked into working harder to maintain a stable temperature, which actually burns more calories.
The scrotum hangs outside the body in order to keep the testicles at an optimal temperature to produce sperm and other hormones, around 95 to 98.6°F or 35 to 37°C. The idea is that cold showers lower the scrotal temperature, allowing the testicles to produce a maximum amount of sperm and testosterone.
The cons of cold showers:
It could actually make you even colder and increase the amount of time it will take for your body to warm back up. They may not be a good idea if you're sick, either. Initially, the cold temperature might be too hard on your immune system, so it's best to ease into the cooler temperatures.
Get the water cold enough that you start to feel uncomfortable. Then, stay underneath the water for 2 or 3 minutes. Breathing deeply will help decrease your discomfort in your mind.