Cold Shower Seems To Have Some Psychological Benefits
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Exposing your body to cold water has been promoted as a health tonic since at least the Roman period, so it’s about time we gave this a thorough investigation. In a new paper in PLOS One Geert Buijze and his colleagues report on the health and wellbeing effects of the “cool challenge” – a 30-day event in the Netherlands that involved more than 3000 people taking daily showers that ran cold for at least the last 30 seconds each time.
On this evidence, cold showers don’t refresh all the parts we might desire, but seem to insulate against the effects of illness and provide some yet to be determined energetic effects. Why? Maybe thanks to effects on the levels of hormones such as cortisol and norepinephrine, which respond in the short-term to a cold dousing. Or simply the benefit of a short daily physical activity – the power of a good shiver.
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