Surprising Health Benefits Of Cold Showers

Cold showers have long been known to have tons of health benefits. Plus, did you know that our ancestors use to bathe in cold water? Chances are your ancestors took cold baths in the rivers and streams so maybe they knew something about the benefits of bathing in cold water that many of us are just now discovering. Surprising Health Benefits Of Cold Showers!

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Surprising Health Benefits Of Cold Showers

Increase White Blood Cells

Taking cold showers will increase the amount of white blood cells in your system which help improve your immunity to viruses and bacteria!

Produces Better Sleep

You may find that if you take cold showers before you go to bed that you also sleep better! This is because your body temperature is lowered and when that happens you will enter a more peaceful sleep. You are making your body ready for a more optimal sleeping experience.

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Decreased Uric Acid Levels

Prolonged ice baths or cold showers decrease uric acid levels tremendously. When uric acid builds up this is what causes gout. If you’ve got gout you should definitely be taking some ice baths because this is going to decrease your uric acid levels without you having to take any of your other pharmaceuticals that you may already be taking.

Adapt To Stress

Many times when you are introduced to a small toxin or a decent amount of stress that can be good for your body because the body adapts and becomes stronger as a result. This phenomenon is known as Hormesis and basically means what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger!

Cold showers are a shock to the body and it’s a stressor but it’s one that is on a low enough level that our body actually adapts to all the physiological changes that are going on. The adaptation to these changes allow us to become stronger and more adaptable to other stressors.

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Muscle Pain Relief and Decreased Recovery Time

In terms of sports medicine, taking cold baths has been shown to relieve muscle soreness while also decreasing the time of recovery. This is becoming more and more popular where professional athletes are concerned.

Many trainers are having them sit in ice baths after their games or training sessions so this is something that clearly works as it’s being used in the circles of professional athletes.

Reduce Depression

The cold water helps to stimulate special spots in your brain that activate a hormone that reduces depression!

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Promotes Weight Loss

Cold showers are great for weight loss because it helps stimulate brown fat cells.

Why is this good? Because there are white blood cells and brown blood cells and the white ones grow and accumulate when we eat too much. The white blood cells tend to aggregate around our mid-section, lower back and by our neck.

Brown fat cells are our healthy fat cells and they are thermogenic. When they are introduced to a cold stimulus such as being out in the cold or taking a cold shower our body needs to warm up. The cold temperature activates the thermogenic brown blood cells and they start to rev up producing heat. This in turn, starts our metabolism and promotes weight loss.

Improved Circulation

Immediately when you step into a cold shower you’re going to take a deep breath. Taking this deep breath will automatically make you breathe deep and improve the oxygen levels in your blood.

The cold water on your skin will improve circulation. In fact, the cold feeling on your skin will cause the blood to flow to your internal organs improve circulation in your organs as well. It will also help to speed up the recovery of damage to  your internal organs!

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Increased Alertness

When you jump into your freezing, cold shower you are zapped into to a state of shock and awe. If you’re anything like us, after getting in a cold shower, you’ll jump around in circles in complete horror and terror as you try to allow your body to adjust to the cold temperature.

This really helps to put you in your body and is a great way of waking up in the morning! 

This causes you to be alert but it’s more than that because this alertness lasts throughout the day. You’ll have more energy and feel more alert. Give it a try and see if it’s not also true for you.

Better Hair, Better Skin

Cold showers improve your hair and skin. Very hot showers dry out the skin and are very bad for your skin. Taking cold showers can also help reduce skin itching and acne because it will help close your pores and cuticles by reducing inflammation.

Taking cold showers enhances circulation and you’ll notice a difference in how your skin feels the minute you get out of the shower.

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Surprising Health Benefits Of Cold Showers

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