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.
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.
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.
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.
Alternating between hot and cold water can strengthen your vasculature (veins and arteries) and therefore improve the integrity of your cardiovascular system. Additionally, it can help filter out toxins in the body because it stimulates constriction and subsequent relaxation of the blood vessels.
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.
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.
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.
Researchers have found that taking icy showers may heighten your immune system and make you more resistant to illness. A clinical trial in the Netherlands found that cold showers led to a 29% reduction in people calling off sick from work. Another study even connected cold showers to improved cancer survival.
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.
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.
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.
Many theorize that cold showers could raise our endorphin levels (our feel-good hormones). At the same time, they can also decrease our cortisol levels (a stress-inducing hormone). As a result, this increase in endorphins and decrease in cortisol can help symptoms of anxiety and even depression.
Cold Showers Prevent Skin Aging
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.
“Humans tend to perspire at night,” Dr. Goldenberg said. “When you wake up in the morning, there's all this sweat and bacteria from the sheets that's just kind of sitting there on your skin.” So take a quick shower in the morning, he said, “to wash all of that gunk and sweat off that you've been sleeping in all night.”
The largest study with 3,000 participants was carried out in the Netherlands and found that people who took a daily cold shower (following a warm shower) of either 30 seconds, 60 seconds or 90 seconds for one month were off work with self-reported sickness 29% less than those who had a warm shower only.
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.
Another study found the practice was more effective at steadying mood and getting rid of anxiety than a leading pharmaceutical, and another found that cold water exposure worked amazingly for both depression and chronic fatigue.
Major life stress, such as the death or serious illness of a loved one. A traumatic event, such as sexual assault or a serious accident. Major changes in your life, such as a divorce or the addition of a baby. Smoking or excessive caffeine intake.
Hot showers can even help reduce stress and anxiety because the heat can stimulate the brain's release of a hormone called oxytocin, which is known to be correlated to anti-stress effects, or relaxation [1].
In addition to greater overall focus and nicer-looking skin and hair, taking a cold shower in the morning has another benefit. It can help improve your circulation! The cold water will help your blood pump better, making your body run more efficiently.
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?
No, it won't just get rid of the fat or the weight but what hot water does it speed up the process and reduce inflammation in your body, which is core to weight loss. The bath also seemed to have the same effect as exercise when it came to the anti-inflammatory response post-activity for each of the participants.
“Your skin is the largest organ in the body and absorbs fluid easily,” says Dr. Keith Kantor, a leading nutritionist and CEO of the Nutritional Addiction Mitigation Eating and Drinking (NAMED) program. “After a swim or a shower, your body can absorb 1 to 3 cups of water, increasing your true weight by a few pounds.”