Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 163 posts

Re: The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

#91

Post by Scea91 »

UncleEntity wrote: post #25
flor1s wrote: post #22

I feel like the benefits you obtain through cold showers disappear after a while as you get used to them. That's similar to the benefits I felt of meditation.

IDK, I have yet to get used to cold showers during the last two winters. Still too lazy to get my gas turned back on in 2.5 years so it isn't all that bad I guess...but during the deep Arizona winter when the temperature drops to around 50 those showers aren't even a little fun.

> deep Arizona winter when the temperature drops to around 50

I wonder, is this sarcasm or do you really consider 50 F as deep winter in Arizona? I get it that you are used to much higher temperatures but still...

Right now we have around 40 F in Prague and it is not even a winter yet. Cold showers are still fine right now.

Re: The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

#92

Post by DavideNL »

sytelus wrote: post #30

TLDR; 3000 participants study that asked them to do cold showers for 30-90 seconds each day for 1 month. Main difference shown was ~30% reduction in sick days they took. On a side note, has anyone here tried wim hof method?

I found this article (it's in Dutch not English) about Wim Hof very... well, interesting: https://www.hetvondelpark.net/Vondelnieuws/DeStuntVanDeIcema...

TLDR: he put his ass on a water fountain in the middle of a public park to flush his bowel but the pressure was so high that he ended up in the hospital with perforated intestines and nearly died.

Re: The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

#93

Post by SwellJoe »

DavideNL wrote: post #92
sytelus wrote: post #30

TLDR; 3000 participants study that asked them to do cold showers for 30-90 seconds each day for 1 month. Main difference shown was ~30% reduction in sick days they took. On a side note, has anyone here tried wim hof method?

I found this article (it's in Dutch not English) about Wim Hof very... well, interesting: https://www.hetvondelpark.net/Vondelnieuws/DeStuntVanDeIcema... TLDR: he put his ass on a water fountain in the middle of a public park to flush his bowel but the pressure was so high that he ended up in the hospital with perforated intestines and nearly died.

That's a horrifyingly bad idea for so many reasons. I've always found Wim Hof kinda quacky in general, but this is beyond the stupidity I would expect from even a serious woo practitioner.

Even without wrecking your intestines, the bacteria and probable pollutants in a public fountain would be disastrous for your intestinal flora. So, even without the risk of traumatic injury, it'd be really stupid to treat a public fountain as a mega-bidet. Not to mention you're putting others at risk. Kids and pets often play in fountains, even if they aren't supposed to.

I really can't even with this dude. And, lots of people, including nerds, take him seriously. It makes no sense.

Re: The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

#95

Post by kromem »

Because of the study design, there's no control group that would account for placebo.

The placebo effect in several meta-analyses (Beecher, Haas) showed an effect in studies of around 30%.

Coincidentally, people participating in this study felt less sick when talking a hot-cold shower by ~30%.

Without being able to discount placebo, I am highly suspect of the results of this study.

Re: The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

#97

Post by isolli »

kromem wrote: post #95

Because of the study design, there's no control group that would account for placebo. The placebo effect in several meta-analyses (Beecher, Haas) showed an effect in studies of around 30%. Coincidentally, people participating in this study felt less sick when talking a hot-cold shower by ~30%. Without being able to discount placebo, I am highly suspect of the results of this study.

If participants did not know in advance they would be evaluated on the number of sick days they take, surely the placebo effect is minimal?

Re: The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

#98

Post by dogma1138 »

secura wrote: post #72
the_economist wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been taking cold showers for 3-4 months, but recently had to quit because I hurt my neck so badly in the shower.

Can you elaborate this? Did the cold water hurt your neck? Or did you hurt neck due to a related/unrelated accident in the shower?

Most likely it didn’t hurt the neck directly but rather did not provide the normal tension reducing benefit that hot water does. On top of that your muscles do spasm a bit when you are cold which could possibly build more pressure which over a period of days/weeks would result in pretty bad stiffness.

Re: The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work: A Randomized Controlled Trial

#100

Post by phaemon »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #16

“The total amount of days a participant felt ill (including symptoms of cold and flu)” responded but “the total number of days of absence from their work due to sickness“ which the study’s designers view as “the most objective indirect parameter indicative of illness severity” did not.

That is the complete opposite of the study's findings. The number of days they felt ill did not change, but they had fewer days absent.
Post reply on HN