111–120 of 188 posts
In other words, it does nothing. Maybe it gives you some kind of refreshing feeling afterwards but that’s it.
I’ll pass on this upcoming health fad.
If this is the only bathing you do, I would think all the fatty and oily residue particularly on the face, neck and chest would be harder to wash off. That's kind of the point of a hot shower, IMO. Still, I do experience the aftereffects of a cold shower and I think it's useful to do from time to time. But every day? Ew!
If you shower every day and use a soap, you will be clean no matter the water temperature. Hygiene is a matter of good habits and ethic.
Anyways, he ended up getting stroke/brain hemorrhage and died. Whether it was a co-relationship or not, as kids we were told from that point on not to take pure cold showers (at least let it be lukewarm).
I personally want to take cold shower but this one event from my history keeps me from taking it.
So less people were sick but everyone still took just as many sick days. Hmm....
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That's fine, except that the humidity in your house must be insane. I see it a lot in some British houses, where people either don't have heating on or run it very rarely - everything has this damp, musky smell of mildew. It's gross frankly. And the only way to fix it is to either run a powerful dehumidifier almost non-stop(not cheap, but at least you can keep the house cold if you want to), or....put the heating on.…
We keep our house at 17C/62F. I also have wood instruments, some quite expensive, for which I track humidity with a slight bit of obsession. I say “slight bit” because in the Seattle area the indoor humidity of our house rarely exceeds 50%, usually 35-45% in winter. That’s about perfect for wood instruments, and it rarely varies much, so no need to get too obsessive about it. And our house doesn’t have a mold problem…
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You won't die even in those temperatures if you take the time to build up tolerance. That's key. Wim Hof has trained his body to survive longer than one hour with his entire body submerged in ice. Similar feats have been replicated by people using his method of cold therapy to build resistance. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/science-explai...
I was waiting for someone to bring up Wim Hof. I think he's amazing and pioneering but I think there may also be a genetic component to his work since NW European DNA already gives him a headstart IMO plus probably has neanderthal DNA which was probably well-attenuated with extreme cold.
https://hbr.org/2018/03/cold-showers-lead-to-fewer-sick-days The link is an interview with the study author, and excerpts are below. This is the first high-level evidence showing that cold showers can benefit your health. People who took them for at least 30 seconds for one month called in sick 29% less than our control group — and 54% less if they also engaged in regular physical exercise. Participants who took the…
Sounds spurious to me. I imagine people that take regular cold showers are also more likely to push themselves at work. To make this really interesting, you'd need to have a blind control group of people who are paid to have cold showers, and see whether their absence rates go down when they start.
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How cold is cold for you normally? Our water is about four degrees celcius never mind what season it is. It just hurts, never really managed to stay more than a few seconds. Some people around here are hacking a hole in the ice and swimming for a while... Edit: Seems the test assumed 10-12 degrees average temperature in Netherlands.
There is a world of difference between 4°C and say 14-18°C, at 4°C you just don't get used to it really! A good method may be to use a fine spray and start with legs, then arms then working up from the bottom to top of the torso. That way the blood gets more time to withdraw from the limbs into the torso to maintain the core temperature.