Cold Water Benefits

While entering a cold bath, or shower, core body temperature drops.

Body starts a cold shock response:

Metabolism boost, increased blood flow and lymphatic flow

Body response 1 : Peripheral blood vessels expand and contract. Blood flow is boosted. Which can help reduce inflammation and help bring more oxygen to deep tissues.

Lympathic system is boosted too which helps eliminate toxins from the body.

Body response 2: Skeletal muscles contract: shiver, to generate heat.

Bosy response 3: Cold-sensitive brown adipose tissue (in the neck, spine, supraclavicular area) activate.

These are activated by the cold, and certain types of bioactive in foods: they start burning fat and breaking down glucose to create heat energy.

Repeated cold exposure: Daily for 4 weeks result in 45% increase in brown adipose tissue activity.  Body burns more energy and calories.

Body response 4: Hormons release which leads to Mood improvements and better response to stress

Activity in the sympathetic nervous system, vagus nerve stimulation, increase hormone like dopamine, beta-endorphin, reducing body’s response to stress

These above signs of response of the body to cold support metabolic, cardiovascular,emotional health. You end-up having more energy, less oxidative stress, and immunity boost.

At the condition that you’re not staying too long exposed to cold, in that case, the body would keep trying to generate heat for too long after the exposure, and would end-up exhausted instead of boosted.

Scientific source:s

PMID: 35195747 

PMCID: PMC9012715 

DOI: 10.1007/s00421-022-04915-5

DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD008262.pub2

DOI: 10.1080/22423982.2022.2111789

Contra-indications: Always check with your medical expert if your health allows you to practice such cold exposure.