Cold water immersion activates the body’s natural healing powers that can relieve the symptoms of many medical conditions and promote a sense of health and well-being. And when practiced on a regular basis, cold water immersion can even provide long-lasting changes to your body’s immune, lymphatic, circulatory and digestive systems that enhance the overall quality of your life.
Let’s take a closer look five important benefits of cold water immersion:
IMPROVES LYMPHATIC CIRCULATION
The lymphatic system is a network of vessels that run throughout the body, helping take away waste, bacteria and microbes from your cells, essentially cleansing your body. Unlike your blood, which is constantly moved through your body by the heart, your lymph fluid doesn’t have a central pump. Instead, your lymphatic system relies on muscle contraction to pump the lymph fluid through the vessels. So if you don’t exercise or your lymphatic system itself becomes slow or inefficient, the fluid stagnates and toxins toxins build up, manifesting in colds, joint pain, infection and even disease.
Cold water immersion causes your lymph vessels to contract, forcing your lymphatic system to pump lymph fluids throughout your body, flushing the waste out of the area. This then triggers the immune system’s white blood cells to attack and destroy any unwanted substance in the fluid. In a way, it’s sort of a domino effect — the cold water effects the lymphatic system, which in turn effects the immune system, which ultimately keeps you feeling happy and healthy.
IMPROVES CARDIOVASULAR CIRCULATION
Cardiovascular circulation is rarely something that crosses our minds, but it happens to be one of the most critical components of our overall health and well-being. With poor cardiovascular circulation, not only is the blood flow compromised, the heart becomes stressed. And this can ultimately lead to fatigue, headaches, high blood pressure, muscle cramping, or even heart attack and stroke. With improved circulation, on the other hand, we can improve heart health, enhance mental performance, boost the immune system and the metabolism, and simply give ourselves more strength and energy to live our lives the way you want.
So how do we get better cardiovascular circulation? Exercise and diet are two well-know factors. But cold water immersion can also stimulate blood flow. When you immerse your body in cold water, the blood rushes to surround your vital organs. Your heart then is forced to pump more efficiently, pushing blood through all your vessels and supplying every part of your body with the oxygen and nutrients it needs. Do this on a routine basis and you can help promote healthy blood circulation, and, ultimately, a healthy body.
REDUCES MUSCLE INFLAMMATION
Have you ever participated in a high intensity workout and woken up sore the next morning? How about trying a new type of physical activity only to find your muscles throbbing? Or even found that those strenuous household chores left you feeling uncomfortable for days afterwards? This physical discomfort is known as delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS), and, for many, it can be so painful that they instantly reach for the anti-inflammatory meds to soothe their pain.
Any activity that pushes your muscles beyond the limits they are accustomed to can lead to microscopic tears in the fibers and inflammation in the tissue. But cold water immersion has been scientifically proven to help counteract these side effects.
Cold water lowers the damaged tissue’s temperature and constricts the blood vessels. This helps reduce the swelling and inflammation, and even numbs the nerve endings to bring immediate relief to any pain. This is why you so often see an athlete soaking in an ice bath following a strenuous workout. But you don’t have to be a serious athlete to reap the benefits of cold water immersion. By simply taking a quick cold post-workout shower post-workout you can help reduce soreness and inflammation from whatever physical activity you completed. And by incorporating cold water immersion into your daily routine, you may find that you don’t need to reach for the pills, because you’ve found an easy, natural way of expediting recovery and comfort.
BOOSTS HAPPINESS LEVELS
Feeling down? Try taking a cold shower. It may seem like a superficial fix, but the benefits of cold water immersion actually run deeper than you think when it comes to boosting your mood.
A 2007 research study found that cold showers can help treat depression symptoms, and if used on a routine basis, may be more beneficial than prescription medications. The reason for this, in scientific terms, is due to the stimulation of the dopaminergic transmission in the mesocorticolimbic and nigrostriatal pathway. Or, in layman’s speak, cold water triggers a flood of mood-boosting neurotransmitters, which make you feel happy. A separate study that analyzed the effects of regular winter swimming on the mood of swimmers showed that after four months of routine cold water swimming, the subjects felt more energetic, active and spritely than the control group.
So the next time you find yourself in a slump, consider the benefits of water, be it an ocean, a lake, or a simple shower. You may just find that water can play a vital role in keeping your body and yourself happy.
INCREASES WEIGHT LOSS
When practiced routinely, cold water immersion has been shown to boost the metabolism. Not only does cold water force our bodies to work harder to keep us warm, burning calories in the process and in the long run, boosting our metabolisms, it also has an unexpected impact on the type of fat we produce.
According to a 2009 study, researchers found that cold water can promote healthy brown fat, which is the good fat our bodies generate to keep us warm and is activated when exposed to extreme fat, and help eliminate white fat, which is the body fat that piles up around our waistlines and thighs when we consume too many calories.
While cold water immersion should not be considered a substitute for diet and exercise, it does make an excellent supplement.
Conditioning your brain and your body to accept, endure and embrace cold water immersion may be challenging, but the health benefits in both the short- and long-run are well worth it. You will be able to activate your body’s natural healing powers to properly support your physiological and mental state of being, and perhaps begin to simply feel healthier and happier. Even if you begin with a quick, cold shower, lowering your skin temperature only briefly, the results can be dramatic. So consider the benefits of cold water immersion, whether its f
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