The Effect of Cold Showering on Health and Work (2016)

I&#x27;ve been taking cold showers exclusively for 11 years now.<p>It doesn&#x27;t get much easier but you&#x27;ll get addicted to the great feeling after.<p>It&#x27;s similar to running or exercise, it sucks to do but you do it anyway because the benefits far outweigh the temporary discomfort.<p>The trick for me was to never use warm shower again and never compromise ... only coldest water available counts. First thing in the morning.<p>It makes everything easier as once you experience that comfort of warmer water you&#x27;ll have to fight with it again and again.<p>That&#x27;s why I don&#x27;t believe in James Bond showers and similar stuff.<p>Only last year I started to take warmer showers if I need to take one late at night and want to get a good sleep fast (I took about 4 so far) ... to build this habit, for me personally, it was paramount to leave no other option.<p>For the first 7 years I haven&#x27;t been sick at all. At the same time, I don&#x27;t think it&#x27;s a miracle practice for your health. You will get sick if you expose yourself to risks of getting sick often enough - it&#x27;s simple.<p>In the early days, I used to procrastinate in the bathroom ... a good trick was to start timing my showers. I would leave a timer set for 5 min and paper to log time, I tried to get in and out beating 5 min time-frame. In less than couple of weeks it became a habit that I enjoy for some 8 years now.<p>Other than health, energy and willpower, I suspect it has some solid psychological benefits ... you get out in the morning you feel like a superhuman, imagine starting your day in such way and how that compounds over the years.<p>It&#x27;s great habit to start.

Alternative hypothesis: The 79% who were able to complete the trial had already selected for &#x27;grit&#x27;, or folks who wouldn&#x27;t skip a day&#x27;s work for a minor ailment. To check, instead of just comparing the test group to the control group you would need to compare the test group to itself, before and during the cold shower period.

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hbr.org&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;cold-showers-lead-to-fewer-sick-days" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;hbr.org&#x2F;2018&#x2F;03&#x2F;cold-showers-lead-to-fewer-sick-days</a><p>The link is an interview with the study author, and excerpts are below.<p>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.<p>Participants who took the cold showers actually reported feeling ill just as many days, on average, as the people who showered normally. But either their symptoms were less severe or they felt more energetic, so they were better able to push through the sickness and function anyway. The exact effect on the immune system is unclear, but we do have some knowledge of the pathway through which it works. Cold temperatures make you shiver — an autonomous response to keep your body temperature up. It involves a neuroendocrine effect and triggers our fight-or-flight response, causing hormones like cortisol to increase, shortly before we shift to a relaxation response. Moreover, cold temperatures activate the brown — or good — fat in the body.<p>Brown fat doesn’t have any proven connection to immunity, but it does affect the body’s thermoregulation. When activated, it keeps the body warm by burning calories. It may also increase your energy and metabolism and help control your blood sugar. That could reduce your risk of obesity and diabetes.

It says old showering reduced self-reported sick leaves but not illness days. So it&#x27;s not conclusive it has real benefits.<p>I guess lots of HNers shower cold, they like hearing it having potential benefit so they can feel good about themselves. Lots of confirmation bias here. The top voted comment doesn&#x27;t discuss TFA, but just how great cold showering is.<p>In the study, a 90-seconds subject died, most likely not because of cold shower, but you never know, without the the experiment, he&#x2F;she probably would have lived. His&#x2F;her family members probably blamed cold-shower for it.<p>Dr. David Sinclair advocates cold-showering, said it increase brown fat. But the evidence he cited[1] (Lifespan page 110), the short term cold exposure is 4 hours, the temperature is probably lot colder than cold shower, so it&#x27;s doubtful a 30&#x2F;90 second cold shower help growing brown fat.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC5558157&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pmc&#x2F;articles&#x2F;PMC5558157&#x2F;</a>

A cold show temporarily jacks your heart rate up just enough to get you out the door. It doesn’t make people less sick, just less likely to take a sick day. The article even says subjects that were sick just felt slightly more energetic and not less sick. I’ve still seen no evidence that cold showers have any real health benefits.

I have been taking cold showers for a couple of years now. Although I wouldn&#x27;t claim any health benefits since none have been proven, I will claim some other obvious benefits that everyone should consider.<p>Cold showers are unheated. Cheaper and better for the environment.<p>Cold showers seldom last longer than a few minutes, whereas hot showers are so comfortable that many people make them last way too long. Cheaper, better for the environment and for your time management.<p>Cold showers wake you up, whereas hot showers are more like extended snooze time.<p>Cold showers make you feel like a bad ass.<p>Secret tip: eat some breakfast before the shower, to crank up your engine.

This SciShow-clip discusses this study and others.<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;HsonXuJs8-s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;youtu.be&#x2F;HsonXuJs8-s</a><p>I do it most mornings for (anecdotal) &quot;waking up the mind&quot; when I&#x27;m tired. Sometimes it feels like the world goes from SD to HD. I don&#x27;t do it 90 seconds though more like 30 tops and I don&#x27;t believe that I&#x27;m less sick because of it. For me it&#x27;s also a psychological test of &quot;can I chose to do something that is tangibly uncomfortable when it&#x27;s super easy to just stay nice and cosy&quot;.

The sentence &quot;routinely showering (hot-to-) cold resulted in a 29% reduction of self-reported sick leave from work but not illness days&quot; raises some alarms. Also the fact that so many participants discontinued the intervention &quot;because of its burden or a sickness&quot; (much fewer discontinuers in the control group).

&gt; A routine (hot-to-) cold shower resulted in a statistical reduction of self-reported sickness absence but <i>not illness days</i> in adults without severe comorbidity.<p>In other words, it does nothing. Maybe it gives you some kind of refreshing feeling afterwards but that’s it.<p>I’ll pass on this upcoming health fad.

I&#x27;m not sure what the take-home from this is. Fewer people called in sick.<p>Does that mean more people who were actually sick were tricked into a false feeling of health and went into work to spread their germs?<p>Or does it mean that healthy people that were just feeling a bit groggy were re-invigorated by a cold shower?

Someone knowledgeable please advise:<p>Do cryotherapy or cold showers increase the risk of developing Alzheimer&#x27;s disease in the long term?<p>&quot;Tau phosphorylation is exquisitely sensitive to temperature, increasing by 80% for each degree below 37°C, due to exponential decrease in PP2A activity during direct hypothermia, or anesthesia-induced hypothermia.&quot;<p>This means that one might expect a significant increase in tau phosphorylation from modest decreases in body temperature, possibly leading to increased risk of Alzheimer&#x27;s in the long run.<p>Source: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;srep00480" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nature.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;srep00480</a>

Just read the summary. For me personally a hot to cold shower isn&#x27;t nice. But a cold shower although initially repulsive becomes very enjoyable. And when it ends the thaw feeling is magic. When you are freezing, even cold feels warm.<p>Some days I get so cold in my bones I feel a hot bath or hot shower is the only way to sort me out. If I&#x27;m proper dirty, a cold shower doesn&#x27;t do.

The study explicitly says no reduced days of illness, just fewer days off. Means people were going in sick or worked harder?<p>So there are no actual results on health in the short time they studied.

During winter I never heat my home above 18C, so I never use any heating. My computer and I are the only sources of heat and it&#x27;s enough (not to mention the fridge, etc). If it goes below 16 I do some pushups and dress accordingly. If the bed is really cold, I just use a hot-water bag.<p>I like the cold.<p>To be honest, I&#x27;m also wondering if getting used to the cold might result in some form of slight weight loss, since your body would naturally burn additional calories to maintain a normal body temperature, but it&#x27;s just a guess.

For me, one of the important elements in the results is the reduction in influenza with 60 and 90 sec. cold shower group. On the other hand seeing this adverse effect also made me nervous:<p>&quot;One participant in the 90 seconds intervention group died unexpectedly of occult chronic pulmonary embolism at 56 days follow-up.&quot;<p>I know it is not because of the trial but it is unfortunate.

Tons of strong(wo)man competitors take ice baths after their workouts to reduce inflammation and speed recovery:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;results?search_query=world%27s+strongest+man+ice+bath" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;results?search_query=world%27s+stron...</a><p>IMHO it&#x27;s not so much about the numbing or pain reduction, but the increased blood flow afterwards. I ice almost all injuries for about 3 days after they happen. I also tend to find heat to be a waste of time or that it actually exacerbates injuries. But, alternating hot and cold MIGHT be effective (I haven&#x27;t done it enough to know). In general though, I&#x27;d worry that icing after every workout would train the body to require it as a crutch, which means that missing an ice bath could lead to injury, so I won&#x27;t do it.<p>Also, I&#x27;d hate to miss out on the comfort of warm showers. I&#x27;m just not that stoic!

30 days seems too short an observation period.<p>I have 1-2 incidents of sickness per year and I don’t live a particularly healthy lifestyle.

i wonder if there are studies about hot bath. Onsen are extremely popular in japan, and i&#x27;m absolutely certain the relaxation you get from hot water is beneficial to health as well

I haven&#x27;t been to doctors, or taken any type of medication in 25 years. Rarely do I sick, and it&#x27;s basically the sniffles that I can sleep off. I take long hot showers.

Back in 1994, my Grandfather started off his day as always with taking a shower. Now, he suffered from high blood pressure and was in his 60s and he liked cold showers.<p>Anyways, he ended up getting stroke&#x2F;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).<p>I personally want to take cold shower but this one event from my history keeps me from taking it.

Floridian here! I&#x27;ve been taking cold showers as well for the past few years and I can certainly say it makes a difference in the way you feel afterwards compared to a normal hot shower and regardless of the weather of the day as well, obviously it&#x27;s more enjoyable when it is a warmer day or after some physical activity and exercise.<p>As some mentioned I think it has more to do with the shock put on your body which releases endorphins and other chemicals beneficial for brain function, it has shown to also be beneficial for some suffering from depression and such [1][2].<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;17993252" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov&#x2F;pubmed&#x2F;17993252</a><p>[2] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lifehack.org&#x2F;448180&#x2F;how-cold-showers-can-change-your-brain-and-boost-your-mental-health" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.lifehack.org&#x2F;448180&#x2F;how-cold-showers-can-change-...</a>

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&#x27;s kind of the point of a hot shower, IMO. Still, I do experience the aftereffects of a cold shower and I think it&#x27;s useful to do from time to time. But every day? Ew!

In Russia, there are groups of swimmers who practice swimming in cold water. They are called &quot;walruses&quot; and they swim even at minus 10-20 centigrade. It&#x27;s insane. I once watched a very old looking, skinny gentleman coming out of water. He still had his t-shirt on. He then took off his wet t-shirt, squeezed out the water couple of times, and then put (still wet t-shirt) back on, then grabbed his belongings and walked away. He wasn&#x27;t even shaking. It was around late November. There was snow. I understand that the temperature of the river was maybe slightly even warmer than the air&#x27;s, but damn, he put his cold, wet t-shirt on, and walked like it was July in Jamaica.

There are also benefits to hot showers [1], so I wouldn&#x27;t write those off completely.<p>[1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.medicalnewstoday.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;327461.php" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.medicalnewstoday.com&#x2F;articles&#x2F;327461.php</a>

Conclusion: &quot;A routine (hot-to-) cold shower resulted in a statistical reduction of self-reported sickness absence but not illness days in adults without severe comorbidity.&quot;<p>So less people were sick but everyone still took just as many sick days. Hmm....

&gt;Outcomes &gt;All outcomes were self-reported using web-based surveys.<p>&gt;Conclusion &gt;A routine (hot-to-) cold shower resulted in a statistical reduction of self-reported sickness absence but not illness days in adults without severe comorbidity.<p>I&#x27;m always a tad skeptical of self-reported data. In this case, seeing as the more objective measure shows a much smaller effect, I am inclined to think this is more a placebo effect than anything else.<p>Still, a placebo effect that makes you feel better seems like a good thing, so I might just start taking some cold showers now

Not sure, seems like the ones that did it already were self-determined enough to work. You would need to compare intra group before and after.<p>From a metabolic viewpoint cold showers might have some short term energy boost from the stress hormones it releases. However highly dubious whether that is healthy or sustainable long-term. 10-years down the line my bet is you would look like a marathon runner, all wrinkled and with bad skin. Hot showers can increase prolactin so I guess, moderation in both would be the way to go.

I swam in the jokulsarlon glacier lagoon, Iceland, for 3 minutes. When I re-emerged, I could not stop shivering for about 10 minutes.<p>Before this event, I took cold showers for about 1 year (including in winter), then I stopped. Thinking of resuming, but not sure.<p>Would I go and swim again in the glacier lagoon or similar? Probably. It has this refrigerator serene like feeling.<p>So, cold shower is one thing, swimming in near freezing temperature is another thing.

I wonder if the benefits are the same as using &#x27;plunge pools&#x27; I know Tony Robbins is a huge fan of cold showers: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tonyrobbins.com&#x2F;health-vitality&#x2F;the-power-of-cold-water&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.tonyrobbins.com&#x2F;health-vitality&#x2F;the-power-of-col...</a><p>I tend to go for the warm show to get clean and then go cold for the last 20 secs.

A recent study shows that people who regularly take cold showers are 100 times more likely to mention it than people who take warm showers.

I live in the United States. I remember this story as a kid and always assumed cold temps and weather makes you more susceptible to viruses like the Flu. <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.history.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;did-william-henry-harrisons-inauguration-speech-kill-him" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.history.com&#x2F;news&#x2F;did-william-henry-harrisons-ina...</a>

As a side note, if you ever do a Vipassana 10-day retreat (dhamma.org) try taking a cold shower during the course. It&#x27;s a nice challenge, and an application of the &quot;non-reaction&quot; practice. (Personally I found myself far, far more tolerant of the cold water, to the extent I was kind of amazed that my previous self was so averse to it).

They lumped together morning and evening showering, which I suspect to have significant differences. But common sense thought is that cold shower will excite metabolism and result of that will be most likely quite different for normal waking hours versus sleep.

The group studied seem to have a extraordinarily high rate of sick-days no? Around 30% taking a sick day in a 90 day period?<p>I&#x27;ve probably had 2 sick days in 3 years (data point: mid 50s, a nice hot bath with my toe stuck out of the bubbles, good book, cup of tea).

Wim Hoff had to have something to do with this. It came out of the Netherlands.

Related, being really cold is one of the reasons surfing (at least in Northern California) feels so great. The rest of the day afterwards nothing hurts, assuming you didn&#x27;t hurt yourself ;)

It would be interesting to investigate this based on the subject’s climate and time of year.<p>Up here in Minnesota I could imagine doing this in the summer, but right now, when it’s grey and 18F outside, um no.

I&#x27;ve been taking cold showers for quite a number of years and haven&#x27;t noticed any significant benefit, except they are short :)

I only shower at night before bed. Are there any benefits for cold showers at night? Seems like many of you shower in the morning.

Isn&#x27;t it obvious that cold showers will make you more resilient to cold? Even if we assume there aren&#x27;t any health benefits - which would be foolish IMO, being resilient to cold is a benefit in itself.<p>If you&#x27;re waiting for science to put a number on everything before you consider it you&#x27;ll be disappointed in the long run.

anedoctally, my dandruff cleared up after I switched from cold showers to lukewarm

So if you take a cold shower you&#x27;ll be less likely to want to call in sick.

What about the effect on saving water?

the period seems way to short to get any comparable results. should&#x27;ve tried at least three months