Hack Your Hormones

The Benefits of Cold Water Therapy

Let's get Chilly!

Cold water therapy is a hot topic at the moment. It is a super cool practice that has the potential to boost the immune system, improve circulation, kickstart a sluggish metabolism, regulate mood and improve your resilience to stress. Take a listen to Radio 4 Woman's Hour where Hayley Dorian, a cold water swimmer who set up Wild Sea Women to help women embrace the cold of the North Sea, and Dr Heather Massey, who works in the Extreme Environments Lab at the University of Portsmouth, discuss the benefits of swimming in cold water and how people can get involved.

What is Cold Water Therapy?

Cold Water Therapy involves exposing yourself to water that’s about 12-15 degrees Celsius for a duration of 1-10 minutes in order to activate the body’s natural healing powers. This exposure can relieve symptoms of many medical conditions, such as reducing muscle pain and stiffness after exercise; reducing swelling and inflammation; improving risk factors for cardiovascular disease, such as blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Not only can cold water therapy aid a plethora of ailments, but it can also promote a sense of well-being. Submerging yourself in cold water can make you feel perky in more ways than one (wink).

If you find the idea of plunging into an ice bath nothing short of terrifying. Let’s be real, staying cosy and warm feels good and being cold hurts and can be super uncomfortable. Unfortunately, the discomfort is actually a key part of cold water’s ability to improve circulation, immunity and mental resilience. Sometimes the good stuff is worth a moment of displeasure, so, if you’re keen to reap the benefits of cold-water therapy, you need to get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Benefits of Cold Water Therapy

Improve Circulation & Reduce Inflammation:

Exposure to cold water stimulates blood flow, forcing the heart to pump more efficiently, carrying oxygenated blood to every part of your body. This improves circulation, boosts the immune system and lowers inflammation. Inflammation is at the root of 90% of all chronic disease. If you can learn how to reduce inflammation in your body, you are on your way to a long, healthy and happy life. To boost inflammation reduction further, SPICE is our amazing and super effective supplement that is proven to reverse stiffness and joint pain. Its magic mixture of MSM for joint mobility and Turmeric circumin to reduce inflammation makes for a powerful concoction to support your quest for an inflammation free body.

SPICE

Boost Metabolism to Facilitate Weight Loss

When practised consistently, cold water therapy can boost your metabolism by forcing your body to work harder to keep you warm – burning calories in the process. Moreover, researchers have found that exposure to cold water benefits weight loss by promoting healthy brown fat, which is the good fat our bodies generate to keep us warm.

Boost the Immune System & Lymphatic Cleansing

Your lymphatic system, a network of vessels that run throughout the body, is responsible for flushing waste and bacteria from your cells. When the lymph fluid becomes stagnant and toxins build up, it manifests as colds, infections, and disease. Cold water therapy causes your lymph vessels to contract, pumping fluid throughout your body, flushing waste and triggering the immune system’s white blood cells to attack unwanted substances, leaving you more resilient and able to fight infection. A study found that having 30-second cold showers every morning for 60 days can decrease the number of sick days by 30%.

Regulate Mood & Improve Mental Resilience

The shock of cold water produces electric impulses that stimulate your brain into a state of clarity and alertness. It triggers a flood of mood-boosting neurotransmitters and endorphins that make you feel happy. Additionally, the practice of willingly inducing a state of discomfort helps to sharpen willpower and improves your ability to respond to stress. In fact, taking a cold shower only a few times per week has been found to reduce symptoms of depression in clinical trials.

How to Embed Cold Water Therapy into your Life

You don’t need a fancy ice bath, a frozen lake or a cryo chamber to reap the benefits of cold water therapy. The best way to try it out is at home in your shower. Turn your shower on from hot to cold for ten seconds each day and then build up to a minute. Each time the temperature drops you should feel uncomfortable, then comfortable again, relatively quickly. The goal is to get to the temperature where the uncomfortable feeling lasts and doesn’t subside. Embrace the cold because this is where the magic happens. Feel it, take it in and learn how to manage your breath to calm your mind. Before long, you’ll be up to 5 minutes before realising how cold the water is. Make it part of your every day and watch the benefits unfold in your life. If you do have underlying health conditions, please check with your doctor before going ahead.

Focus on your Breathing

To reap the benefits of cold water therapy, you have to learn how to calm your mind whilst putting your body under extreme stress. Focusing on your breath will lower your cortisol levels and help you to remain calm and avoid panic.

Start with the cold on your back, at the top of your spine and focus on breathing out for longer than you breathe in. Exhale slowly for five seconds and inhale deeply for one second. Try humming on the exhaled breath and breathe through your mouth to maximise the oxygen and carbon dioxide gas exchange.

The benefits of breathwork and cold water on the nervous, circulatory & immune systems combine to foster a deeper mind-body connection, increase energy, lift the mood, balance hormones, reduce stress and improve all sorts of health issues.

Calm Yourself...

To prepare yourself further before exposing yourself to cold water therapy, take 2 Calm capsules before you take the plunge. If you’re feeling anxious about trying cold water therapy, Calm will reduce the oxidative stress in your brain and lower your cortisol hormone.

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