BENEFITS OF COLD WATER THERaPy

CAN COLD plunge HELP DECREASE ANXIETY?

Cold immersion can have this effect. For example, cold showers can reduce heart rate and lower blood pressure, which can help you feel more relaxed. They release endorphins, “feel-good hormones” that help with depression and anxiety. And they help with inflammation in the body, which can be caused by long-term stress. Overall, there is good reason to believe that cold water immersion helps decrease anxiety.

When you’re in a cold bath all your worries disappear, it clears the mind.  

Top 12 benefits of ice baths for mental and physical health

• Reduce anxiety/manage stressful situations.

• Boost your mood to a positive mindset.

• Burn fat.

• Boost your immune system and improve lymphatic circulation.

• Increase cardiovascular circulation.

• Increase energy levels.

• Improve your discipline.

• Improve resilience.

• Muscle recovery.

• Mental health disease benefits.

• Improve your sleep.

• Improve hair and skin.

Reduce anxiety/manage stressful situation

Submerging your body into cold water stresses your body by triggering the fight or flight responses. This is caused by the activation of your sympathetic nervous system.

The best way to manage cold exposure is to control and slow down your breathing which will keep you calm. This will teach your mind and body to manage future stressful situations and help conquer anxiety. You need to enable your body to respond better to your overactive sympathetic nervous system which allows your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest mode) to get back to a controlled state.

By controlling your sympathetic nervous system, it will help you manage stressful situations in the future. (Build strong foundations) Over time your heart rate with decrease and you will have a healthy heart.

Boost your mood to a positive mindset

As soon as you immerse yourself in cold water your mood immediately improves. Have you ever felt like doing nothing all day? As soon as you've woken up you just want to stay in your darkened room all day? I promise you as soon as you get into that ice bath BOOM your day is injected with an adrenaline boost. It is a fantastic way to start your day and you will feel so amazing and start to smile.

You are ready to rumble.

You can do this at any time of the day to give your mood a huge lift.

When you plunge into an ice bath, the shock to your system releases plenty of endorphins. This immediately lowers cortisol levels and gives you a euphoric feeling. Norepinephrine- this hormone is a precursor to epinephrine, which works to relax your muscles, boost mood, and improve concentration.

Norepinephrine, also called noradrenaline, is a substance that is released from the ends of sympathetic nerve fibres and acts to increase the force of skeletal muscle contraction and the rate and force of contraction of the heart. The actions of norepinephrine are vital to the fight-or-flight response.

A study of norepinephrine in 2001 shows that it can help with depression, anxiety, and other mental disorders.

Burn fat

A cold-water plunge is a great way to burn fat because it speeds up your metabolism and activates your brown fat which produces more energy than white fats. So, your body burns off those excess calories trying to warm up your body. It also clears blood glucose and increases insulin sensitivity.  Also, it helps maintain muscle.

Boost your immune system and improve lymphatic circulation

IMPROVE LYMPHATIC CIRCULATION

Exposing your whole body to cold water increases the plasma concentration of glutathione. This is a key role in the antioxidant process and a proper function of t-cell lymphocytes. Additionally, glutathione activates your natural killer cells to fight infections and diseases.

The lymphatic system helps your body cleanse itself. Its vessels flow through the body, clearing out bacteria, microbes from your cells and any waste.

Your lymphatic system doesn’t work like blood flow (heart pumping it around) so it relies on cold water exposure and exercises to contract your muscles to pump the lymph fluid through the vessels. If you don’t do these things your lymphatic system will slow down, and toxins will build up. This makes you more likely to get ill with infections and disease and prone to joint pain.   

Cold water immersion causes your lymph vessels to contract, forcing your lymphatic system to pump lymph fluids throughout your body, flushing wastage out. One of the many cold plunge benefits is that it triggers the immune system’s white blood cells, prompting them to attack and destroy any unwanted toxins that might be in the fluid. It’s a win win: the cold water affects the lymphatic system, which in turn affects the immune system, which keeps you feeling happy and healthy.

Increase cardiovascular circulation

Unhealthy cardiovascular circulation can lead to poor blood flow and stress on the heart which can lead to health problems like high blood pressure, headaches, fatigue, muscle cramping or even stroke and heart attack.

 When you immerse your body in cold water, the blood rushes to surround your vital organs which stimulates blood flow. Your heart is then forced to pump more efficiently, flowing blood through all your vessels, and supplying your body with nutrients and oxygen. Doing this on a regular basis can help promote healthy blood circulation and a healthy body and mind.

Increase energy levels

Cold immersion releases secretion norepinephrine. Studies have proven it increases energy levels, attention, and focus.

It is a game changer in the morning, it boosts you straight into ‘‘go’’ mode. The only way I can describe it is like someone is pumping adrenaline straight into your body.  

Improve your discipline

Submerging yourself in cold water requires discipline and mental strength. By making the conscious decision you're halfway there.

It’s all a mind game even getting into your swimmers in freezing conditions, knowing that you’re about to feel even colder as you plunge into the ice water. It really shows your ability to overcome fear and show yourself you are strong mentally even in the toughest environments. It will teach your mind to grow and help overcome any anxiety in the future because you are building strong foundations. 

The good news is that if you manage to overcome your fear and hesitation, you’ll be mentally stronger from knowing that you have what it takes to succeed in the toughest conditions.

Improve resilience

Your resilience to cold water will get easier over time as your body adjusts to the cold temperatures you can decrease the temperature and duration. After a few plunges (whenever you feel ready) it's the same principle as doing a workout, the more you do the better you become.

This will help with other challenges in your life

Muscle recovery

I am sure you have seen professional athletes use ice baths after and between intense workouts. They do this to help muscle recovery and prevent soreness. It also reduces inflammation and reduces injury. That’s why you use the RICE technique (rest, ice, compression, elevation) e.g. people use ice packs.

When you get out of the icy water, your blood vessels dilate, triggering an increase of oxygenated blood flow to muscle tissue.

The best combination is getting into a sauna for 10 to 20 minutes then, straight after, taking a cold plunge which will amplify the positive effects. Not only does that dramatically increase blood flow, but the constriction and dilation is also a great workout for the blood vessels. If you don’t have a sauna, you can take a hot shower before or after your cold plunge. 

Mental health disease benefits

Research has shown submerging into icy water can prevent or treat neurological diseases, such as dementia or Alzheimer’s.

Icy water submerging releases endorphins which lead to happiness, which can help reduce stress levels to prevent your body developing diseases.  

Improve your sleep

Do you ever just lie in bed overthinking and stressing about the days ahead? Well, I have a solution for you and that is ice baths.

 I promise you when you begin having ice baths, you will see a dramatic improvement in your deep sleep. This is because you’re smashing your anxiety and stress of the window. You will also build a high resilience to stress when in the ice bath which builds a high threshold for stress.  

Improve hair and skin

Are you one of those people who suffer with bad skin, greasy and thin hair? Do you find that all the shampoo and moisturisers just don’t do the trick? Why don't you try cold plunges? Cold water helps to reduce the size of your pores and tightens your skin. Icy water doesn’t encourage your body to release oils like warm water does, you won’t have excess oil that can lead to greasy hair or breakouts. You’ll retain those oils to keep your skin sufficiently moisturised, leaving skin and hair balanced and healthy. The cold water also stimulates hair follicles, increasing hair thickness and length.