The health benefits of ice bath can optimize our energy and the activity can even aid our recovery process. If you ever tried soak or shower your body with warm water then try an ice bath can provides numerous advantages both for your body and minds. Doing ice bath or having cold shower can also be called as cold therapy and they offer many advantages including improve reduce inflammation and promote healing to our joints and muscles. All those benefits make the practice of ice bath really worth to be tried. Let’s found out what other benefits you can experience when soak or shower your body with cold water.
About Ice Bath and How Long You Need to Take It?
According to research conducted by a non-profit organization called Cochrane Collaboration with the physicians and scientist who support ice bath treatment mentioned that there are many health benefits can be gained by soak your body in cold or ice water. It is even proven by scientific evidences and the organization released their result after taken tests from seventeen studies on the cold ice bath.
The right time to take an ice bath in fact can be done anytime during early evening or afternoon, however if you want to get maximum health benefits of ice bath then you can do that in the morning or afternoon. In addition, there are proper rules which you can follow to get the best result when taking an ice bath especially for recovery process. For general the immersion process can be done for 10 to 20 minutes while the cold water temperature should be around 50 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit and do not doing an ice cold bath more than the recommended time or temperature or otherwise you will have negative effects.
Some examples of the negative effects are:
- Hypothermia
One of the most dangerous negative effects of soaking your body in a cold or ice bath is hypothermia. This can happen because human body is naturally warm blooded temperature and when exposed to cold temperature, the nerve cells in our body will work harder and the process is not good to our body.
- It can cause arthritis and nerve pain
Soaking the body in cold water or taking cold shower can cause several pains in nerves and joints. Our blood vessels will constrict due to the cold temperature and since the blood vessels come to narrow, oxygen intake in some of the vital organs is being reduced as well which can lead to several pains in our nerves and joints.
There is one more important thing to take a note when you want to do ice bath or cold shower. Do not directly pour the water on your head because it will shock the body, instead go slowly start from the waist and then up to the shoulder and the last is the head. Now, below are the top amazing health benefits of ice bath which you can gain.
15 Amazing Health Benefits of Ice Bath
Here are some of the health benefits of ice bath with cold water which very recommended to be done:
1. It Helps to Reduce Inflammation and Damage
If you want to know the reason of why doctors or experts always recommend an ice pack quickly after some injury such as when your ankle get sprained then it’s because soaking or touch your body with cold ice will suppress the ability to blend into the cold water and to the muscle cells thus reduced the inflammation. When the injury also damages the tissue it will be more severe because it can cause not only inflammation, but also swelling. The cold temperature can help to decrease pain dampen nerve impulses, as well as reduce markers from the muscle damage.
2. Reducing Tiredness and Help to Keep Performance
There are some studies conducted in 2006 that focuses on research of how to reduce sore muscles with cold ice bath while also stabilizing performance after some intense exercise. One of the results showing that soaking your body in cold ice will help to remove inflammation in our body especially muscles thanks to the water pressure and not just because the water temperature. Soak your body will enhance heart function efficiency so it can carry more blood in every heart beat.
3. It Helps to Cool Your Mind
Soak your body in cold water like an ice bath will give cool your head after those hard activities in hot cities. The health benefits of ice bath for body will help to boost body metabolism and then manage the levels of uric acid in our body. If you want to remove or reduce fatigue after working hard all day then you can start an ice bath or cold shower.
4. It Helps to Burn Body Fat
If you are in the middle of doing weight loss diet since you want to remove some fats then there is nothing wrong burn your body by conducting some ice bath in addition of regular exercises. When your body touches the cold water, it will automatically produce heat in order to fight against the cold temperature which in the end leads to burn the fats and carbohydrates immediately to make the body warmer.
5. Improving Blood Circulatory Works and Process
The health benefits of ice bath can help to improve blood circulatory works and process. When your body touches the cold water, it will get surprised and it results in slow blood circulation. But in the same time, our body mechanism will increase blood circulation speed thus the circulation will work harder with an extra boost and it becomes more effective and fluent or smooth especially when removing toxins or other harmful substances in our body.
6. It Helps to Prevent Muscle Soreness
When you finished with your regular exercise usually your muscle will feel sore and to prevent it happen you can do ice bath. The health benefits of ice baths in this case called cryotherapy and it has been studied by some team of researchers from Northern Ireland. The result of their study is that soaking your body in an ice bath after exercise can help to reduce muscle inflammation that can lead to swelling, pain, and stiffness. In conclusion, it’s proven that an ice bath can reduce muscle pain or soreness.
7. Help to Get Healthier Hair
When the hair get soaked in cold water, the hair cuticle will closed and it makes your hair does not fall easily when you wash your hair. In addition, combine some massage to the head with cold water will make blood circulation in the scalp smoother and so it will be beneficial to the hair by nourishing it.
8. Increase Fertility in Men
If you trying to become a father then you can try to soak your body with cold water because the health benefits of ice bath for men can increase fertility or men’s vitality. Men’s testes does not mean to get to how and that’s why it hangs outside. Sperm counts in men will decreased when the testes temperature also increase. There are some studies that proven men who soak their body in cold water have an increased sperm count which in the end increase the fertility in men.
9. Makes Your Skin Healthier
Hot water can make the skin drier and that’s why if you want to make your skin healthier as well as when you want to prevent ashy elbows and irritating itch then you need to lower the temperature of your water shower or bath. Skin pores will closed when you soak it with cold water and thus makes it healthier.
10. It Enhances Immune System
According to some research conducted in 1993 by some individual, soaking your body regularly in cold water can increase the amount of white blood cells that figth against viruses compared to those who like to take daily hot bath or shower. It is believed that the increase in body metabolism which tried to make the body warmer can activate the immune system while producing more white blood cells in the process. This is such great health benefits of ice bath or cold water for our body immune system.
11. Boosting Our Morale
Taking ice bath or cold shower right in the morning after wake up will help to stimulate body nerves which gone limp due to the rest overnight. As the positive results, your mind will be fresher, your eyes will be wide open, and in the end it can makes you more ready to do your activities.
12. Will Makes Your Face More Sparkling and Sunshine
When you wash your face with cold water it will give some benefit to the skin pores unlike when you wash it with warm water. Wash your face with cold water will not release natural face oils that benefit to moist your face and thus wash the skin face using cold water or cold shower can make your face free from wrinkles and it prevent your face looks dull. That’s amazing health benefits of ice bath for beauty.
13. It Helps to Relief Depression
There are lots of great men in history suffered from depression, however, according to some studies conducted by a research department in Virginia, a short shower with cold or ice water can stimulate the brain’s noradrenaline which is a chemical that help to reduce depression so it’s not bad after all try to take ice bath or cold shower in awhile.
14. It Boosting Energy
The health benefits of ice bath will turns you into more badass. The cold water therapy can help to overcome both mental and physical weaknesses. If you ever tried ice bath then you must know how it works and usually it takes serious focus when conduct it and it will help you to built will power and in the end boosting your energy so you can ready to go to the gym or work. It will also help you to get more focus in daily activities.
15. Increase Testosterone
Some research which done by Thrombosis Research Institute showing that men who take ice bath or cold water shower experienced some production increase in their testosterone. If your testosterone production is increased, it will not only boosting your libido but also overall energy level and strength and so if you looking for a way to increase your testosterone then you can start to take cold water shower or soaking yourself in ice bath. It is nice and great natural health benefits of ice bath.
Those are several health benefits of ice bath which you can experience with regular ice bath or cold water shower. You can start off with cold water shower first if you are never taking or experience ice bath and when your body is ready for it you can soak yourself in ice bath. It might be shocking at first but after awhile, you will be okay and adapted.