What are the benefits of taking a cold bath?
Usually, we are used to taking a bath with warm water. If the weather is too cold or too hot, we will feel uncomfortable. But if you are healthy, you can actually try taking a cold bath, that is, taking a bath with cold water between 5℃ and 20℃ is good for your health.
Prevent colds and enhance physical fitness: bathing in cold water for a long time can exercise all parts of the body. The body's ability to keep out the cold has been greatly improved, and the physique has also been greatly enhanced, which can effectively prevent the invasion of colds.
Prevention and treatment of respiratory diseases: when taking a cold shower, we will find that when cold water touches the skin, we will unconsciously take a deep breath, then pause for a few minutes and then take a deep breath. In fact, you can inhale more oxygen and exhale more carbon dioxide, which has a good effect on preventing respiratory diseases.
Enhance cardiovascular function: when taking a cold bath, cold water stimulates the skin, causing the subcutaneous capillaries to contract rapidly, making the blood flow to the heart and the heartbeat accelerate, thus increasing the whole body blood flow. With the passage of time, the function of the heart has been effectively enhanced. At the same time, under the stimulation of cold water, the systolic and diastolic functions of blood vessels in the whole body are effectively improved.
Improve digestive function: because the blood circulation in abdominal cavity is strengthened and the intestinal peristalsis is accelerated when taking a cold bath, the digestion and absorption ability can be effectively improved. Thereby being beneficial to the digestion and absorption of food and unobstructed defecation, and having a certain therapeutic effect on dyspepsia and constipation.
Lose weight and burn fat: Scandinavian researchers found that low temperature can accelerate fat metabolism in the body 15 times. If you insist on taking a bath with cold water for a long time, you can have a good slimming effect within one year.
Improve your mood: Taking a cold bath every morning will help boost your spirits. When cold water touches the body, breathing will be aggravated to cope with the sudden cold, which means that the body is increasing the overall oxygen intake to improve alertness. At the same time, under the stimulation of cold water, all organs of the body are completely awake from sleep and refreshed.
Improve the nervous system: when cold water stimulates the human body, the brain is in a state of high excitement and the whole body nerves are in a state of war. After the cold water bath stopped, the nervous system returned to a relaxed state, and this repeated exercise effectively improved the function of the nervous system.
Promote the recovery of physical function after exercise: Athletes always take an ice bath after high-intensity training to relieve physical pain. You don't need to take a bath with ice water, but a quick cold shower after physical exercise can have a similar effect. Maybe it will be less painful to take a cold bath after running and then pick up a pencil or go upstairs.
Harm of cold water bath and its preventive measures
To put it simply, taking a cold bath has three advantages. First, it increases the adaptability of human body to temperature, especially to cold air, and it is not easy to catch a cold. Secondly, it is a good exercise for human blood vessels. When taking a cold bath, the blood vessels contract rapidly, and a large amount of blood flows to the inside of the body and then to the body surface, and the blood vessels expand and contract. In the long run, cardiovascular diseases can be prevented. Third, it can exercise people's will. Bathing in summer is enjoyable, and bathing in winter requires perseverance. Harming different personal constitutions will lead to different diseases. During the cold and illness, taking a cold bath is not conducive to the discharge of heat and toxins in the body.
Matters needing attention
Take a bath every day in summer. Many people take a cold bath to save trouble, and some people take a cold bath to keep fit. Cold water bath has many functions. For skin, it can make blood vessels contract first and then expand, improve blood circulation efficiency, enhance skin nutrition, make subcutaneous tissue accumulate certain fat, and make skin look young and elastic, and it is not easy to suffer from skin diseases. Cold water bath can exercise skin temperature receptors and eliminate abnormal sweating. For the whole body, cold water bath can improve the body's rapid adaptability to cold, and it is not easy to suffer from cold-induced diseases such as cold, bronchitis, tonsillitis, pneumonia and allergic rhinitis. Cold water bath promotes blood circulation between skin and viscera. The expansion and contraction of blood vessels exercise the elasticity of blood vessels, which can prevent arteriosclerosis and its diseases, such as coronary heart disease and hypertension. Cold water bath increases the blood flow of visceral blood vessels, including digestive tract blood vessels, thus strengthening the function of digestive system.
merits and demerits
1. When taking a cold bath, the human body will feel cold because of the low water temperature, which will produce a series of stress reactions, such as rapid heartbeat, high blood pressure, muscle contraction and nervous tension. It can not only eliminate fatigue, but also easily cause colds and should be avoided as much as possible. For those friends who are in poor health, they should not bathe in cold water, otherwise their resistance will be poor, and diseases such as colds and fever will be caused by cold stimulation.
In some areas, the climate changes greatly, which makes the flu advance. It is unwise for some friends to take a cold bath as soon as possible. But you can insist on washing your face with cold water for a long time, promote blood circulation, prevent colds and rhinitis, and make your skin more shiny and elastic.
For winter swimmers who insist on exercising all the year round, there needs to be a process of learning and adapting, which needs to be persisted all the year round. However, the cold water bath movement must be gradual: in autumn, the temperature gradually decreases, and the human body gradually adapts to the cold cold water, so that in late autumn and winter, the cold water bath will not feel too cold. The "step by step" of cold water bath should also include "from local to whole body", "from high to low" of water temperature and "from short to long" of bathing time.
There is no contradiction between winter and taking a cold bath, because taking a cold bath is under the control of people. Under the conditions that people can tolerate, it can stimulate people's adaptability to cold weather to the greatest extent and enhance their physique. This is just like we usually say that we should be less exposed to germs, but under controllable conditions, artificially treated germs can be imported into people's bodies to obtain the maximum immune effect. The reason is the same, moderation is very important, otherwise you will suffer! !
Taking a cold bath has many benefits for strengthening physique, improving health level and preventing and treating diseases. Long-term continuous cold bath exercise will not only increase the elasticity of blood vessels, but also prevent arteriosclerosis, colds, bronchitis, tonsillitis, pneumonia and so on.
Unsuitable crowd
Hypertensive patients: When the skin comes into contact with cold water, the blood vessels contract sharply, and a large amount of blood rushes back to the internal organs, making the already high blood pressure higher. In severe cases, it can cause cerebrovascular rupture, bleeding, stroke, coma and even death. People with slightly elevated blood pressure can take a cold bath, but only slowly, that is, sprinkle some cold water first and rub some parts of the body instead of "cold treatment" at once.
Patients with sciatica and arthritis: After the nerves catch cold, the condition will be more serious.
People who are allergic to cold, such as patients with cold urticaria and itching, should not take a cold bath during the onset. If you want to exercise your skin when you don't have an attack, it is feasible to gradually cool down, that is, take a hot bath at first, gradually switch to a warm bath, and then gradually lower the water temperature until the water temperature is quite low but you don't get sick.