Are there benefits to cold water bathing and washing?



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/30/2010 12:28PM by loeve.

Uh, stimulates the lymphatic system? That's why Nordic people are considered hale? I was told this by a Finnish-American high school friend of my brother, so . . . .

Saves on heating costs? And water probably, who would want to stay in there for very long?
You can shower in the rain or a water fall or bathe in the lake?

I can't think of anything else except BBRRR!!!

I've noticed cold water bathing trains the body to accept it though I'm only good for a brief cold shower or in-and-out plunge. I'll bet this couple are good for about 60 seconds in this pose before heading for the blankets? The sun and air might be warm enough but the ice is a killer on bare hands and feet. The health effects of brief cold water bathing and the water and energy savings sound good though, thanks! The water heater is shut off only to be fired back up for company.. for now at least.

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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2010 12:09PM by loeve.

I usually finish my showers with cold then hot then cold then warm water, and I do find it invigorating. Now that I give it more thought, I am pretty sure someone told me when I was a kid, and I think it was a relative who was describing life in wartime, that always bathing the torso(not just the face, say) in cold water can suppress the immune system and cause cardiac problems. Jumping into cold water is shocking, now that I recall. You may want to look up some studies, loeve : )

Ok, thanks. I tend to think of more immediate dangers like the ice shelf breaking up and getting washed away by the current. Messing up the immune system and heart problems sound like real concernns.

I heard the expression "navy shower" in a movie, during the war hot water in short supply in certain situations. Now I get it and can see how humans could have kept themselves clean through the ages even without hot running water.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/01/2010 02:37PM by loeve.

I think people spent a lot of time dirty. Maybe they splashed at themselves with cold water but sure they didn't soak in it!
My way to save bathing water is to just not bathe so much. I don't think it's great for the skin and i Know it's crap for my hair to wash too often. Maybe every 3 or 4 days with washcloth application between. We go to swimming lessons every week where we are bathed in bleach (blech!). We sleep in clean pj's in a clean bed and wear clean clothes every day, wash our faces and hands (and in my case feet) every day (ok, I rinse some other areas too but I always have). We personally eat very well and don't sweat in a stinky manner. And most people don't work in the fields but in clean homes and businesses. I am of the opinion that daily showering is excessive and wasteful and totaly unneccessary, it's one of those weird cultural things like feminine hygeine spray and scented toilet paper.
But when I do bathe, I want it to be warm!

It's about balance for these Japanese macaques. Hopefully they get warm enough in the hot springs to offset the frost on their brow and the chill of stepping out into the winter weather to find food. Ha, they must play and run around while they are drying off.


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loeve,

Yesterday, I was watching that "Life" series on Discovery, but just the small segment on these macaques. They have a strict hierarchy, in which the alpha females and males and their offspring get to go in the hot springs, but their inferiors cannot. I thought, boy, even the lower primates are getting dumb--eventually, those hot spring monkeys will have to get out into the cold air for food or defecating and they'll freeze their bodangies off because they're wet, whereas the poor outlier monkeys left shivering in the cold air aren't wet so they're OK regardless of the weather. My money's on the outlier monkeys producing more resilient offspring who'll eventually bloody coup those soaker monkeys out of the spring and take over. Maybe it already happened, and the soaker monkeys have forgotten how they got into the hot spring in the first place . . .

It's quite an adaptation these macaques are going through deserving of teams of scientists to study the return of primates to the water, which offspring thrive and the balance of power over the years. I read that while the hot springs have been used by humans for many years the macaque hot bathing pond is newly constructed for them to relieve the problem of them sneaking into the resort/temple hot springs.

This Russian free-diver, Julia Petric, amazes me. Even with a wetsuit
benieth the ice in the arctic it's still cold! and whales have been known
to play rough.

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My brother and I were recalling the painful sensation of very cold water on the skull, both of us good for one quick plunge, if that, a second time under punishing. I read there's a primitive dive reflex when the face meets cold water which causes the blood to gravitate towards the heart, lungs and brain, but am still not sure what causes the aching sensation around the forehead and skull?

These Finnish swimmers seem acclimated well enough.. I'm relating to those with footware and skull caps, ha, someone said a brightly colored skull cap helps to find the body --


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