As everybody knows, after coming into existence in this world one has to perform lots of things in order to survive in this universe. One among the several is taking bath on our body to keep our body clean and remain healthy. Now the question is to decide which water is best to take bath in spite of having many individual benefits of hot and cold water depending upon your body type. As per Ayurveda, hot water should be used for cleaning the body and cold water for the head as hot water is harmful for the eyes and hair.
It also depends upon the temperature of one’s body.A person with excessive heat in the body should bathe with water at temperatures lower than their bodies and vice versa.
Also, hot or cold water bathing can be therapeutic with different types being used for treating patients with various diseases. Patients with liver disease, indigestion etc, should bathe with cold water whereas, patients suffering from diseases such as respiratory disorders, cold, cough, joint pain, arthritis etc should opt for hot water.
Here are benefits of both hot and cold water baths for you to decide better:
Benefits of a hot water bath:
1. Hot water baths are excellent to cleanse your body as the warmer temperatures tend to kill all the germs that you are exposed to throughout the day. It is also helpful in maintaining better personal hygiene.
2. They are extremely beneficial to relieve cold and cough as the hot water and steam tends to clear your airways and help in decongesting your nose and throats.
3. They are also known to beat insomnia and sleep disorders and are excellent to induce sleep.
4. Hot water baths are also known to relieve stress and fatigue and also help relax sore muscles. It has also been shown to improve the flexibility of muscles giving you a supple body.
5 Studies have also shown that hot water showers reduce sugar levels in the body making them
Ideal for diabetics. This study showed that sugar levels of diabetics who immersed
themselves in hot water tubs for 20 – 30 minutes for three weeks had reduced by 13 %.
Benefits of a cold water bath:
1. Cold water showers give you a push start in the morning. They tend to stimulate your nerve endings and help getting rid of the laziness and sleepiness.
2. They help you treat 2. depression. Cold water baths have shown to increase the release of depression-beating chemicals like nor-adrenaline and beta-endorphins making you feel fresh.
3. Helps improve reproductive health in men. Studies have shown that cold water showers stimulate the release of testosterone which helps in increasing your libido.
4. Cold water baths have shown to stimulate the lymphatic and immune system, which helps in boosting the production of infection fighting cells thereby increasing your immunity.
5. Your lung function improves tremendously with cold water showers. That feeling of breathlessness you get when you pour cold water over your head is the reason behind this property of cold water. You tend to hold your breath with each mug of water and slowly release your breath, thus improving your lung function.
How to bathe healthy?
Ayurveda says, a hurried bath is like hurried food, the body does not reap all the benefits of a good cleanse if you rush bathing. A good bathing experience helps you gain freshness and improves.
To experience a complete bath, you should take the process slowly, exposing each body part to water progressively. The hands and feet should be washed first and if it is cold water bath, the approach should be from the head to the toe and if it is a hot water bath, you should begin with washing your toes first and then progress towards your head.
Ideally, soaps available in the market should be avoided and organic products must be used, as the skin absorbs all the chemicals when it is exposed to soaps and detergents. It is also recommended that a good oil massage with mustard, sesame or olive oil before or after bathing, has tremendous health benefits as it improves your skin textures and revitalizes your muscles and nervous system. Bathing for too long should be avoided while bathing only twice a day is enough for better hygiene.
Surprising Benefits of Cold Showers
Many people probably see cold showers as dreadful things that you have never put yourself through of your own free will, rather they were forced on you by circumstances beyond your control. The jerks in your dorm or apartment used up all the hot water or some inconsiderate person may have flushed the toilet before you were finished bathing.
Ticked off and uncomfortable, you become irate at these people for making you have to endure this terrible thing. But you must thank them instead, for doing a solid favor for your health and waistline by making your shower go from hot to cold.
There is nothing special about hot showers:
Before we get into the actual benefits of cold showers, let us establish the simple fact that hot showers are a luxury and not a necessity. Throughout most of human history, people had to bathe in whatever water was available to them. If you have ever swum in a lake, you can probably remember that said water often happened to be cold. The Greeks invented heating systems for public baths in the 1st century BC but interestingly enough many Greeks chose to continue bathing in cold water due to the health benefits.
Cold Showers burn fat:
There are two kinds of fat in our body-White fat and Brown Fat. White fat is the bad guy and brown fat is the good guy. White fat is the body fat we all know and struggle to get rid of. When we consume more calories than our body needs to function and we don’t burn those calories for energy, they are stored as white fat, which tends to accumulate at your waist, lower back, neck and thighs. Brown fat is the good guy you might have never even heard of and its function is to generate heat to keep your body warm.
When brown fat is activated due to extreme cold, it burns calories to keep you warm, which could provide a helpful assist in your body weight loss plan. According to Scandinavian researchers exposure to cold temperatures increased the metabolic rate of brown fat by fifteen fold, which could help a person drop nine pounds in a year if sustained.
Cold Showers boost recovery after exercise:
As may be the fact athletes often take ice baths after vigorous training do reduce soreness. We don’t have to take it that far but we can obtain a similar benefit with a quick cold shower after our training sessions. May be dropping a pencil or walking upstairs won’t be quite so agonizing with a little dose of cold after all of that grilled running.
Cold Showers increase mood and alertness:
Everybody feel a bit of groggy, when we take that first step out of bed. This is something everyone struggle with but if you would like to put some pep in your step, first thing in the morning, take a cold shower before we go to work. When cold water pours over our body, our breathing deepens in response to the shock of the cold and thus our body trying to keep us warm by increasing overall oxygen intake. Our heart rate will also increase resulting in a rush of blood through our body that will help us get energized for the day.
Cold Showers Strengthen immunity and circulation:
Cold Showers speed up our metabolic rate, which helps us to lose fat. The increase of this rate activates our immune system, which releases virus-fighting white blood cells that will help you get sick less frequently. Cold showers also increase our overall blood circulation, which can help you to avoid hypertension and the hardening of arteries.
Cold Showers give you attractive hair and Skin:-
Cold showers could do better job to reduce the appearance of acne. Hot water dries out your skin where as cold water tightens your cuticles and pores preventing them from getting clogged. You can also use cold showers for better shining and more attractive hair. Cold water will close your cuticle making it less likely dirt can accumulate in your scalp besides being improve your skin appearance.
Put it in Practice:-
James Bond, a tough guy extraordinaire started with hot water but turned the temperature down to freezing cold for the very end of his bathing routine. His was an unique take on showers.
If you would like to take an advantage of the surprising benefits of cold showers better you would emulate Bond’s bathing routine.”Hot-to- cold shower is often referred to as a “Scottish Shower”. You could also take an alternating shower by simply switching your water temperature from hot to cold every 10-20 seconds. When you are feeling brave and have the mental toughness you need to survive the shivering, try a full blast cold shower.
Shekar Moily
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