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Cold temperatures have been utilized for centuries for therapeutic purposes—although cold plunges used to be solely in frigid lakes or bodies of water, not thousand-dollar at-home setups.
Now an increasingly popular trend in the wellness world, cold therapy has been researched for its many potential health benefits, ranging from pain relief and mental alertness to longevity and metabolic health.
But when it comes to cold therapy, which is better—cold showers or cold plunges? In this article, we’ll explore the differences between the two, plus the main benefits that cold therapy offers.
There are many forms of cold therapy, ranging from a simple ice pack to an intense cryotherapy chamber. Cold showers, cold plunges, and ice baths all involve immersing the body (or parts of the body) in cold water, typically at temperatures of 45°F to 60°F.
Conversely, cryotherapy chambers are much colder and more involved, with specialized chambers exposing you to extremely cold temperatures (as low as -150°F to -240°F) for just a few minutes. In this article, we’ll focus more on cold showers and cold plunges, not cryotherapy.
If you’ve ever used an ice pack on an injury or aching muscles, you understand the benefits of cold therapy for pain relief or muscle recovery.
Cold showers or cold plunges can help to reduce post-exercise soreness, no matter if you’re an elite athlete or a newbie gym-goer.
As anyone who has worked out hard can attest, delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS) is a common symptom of aching muscles. DOMS is a typical result of microtears after exercise and cold water may help speed up recovery. It helps with recovery by preventing an excessive breakdown of muscle tissue and helping to repair those torn muscle fibers.
Cold therapy can also help with pain relief by lessening muscle inflammation, constricting blood vessels, improving blood circulation, and reducing swelling.
Some research has indicated that cold therapy can benefit immune system health. Cold water can stimulate the circulatory system, reduce pro-inflammatory markers, and boost blood flow, which is associated with white blood cell production.
One older study found that athletic young men who underwent six weeks of cold water therapy (one hour at a time, three times per week) had improvements in immune cell activity, including increased T cells, B cells, and monocytes.
Cold water may help with blood glucose regulation, insulin sensitivity, and metabolic health, which are all linked with type 2 diabetes and heart conditions when dysregulated.
It’s thought that when our muscles shiver, they uptake glucose in greater amounts, reducing blood glucose.
Cold water may also boost adiponectin levels—a protein produced by adipose tissue that’s needed for blood glucose regulation. One very small study found that six men who were exposed to cold for 120 minutes had a 70% increase in adiponectin levels. In animal research, cold exposure has been found to reduce high triglycerides and unhealthy cholesterol levels and suppress the formation of atherosclerotic plaque.
Brown fat is our most beneficial type of fat, as it contains energy-producing mitochondria that essentially burn up fat droplets to create energy.
These thermogenic properties mean that more brown fat can increase your energy expenditure—how many calories you burn in a day.
The amount of extra calories that you burn from more brown fat can vary widely from person to person, but some research has suggested that brown adipose tissue can burn an additional 100 calories per day.
Cold water is one of the best-known ways to activate brown adipose tissue. It can also prompt the transformation of white fat (the unhealthy kind) into brown fat. Cold temperatures activate the fat cells to expend energy—a process known as cold-induced thermogenesis (CIT).
Although you physically shiver when in the cold, brown fat also uses non-shivering thermogenesis to generate heat. This is the same process that animals and infants use when they are cold, as they cannot shiver to get warm and raise their body temperature.
Non-shivering thermogenesis allows for the mitochondria-rich brown adipocytes to oxidize their own fat, producing heat and increasing metabolic rate and energy expenditure.
Although mostly anecdotal, many people report bursts in energy, focus, or mental alertness following a cold plunge or cold shower.
It’s possible that the link here is that cold temperatures activate the sympathetic nervous system, boosting the production of endorphins and norepinephrine—a neurotransmitter that’s part of the “fight-or-flight” response, regulating mental arousal, attention, and cognitive function.
Cold showers or plunges also increase mental resilience. As most people do not feel comfortable in cold water, training your mental muscles to adapt to discomfort can help you better handle challenging situations in the future.
Can cold showers help you live longer? Research with animals suggests they can! In studies with rodents, flies, and worms, cold exposure increases lifespan and supports healthy aging.
Other research with a type of short-lived fish found that lowering their water temperature from 77°F to 71°F increased their maximum lifespan and prevented age-related learning and motor deficits.
Researchers think that cold exposure may lengthen lifespan because cold is a hormetic stressor—something that slightly harms the body in the short term to produce beneficial adaptive responses in the long term. Exercise is another example of a hormetic stressor.
Okay, so now that we know the benefits, which form of cold therapy is better? Will a quick 10-minute cold shower suffice, or do you need to cold plunge for an hour?
Although they both involve cold water, cold plunges are typically much colder than a shower will allow—especially if you are plunging into an icy cold body of water.
Cold showers also do not allow you to be immersed in cold water the entire time—unless you have a fancy shower with four shower heads, you’ll have to move around to get your body covered with cold water continuously. Plus, cold showers don’t always stay cold, especially if it’s summertime or you live in a warm climate.
That said, cold showers are much more accessible than cold plunges—you can do it right now if you want!
Cold showers likely will help to boost your mood and alertness, help with muscle recovery, and possibly stimulate some brown fat production, but most of the research mentioned here looked at studies with one to two hours per day of cold exposure.
Even if you were to take a (super expensive) two-hour shower, the water would likely not remain cold enough to get all of the longevity, metabolic, and immune benefits.
Overall, cold showers can provide you with some of the benefits of cold therapy, but cold plunges will be more intense, can immerse you entirely, and maintain a stable cold temperature.
The bottom line? Use cold showers if you don’t have the access or means to cold plunge, but cold plunges will give you more health benefits.
Despite the potential benefits of cold therapy, there are some significant downsides and precautions to consider, which mostly pertain to cold plunges in lakes or other cold bodies of water (it’d be pretty hard to get frostbite from a cold shower!).
If you have a heart condition, ask your doctor or healthcare provider before using cold therapy of any kind.
Taking cold showers for 30 days may help with mental alertness, mood, energy, and reductions in muscle soreness or aches. You may also have an improved appearance of your skin and hair, as cold water is less drying than hot water, can lessen the appearance of pores, and improves blood circulation. You will likely also have better mental resilience, including a better ability to handle challenging situations in the future.
Cold showers (and all cold therapy) can increase the risk of cardiovascular events, especially if the water is very cold. You may also get sick if you don’t warm your body back up, especially if it’s also cold outside. People with compromised immune systems or people who are already sick will want to avoid cold showers.
You may feel sick after doing a cold plunge if you don’t warm your body back up in sufficient time. This is called the “afterdrop phenomenon,” in which your core body temperature continues to drop after you get out of the cold water. This can cause symptoms like nausea and dizziness. To avoid this, warm up sufficiently after doing a cold plunge—but not too fast! For example, you won’t want to hop in a hot tub right after a cold plunge, which could raise your body temperature too fast. Rather, remove all wet layers, get dressed in dry clothes (including your feet), move around gently, or get in a warm car or room. Warming up with a gentle exercise before a cold plunge can also reduce these symptoms.
People with heart conditions (including heart disease, pacemakers, and high blood pressure), diabetes, poor circulation, and Raynaud’s syndrome should avoid cold plunge or talk with their doctor first. There is not much research on pregnant women or children, so these populations should also avoid cold plunges. If you’re sick at the moment, skip the polar plunge.
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