A Cold Shower A Day Keeps The Doctor Away?

This is Dutch extreme athlete Wim Hof, also known as “The Iceman”! He’s broken many world records mostly relating to the enduring the cold, for example:

• climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts
• running a half-marathon above the Arctic Circle barefoot
• standing in a container completely covered with ice cubes for more than 112 minutes

You might not want to do yoga in your pyjamas on an iceberg, but you might like…

• better circulatory health
• reduced risk of stroke
• a boosted immune system
• healthier skin
• more energy and alertness

…and things like that. Wim Hof’s method is not just about extreme athletic achievements; most of what he does, the stuff that can benefit the rest of us, is much more prosaic.

The Wim Hof Method

For Wim Hof, three things are key:

• Breathing (See: Wim Hof Method Breathing Exercises)
• Commitment (See: How to Increase Willpower)
• Cold therapy (See: Benefits of Cold Therapy)

Today, we’re going to be focusing on the last one there.

What are the benefits of Cold Therapy?

Once upon a time, we didn’t have central heating, electric blankets, thermal underwear, and hot showers. In fact, once upon a time, we didn’t have houses or clothes. We used to be a lot more used to the elements! And while it’s all well and good to enjoy modern comforts, it has left our bodies lacking practice.

Practice at what? Most notably: vasodilation and vasoconstriction, in response to temperature changes. Either:

• vasodilation, because part of our body needs more blood to keep it warm and nourished, or
• vasoconstriction, because part of our body needs less blood running through it to get cooled down.

Switching between the two gives the blood vessels practice at doing it, and improves vascular muscle tone. If your body doesn’t get that practice, your blood vessels will be sluggish at making the change. This can cause circulation problems, which in turn have a big impact in many other areas of health, including:

• cardiovascular disease
• stroke risk
• mood instability
• nerve damage in extremities

On the flipside, if the blood vessels do get regular practice at dilating and constricting, you might enjoy lower risk of those things, and instead:

• improved immune response
• healthier skin
• better quality sleep
• more energy and alertness
• improved sexual performance/responsiveness

So, how to get that, without getting extreme?

As today’s title suggests, “a cold shower a day” is a great practice.

You don’t have to jump straight in, especially if you think your circulation and vascular responses might be a bit sluggish in the first instance. In fact, Wim Hof recommends:

• Week 1: Thirty seconds of cold water at the end of a warm shower each morning
• Week 2: One minute of cold water at the end of a warm shower each morning
• Week 3: A minute and a half of cold water at the end of a warm shower each morning
• Week 4: Two minutes of cold water at the end of a warm shower each morning

How cold is cold?

The benefits of cold exposure begin at around 16ºC / 60ºF, so in most places, water from the cold water mains is sufficiently cold.

As your body becomes more used to making the quick-change on a vascular level, the cold water will seem less shocking to your system. In other words, on day 30 it won’t hit you like it did on day one.

At that point, you can either continue with your two-minutes daily cold shower, and reap the benefits, or if you’re curious to push it further, that’s where ice baths come in!

Can anyone do it, or are any conditions contraindicated?

As ever, we’re a health and productivity newsletter, not doctors, let alone your doctors. Nothing here is medical advice. However, Wim Hof himself says:

❝Listen to your body, and never force the practices. We advise against doing Wim Hof Method if you are dealing with any of the following:

• Epilepsy
• High blood pressure
• Coronary heart disease
• A history of serious healthy issues like heart failure or stroke
• Pregnancy*
• Childhood*❞

*There is simply not enough science regarding the effects of cold exposure on people who are pregnant, or children. Obviously, we don’t expect this to be remedied anytime soon, because the study insitutions’ ethics boards would (rightly!) hold up the study.

As for the other conditions, and just generally if unsure, consult a doctor.

As you can see, this does mean that a limitation of Cold Therapy is that it appears to be far better as a preventative, since it helps guard against the very conditions that could otherwise become contraindications.

We haven’t peppered today’s main feature with study papers, partly because Wim Hof’s own website has kindly collated a collection of them (with links and summaries!) onto one page:

Further reading: The Science Behind The Wim Hof Method