30-day Cold Shower Challenge / Cold Shower Therapy

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Has anyone tried to take a cold shower for five minutes? If so, have you done it for 30 days?

I was reading up on this stuff earlier... and well, there may have been discussion on health advantages...

Discuss away.
(Also, this is good timing, because Halloween.... well, dead bodies are cold, and cold showers are cold.  Although, that's beside the point.)

[Luna_blade]

Has anyone tried to take a cold shower for five minutes? If so, have you done it for 30 days?

Well, I am taking pretty cold showers (32 degrees celcius) for easily more than a year. Sometimes I take a somewhat hotter shower, but it quickly becomes too hot. In other words, I am not used to hot showers anymore.

It's not for wealth, but more as a money saver.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

@"anymore": So I take it you used to have hot showers?

Was it hard for you to switch to cold when you first started?

@wealth: Typo of health, perhaps? Since wealth and money saver are too close to the same.

[Luna_blade]

@"anymore": So I take it you used to have hot showers?

That's correct.

Was it hard for you to switch to cold when you first started?

Yeah. But if you start when it's summer not.

@wealth: Typo of health, perhaps? Since wealth and money saver are too close to the same.

Lol. Indeed a typo.

So Fox, how about you? Do you take cold showers?

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Yeah. But if you start when it's summer not.

Makes sense.

So Fox, how about you? Do you take cold showers?

No, but the future is undecided.  Saw something on reddit about Cold Showers (Well, it wasn't exactly /about/ Cold Showers, but it had a mention.), and then somehow, I ended up looking into that thing... and there was even a video..

Funny thing is, I wouldn't had looked at reddit if it wasn't for me getting on FB, and seeing an unrelated post about something on Reddit which I might not bring up.  I looked, but didn't quite find what I wanted to.... But this FB thing, yeah, sounds horrible, I know.

The way that guy advertises it... makes it sound like a mission.

[Luna_blade]

The guy is pretty inspiring. You know, you could post the video in this topic: http://forum.goldensunhacking.net/index.php?topic=271.525

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Yes, I could.... But if I had done that instead, people would be more likely to miss it, and the question this topic asks would have fewer answers.

[Luna_blade]

I know. It's just quite a video.

[Lord Wolfram]

even so....
This isn't video only for fun  right?
Fox did right thing to make it this way so we are discussing this Cold Shower Therapy.
Well once I tried this therapy but suddenly went ill and so I discovered that my health is weak.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Thanks.

It's all about progression... I assume it's 30-days because that's habit building... (If you want, you could start your New Years resolution to do 12 things for ~30 days, one thing for each month.... like some guy did of which I saw on some site.)

Hm... an illness? That sounds interesting, could you perhaps elaborate? (Ex: Did you use freezing cold water, or just somewhat cold? And was it a five minute shower, more or less?)

[Misery]

I once tried telling myself that the coldness was mostly a psychological thing, and that I could stand to take some colder showers...
Tried entering straight away and not turning up the heat... however, after a few moments I turned purple and started shaking uncontrollably.
I concluded it was more than just psychological.
These days I only take warm showers ^_^

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

My guess is that it could be that your body hasn't adapted to it yet, it might be possible for you to adapt to it, though. (Or at least, get closer, anyway, I'm not sure if it can be fully done or not)

Most challenging things likely require practice to succeed.
If you're running the race, you might as well start running before hand, so that you can run farther.
If you need to lift something heavy, start lifting weights before hand, so you gain muscles.

But with temperature, your body would likely have to build resistance or something, I'm guessing.
-For example, you can get san tans / sun burns if you want... Maybe if you have plenty of sun tans over the years, your resistance to sun damage might go up? (I'm guessing, though.) ; I would recommend the sun tan over a sun burn.... Sun burns are horrible... (Read that it was inflammation, as well.). Might be worth keeping this in mind with the cold as well? Well, snow can give you frost bite, anyway.

[Misery]

Yeah, you're probably right. I have pretty poor tolerance for extreme temperatures in general, and it might not be such a bad idea to do something about that.

Not that I will. :3

[Rolina]

Tried this... to my irritation, the coldest my shower goes is lukewarm. =_=

[Atrius (He/Him)]

Tried entering straight away and not turning up the heat... however, after a few moments I turned purple and started shaking uncontrollably.

Sounds like a great way to get hypothermia.  As much as people say there are health benefits to giving yourself hypothermia for five minutes every day, I'd like to wait until an official scientific study has been done on it.  Also my shower doesn't work right now, so I'd be immersing myself in an icy bath.


EDIT:
*Actually reads the website, and realizes it's about challenging yourself rather than any potential benefits*
Oh, well in that case, it's on.  I don't think the showers at the gym on base are physically capable of anything below boiling magma° half the time so it'll probably just be at home.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

But how long does it actually take to get serious hypothermia? I thought about that, but then well.. it's a quick shower, not a bath (unless you want it to be)... so you could easily just move out the way if you needed to. I think I also read some stuff about people feeling good when they get out, but, hmm... I didn't keep up with the quotes, so can't say verbatim.

The page you linked to says:

Is this medically safe?

People can survive hypothermia for thirty to sixty minutes. Your shower is not as cold as a frozen lake and you won't even get close to hypothermia. You can handle five minutes of being cold. If you must, have a space heater waiting for you when you get out.

And the health benefits? I think one was about the immune system... But I dunno. (Also, I read something about blood going to the organs instead of the skin surface like when you use hot water. Not sure what to believe about that, because I'm not a scientist...)


And what I'd like to say as being a reasonable strategy for people who want to "go easy":  If it's too cold, go the coldest you are willing to go, even if that's "warm"... and do that everyday until you are satisfied with the coldest your shower goes. (If you ever get there.) ; Who knows, you might barely notice a difference. (Well, I mean, less of a difference than just going straight to cold... but that's me making an assumption.) ; (Think of how when you put a frog in water. If it's hot, it jumps out. If it's not, you can slowly cook him.)

Progressive strategies are usually easier than jumping right in, right? And often smarter, too. Wouldn't want to take a bite more than you can chew.


*Forgets to check if hot/cold can affect aging... I know the sun can make you look older, though. (Like when people get age spots, for example) But at the same time, the sun provides Vitamin D. ;  And we usually stick stuff in the refrigerator so that they last longer... so that must mean cold slows down aging? :P Actually, I'd be dumb to assume that without more evidence.


@Rolina: Wait until winter (Jan?), maybe? Or is it always lukewarm?

[Misery]

Tried this... to my irritation, the coldest my shower goes is lukewarm. =_=

I want this shower.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Well, I guess you have an excuse to move closer to the equator, huh? (Rolina is located in Texas, I believe, so maybe that would be a good place to look for asylum.)

Ofcourse, I only say this jokingly, because lukewarm is just a knob or two away.

[Misery]

It's not like I want lukewarm water specifically, it just would be nice if 60% of the temperature range wasn't occupied by "hypothermia inducing"

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Perhaps. I think it would be better if you could actually set the temperature... much like a thermostat, and ranging between two temperatures. It wouldn't start under 32, because that's like ice.... and that could result in nothing coming out, possibly. (If it's frozen.) ; And there would be a safe maximum, so you don't get "cooked."

[Rolina]

Well, I guess you have an excuse to move closer to the equator, huh? (Rolina is located in Texas, I believe, so maybe that would be a good place to look for asylum.)

Ofcourse, I only say this jokingly, because lukewarm is just a knob or two away.

No, it was cold outside that day.  I have one of those showers with a single knob - the further you turn it, the hotter it gets.  I also live in an apartment complex made from a refurbished hotel, so... the coldest the shower gets is lukewarm sometimes... and other times, that's the hottest it'll get.

[charon the ferryman]

Meanwhile my shower has two settings - freezing cold or skin-meltingly hot. And it seems to pick which one completely randomly.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

Ah. Best thing I can thing of is turn off the hot water heater, but I doubt that'll do much.... oh well.

And yeah, I know some showers have one knob, and some have two. The place I live at has three! (Hot, cold, and whether you're taking a shower or bath.)

The last house I was living in before we moved, might have had one, but I forget... (The knob where you turn left/right for hot or cold, and up for on... well, at least that's how the sink worked, anyway... I forget if the sink/bath were the same or not... but more than likely they were. ; And the shower/bath setting was on the bath spicket itself.)

In the end, one knob is probably best, since it's less cleaning you'd have to do. (Not that it's actually necessary.)

---
And yeah, still convinced cold showers are healthier than hot showers.... (Hot dries skin out, right?) ; But I'm not convinced that maximum cold is the way to go.

[Atrius (He/Him)]

*Forgets to check if hot/cold can affect aging... I know the sun can make you look older, though. (Like when people get age spots, for example) But at the same time, the sun provides Vitamin D. ;  And we usually stick stuff in the refrigerator so that they last longer... so that must mean cold slows down aging? :P Actually, I'd be dumb to assume that without more evidence.

Cold slows down the growth of bacteria that decomposes food, it has nothing to do with aging.



I've been taking cold baths for three days now.  It reminds me of Alaska, and trying to sleep at -30 °F in a snow teepee during Arctic survival training.  Lots of fond memories, I think I'll enjoy doing it for the full 30 days.

[Daddy Poi's Oily Gorillas]

I was thinking of it in a different way.
0 Kelvin cannot be reached. I think it might be where time stops as well? ( Or it could be that nothing is moving as time passes, so no aging could occur because nothing's happening. )
But I guess you assume it's just for bacteria growth.
(And by aging, I mean more of an appearance thing... rather than actually living longer. If it made any difference at all, I doubt it'd be much? One of the Impossible vids that I saw recently did mention something about skin/hair, anyway.)

Either way, when you're in the cold, the body tries to heat itself up (Ex: The shivers)... The extra energy your body uses may also support one reason why I may need to look it up.

And let's not forget that bacteria (good and bad) is everywhere. Could slowing down the bacteria growth on us help something, for example? Where we couldn't possibly get to high enough temperatures without being burned... We are like food, since if you leave a dead body out of the freezers and away from preservatives for a long time, it will begin to rot and smell really bad. - Actually, I feel that this whole paragraph is too silly for me to bring up.

Most of this is me randomly hypothesizing... not even sure what to think.  Hence why this post is a bit messy.

[spoiler]
Edit: References are always good to have: (And you shouldn't just stop with one. I'd recommend at least 5+ reliable sources, and more if the topic is controversial. Even then, you could still have the wrong answer, but at least you have something to go by.)

Looking for sources relating to the question: Does the cold affect aging?

From http://joshmitteldorf.scienceblog.com/2013/02/25/cold-temperature-and-life-span-its-not-about-the-rate-of-living/

When cold-blooded animals are exposed to a cold environment, their metabolisms slow and they live longer. When warm-blooded animals are exposed to a cold environment, their metabolisms speed up (to maintain body temperature) and they live longer. In a new study from University of Michigan, both responses are traced to a common genetic mechanism that senses the temperature and signals a slower rate of aging. This adds to a mountain of evidence that animals life spans are fixed by genetic choice, and not by any kind of passive physical deterioration.

^So you're telling me animals live longer in the cold... Hm...


From https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100320215349AAvidh3 (Not a reliable source, I know.)

Over exposure to cold can actually increase the aging process and result in death.

@OVER-exposure: Well, okay, but what if it's not over-exposure...

From http://normanwinkfield.hubpages.com/hub/How-To-Slow-The-Aging-Process-Down
It seems to recommend not drinking ice cold liquids, because your body needs to use energy to get back up to temp. I'm not sure what to think of that, because the energy being used there could also be like a muscle you are strengthening?  Over-doing it could cause a "wound", if it worked the same way as say running. (There was a time I over-ran once, and ended up soar and found it very hard to walk the next day. Probably from not running in months/years?) ; #10 on this list seems a bit funny. Not in the comical type of way, though.


If only these sources would tackle all angles. :/
[/spoiler]

So, can you find any sources that suggest the cold does not affect aging at all?

I thought of it as one small variable to a huge formula. Perhaps even combined with other variables, like tolerance... and the formula likely wouldn't be linear.