Using cold as a treatment for inflammation and injuries goes back to the ancient Egyptians. Purposeful exposure to cold causes your body to undergo hermetic stress. According to Clean Eating Magazine, “Hormesis refers to the adaptation that makes us stronger when we’re exposed to environmental stressors.” Many cultures have advocated polar bear swims, cold showers to start the day or icing achy bodies. This could be your new favorite routine for good health. Read on to find out if it is.
Benefits of Cold Therapy
We know that exposure to cold helps with injuries or swelling. It turns out, exposure to cold helps to reduce inflammation throughout your body. It also can lower your metabolism and help it to work more effectively. While cold immersion doesn’t feel good to most people, it does improve mood, by releasing dopamine.
How to use Cold Therapy
Clean Eating magazine suggests the following methods of cold therapy. https://www.cleaneatingmag.com/clean-living/cold-therapy-a-health-secret-weapon-you-need-to-try/ You can start small—there’s no need to jump into the proverbial frozen deep-end of the cold therapy pool. Changing the temperature of your shower is a great place to start.
- Cold shower or pool: A short stint in cold water – between 50 and 59F in temperature – is a great way to start including cold therapy into your daily routine. Consider adding is a burst of cool water at the end of your shower.
- Ice bath: Soaking in a tub filled with cold water and ice is a cold therapy method that’s popular with athletes, who are known to submerge in an ice bath after a tough workout.
- Cryotherapy: Just three minutes in a cryotherapy chamber causes a rapid reduction in tissue and core body temperature, as well as blood vessel constriction. Once out of the chamber, blood vessels dilate, allowing for anti-inflammatory proteins to flood to the injured areas.
- Ice packs: This cold therapy is primarily used to treat localized pain and inflammation after an injury or to deal with muscle soreness. However, you can also use ice packs when you aren’t in pain.
- Exposure to cold external temperatures: Taking a walk outside on a cold day in minimal clothing can have an effect that’s similar to a cold shower.
- Topical cooling agents: Icy Hot, Tiger Balm, BioFreeze – the active ingredients in products like these, menthol and methyl salicylate, are known as counterirritants. They help to alleviate pain by causing the skin to feel cool and then warm.
When NOT to Use It
Pregnant women should not typically use cold therapy, and people who have any kind of sensory disorder or diabetes that might prevent them from accurately feeling potentially dangerous exposure to cold. Checking with your health care provider is always a good idea if you have any concerns.
Cold therapy isn’t new, and it remains a great way to strengthen your body’s ability to adapt. Adding some chill into your daily routines may be the new method of regulating your metabolism or taking the ache out of some of your joints. Or, it may just be the simple thing that wakes you up in the morning and gets you ready to take on the day. Most people resist the cold but embracing it may give you a new appreciation for how good cold therapy can be.
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