A few days a go a friend invited me to go for a dip in the sea. Though I am a fan of sea swimming, I had not tried this in November. Of course it was going to be cold, but after doing a morning jog for the past two days my legs were crying out for it!
I headed down to meet her. On arriving and undressing she, who had been doing it pretty much everyday, gracefully and masterfully entered the water without flinching. I on the other hand swore and yelped as the shock of the cold water hit me and I paddled furiously round in the water in an attempt to warm up.
However, once the first minute was over my body started to acclimatize and started to enjoy how refreshing and stimulating it was. Upon coming out I did not feel cold either.
For the rest of the day I was in a good mood and felt happy, focused and content. It was the ideal feeling of both being stimulated and relaxed at the same time.
Unfortunately that night I failed to get a good nights sleep. I put it down to going to bed to early. In my zealousness to get up early and be productive I decided I would go to bed at 8.30pm. This only resulted in my not being able to sleep until 2am. Still, I managed to drag myself out of bed at 8.30 feeling rank and lethargic.
Later that day I again jumped into the sea, this time my body did not react as well as it had previously, perhaps for the reason I did not sleep as well. I felt in shock and mildly dizzy, though this soon subsided. The sun was setting and the view looked like a scene from renaissance painting, I would not have been surprised if Hercules flying on Pegasus had flown down!
We lingered for a little while longer in the sea and then eventually got out. On leaving the sea I was definitely colder then I had been the previous day. And, on returning home I felt stimulated enough that I had the energy to tidy my house.
I slept well that night. on the third day it was bad weather so I did not expect to go in. Though I found I had mountains of energy, I did an hour of yoga, an hour and a half of bike ride and walked for an hour to Aldi and did the shopping. I felt upbeat at the end of the day though nothing could compare with the rush of a sea dip.
On the fourth day I decided I would have a cold shower in the morning in case I could’t go in. The shower was great and I felt focused for the day and managed to get started earlier. I planned to go in again but it was far to rough, so I merely stripped off to my bikini and did some sun bathing, then dressed again once I started to get chilly. Being by and watching the waves of the sea and feeling the wind dance against my skin still felt highly therapeutic.
I wondered, surely there has to be mountains of evidence on how cold water immersion affects the body in a physiological sense. I was surprised to find there was very little and much of it is is merely the participants perception of how it affected them.
I did find two studies that showed that it increased some white blood cells in the immune system (Ansky et al, 1996 and Brenner et al, 1999), potentially improving the immune response.
One study (Shevchuk 2008) found that depressive symptoms were reduced by cold water immersion, while a case study (Van Tulleken et al, 2018) of a women who, for 7 years had been reliant on medication to treat her depression and anxiety started cold-water swimming weekly. The treatment was so successful she was able to come off the medication.
It is also said that cold water immersion can help to speed up the recovery of muscles after intense exercise. Numerous studies (Higgins et al, 2017) back up that if cold water immersion is done within 24 hours of exercise it can help with muscle fatigue and pain. Though a recent study (Jackson et al, 2019) has found that cold water immersion, while it does not affect the strength of the muscle, impedes the muscle from growing. Cold water immersion, therefore, could be problematic for those who engage in body building.
I searched and searched for any information on how cold water affects the muscle on a physiological level but I found no reliable information. my only hypothesis is that cold water improves the circulation both in the organs and the muscles so waste products, such as lactic acid are transported by the blood stream faster and inflammation is curbed.
Lastly I looked into weight loss, again these is barely any evidence for this. There is some evidence that it increases the metabolism (Bleakley and Davison,2010) ( which might explain why I have more energy after a cold dip.) Though there is no articles for whether cold water dips alone can be a safe and effective treatment for obesity and weight loss.
It seems that cold water definitely improves my focus and makes me feel good, though there is surely a need for more evidence and research in this department!
It could be a simple and cost effective way for people to access treatment, if the population can have the resilience and will power to have cold showers!
References
Shevchuk, Nikolai. (2008). Adapted cold shower as a potential treatment for depression. Medical hypotheses. 70. 995-1001. 10.1016/j.mehy.2007.04.052.
van Tulleken C, Tipton M, Massey H, et alOpen water swimming as a treatment for major depressive disorderCase Reports 2018;2018:bcr-2018-225007.
Anský, L., Pospíšilová, D., Honzová, S. et al. Immune system of cold-exposed and cold-adapted humans. Eur J Appl Physiol 72, 445–450 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00242274
Brenner IK, Castellani JW, Gabaree C, Young AJ, Zamecnik J, Shephard RJ, Shek PN. Immune changes in humans during cold exposure: effects of prior heating and exercise. J Appl Physiol (1985). 1999 Aug;87(2):699-710. doi: 10.1152/jappl.1999.87.2.699. PMID: 10444630.
Higgins, Trevor R.1,2; Greene, David A.1; Baker, Michael K.1 Effects of Cold Water Immersion and Contrast Water Therapy for Recovery From Team Sport: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis, Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research: May 2017 – Volume 31 – Issue 5 – p 1443-1460 doi: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001559
Cold water immersion attenuates anabolic signaling and skeletal muscle fiber hypertrophy, but not strength gain, following whole-body resistance training
Jackson J. Fyfe, James R. Broatch, Adam J. Trewin, Erik D. Hanson, Christos K. Argus, Andrew P. Garnham, Shona L. Halson, Remco C. Polman, David J. Bishop, and Aaron C. Petersen Journal of Applied Physiology 2019 127:5, 1403-1418
Bleakley CM, Davison GWWhat is the biochemical and physiological rationale for using cold-water immersion in sports recovery? A systematic reviewBritish Journal of Sports Medicine 2010;44:179-187.