News from The Discovery Channel: “Treatments for depression range from medicines that can come with scary side effects to electric shock therapy, but a new paper suggests a simple cold shower might sometimes cure, and even prevent, the debilitating mood disorder.” Now I understand why I always feel so uplifted and, well, happy, after my morning cold shower gush. If you want to read more, here is the link to the full article. Cold showers also have other health benefits, as noted here.
December 29, 2007...7:03 pm
Cold Showers and Depression
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19 Comments
December 29, 2007 at 9:38 pm
I have to say that is a very interesting approach to treating depression. I have never heard of anyone taking this approach. But sometimes its the unthinkable approach that is the one that really works.
I have depression and suffer from the ups and downs of the right approach so that I can live with my depression. I do say that I will have to try it and see if it works.
December 29, 2007 at 9:54 pm
I think each of us has to experiment to find what is right for us. Please let me know if this is helpful! (Experts also recommend checking with your doctor before trying any new therapy.)
Roanne
February 3, 2008 at 11:49 pm
I am a cold shower person and I haven’t seen a doctor since March 2007. Hope it stays that way. My asthma has drastically improved to the point where I really don’t have it, because the cold shower increases the oxygen in my lungs and my circulatory system. My mood is more stable and less irritable. I have been taking cold showers since July 2007.
February 4, 2008 at 1:37 am
Great comment, Leon! Thanks so much for sharing your experiences about asthma improvement, as well as the mood-lifting powers of cold water.
Roanne
March 11, 2008 at 6:41 am
I read about the cold shower treatment–maybe it was even in your book, I can’t remember. I must say that during a depression, it was almost impossible to try. Still, I went out and bought one of those hand-held shower faucets and started with my feet. Although I could never get beyond my knees, it did have benefits. It didn’t end the depressions but at least I was grateful that I was depressed and warm, rather than freezing!
Susan
March 11, 2008 at 6:08 pm
Dear Susan,
How sweet of you to comment on even such a tiny improvement already! If you start doing cold showers in a better phase, you will be able to then apply it in your really depressed phases.
Another idea: I do not know about your nutrition but bipolar disorder (and depression, anxiety, panic attacks) might also be linked to what you eat (as much as it is also a genetically-determined disease). The Standard American Diet (SAD) is an inflammatory diet. Perhaps you want to give the anti-inflammatory diet Roanne and I describe in our water book a try. – Which also helps asthma (in response to Leon’s comment)
Alexa Fleckenstein M.D.
April 14, 2008 at 4:31 am
[...] on the back of this research, people start writing about how cold showers make them feel good. Nikolai’s idea has gone from an idea to accepted wisdom without ever being subjected to [...]
April 14, 2008 at 4:20 pm
I am curious as to how cold water therapy would strengthen the mucous membrane?
May 7, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Susan,
it is interesting that you mentioned starting with your feet, because the paper by Nikolai Shevchuk proposes to start cold showers from the feet up and gradually cover the whole body after 5 minutes. Maybe if you tried 68 degrees F, rather than very cold water, you could get past your knees?
Leon,
cooling is known to have anti-inflammatory effects, i.e. it can reduce redness, pain, heat, and swelling: the hallmarks of inflammation. With respect to asthma, cold showers increase the blood level of noradrenaline and it can act on the same receptors as adrenaline (epinephrine), which is often used to treat asthma attacks.
May 16, 2008 at 10:04 am
Rymaszewska J, Ramsey D, Chladzinska-Kiejna S. Whole-body cryotherapy as adjunct treatment of depressive and anxiety disorders. Archivum Immunologiae et Therapiae Experimentalis. 2008 Jan-Feb;56(1):63-68.
Shevchuk NA. Adapted cold shower as a potential treatment for depression. Medical Hypotheses. 2008;70(5):995-1001.
Huttunen P, Kokko L, Ylijukuri V. Winter swimming improves general well-being. International Journal of Circumpolar Health. 2004 May;63(2):140-4.
May 17, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Cryotherapy is relatively new method – mostly developed and promoted in Scandinavia and Poland. Cryotherapy – exposure to -120C (!!) for a few minutes in a sauna-like chamber – is a very interesting approach – not so much for cryotherapy itself but for the cold studies that have been done on it. Cryotherapy is related to winter swimming – a prolonged exposure in ice-cold water.
Some physiological studies of cryotherapy and winterswimming have shown changes similar to what we see in cold shower exposure. But to date, no clinical studies have been done on cryotherapy – at least, I found none.
Why we don’t recommend cryotherapy and winter swimming: Cryotherapy needs a specialized chamber. Since for all practical purposes, a simple cold shower has the same effects – which are mainly pain-relieving, anti-swelling, anti-inflammatory, immunological, hormonal and circulatory reactions – I would not recommend a complicated machine that depletes Earth’s resources.
As for winter swimming: Every year, when they publish pictures in the Boston Globe of the hardy winter swimmers who take their traditional dunk on New Years morning, I marvel how only the chubby ones can get through that ordeal. Even Sebastian Kneipp, who started out with something like winter swimming himself when he submerged himself in the gray Danube River three times a week and thus cured his tuberculosis, found out later that this treatment is too harsh for most people, and he reduced the length of the cold exposure drastically. What counts physiologically is the momentary change in temperature: A cold shower should not last more than 20 to 30 seconds – one reaps all the benefits already in that short times.
July 28, 2008 at 4:03 am
I’ve a history of cold weather-induced asthma which lay dormant for many years but flared up in summer ‘03. Disappointed with pulmonologists who are trained to push pills and puffs, I visited an alternative practitioner who advised a cold shower treatment protocol. Since 2003 I have taken straight cold showers at least 5 mornings out of a week and discarded breathing medication for good a mere week into the treatment. I can’t comment whether the cold showers have improved my mood directly, but I can confidently state that current Western medicine treatment for breathing disorders is atrocious.
July 28, 2008 at 12:28 pm
Jim,
Yours is an interesting observation! I am not aware of a cold water study done on asthmatics – and it probably won’t be done soon because of funding problems.
How long do your cold showers last? And is anything else involved?
Alexa Fleckenstein M.D.
October 13, 2008 at 11:34 am
Well, Jim, I used to have asthma myself and had to depend on medication for relief. I did that from 1977 until I found cold showers helped me to the point where I don’t need medication anymore. That happened on January 22, 2008. Since that time my asthma has been non-existent and the only problems I’ve had were mucus flareups to the point where I used the cold-shower method for relief. It helps! I’ve been asthma-free since 2007, taking the cold shower and medication-free since 2008.
November 7, 2008 at 1:28 pm
Cold showers along with tap-water nasal irrigation has proven to improve my health, breathing and my quality of life. I’ve practiced this therapy for a year or cold showers and, along with nasal irrigation since September. I have noticed a big difference in my breathing, to the point where I need no medication. I am very satisfied with this practice. I have no complaints.
November 8, 2008 at 12:09 am
Leon,
Sounds you are doing terrifically.
Not sure we ever discussed this (and it does not have immediately to do with cold showers) but have you also stopped milk and dairy?
Milk and dairy high highly inflammatory foods and are known to exacerbate asthma and sinusitis (among other things). Often, leaving these out helps asthmatics tremendously.
Alexa Fleckenstein M.D.
November 15, 2008 at 5:38 pm
Dr. Alexa,
I don’t eat much cereal, but I do drink milk in my green tea, along with little sugar. I do eat milk’n cornbread. But I does not cause asthma in me. I’m just proud to breathe better from the nasal irrigation and cold shower lifestyle.
December 9, 2008 at 1:52 am
I found the cold water in nasal irrigation does irritate the nasal passages inside the nose. What I do is use lukewarm water to irrigate my nose or water that’s not so cold. I still find the practice very useful in the fight against colds and flu. That, along with cold shower and my health is second to none. I am surprised that not many doctors know about this. And they should.
September 12, 2009 at 1:15 am
Cold water therapy for depression has been around for over a century in this country. Cold water immersion soaks.