HOT and COLD showers

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

With reference to resolution from "greatyoga" , just wanted to know the role of HOT and COLD showers with nerves and blood circulation and also with different prakrutti types.

Can anyone please give me the pros & cons of HOT and COLD showers. It can really improve the life-style, i believe because bathing is regular routine.

Thanks

Soutrik

[Guest guest]

Soutrik,

 

Cold showers open up the capillaries. The body feels the coldness

and sends more blood to the surface to keep it warm. Warm showers

do the opposite. Some people alternate hot and cold so the blood

goes to the extremeties and then to the internal organs and then

back, etc. Showers increase the effect since small hard streams of

water "massage" the skin. I would not take a cold shower after

eating since you would want the blood going to the internal organs

to help with digestion. They are not to be taken when one is sick.

If one is already chilled, then it might be contraindicated. I live

in Alaska and take cold morning showers even in the winter. They

really wake me up.

 

GB

 

 

ayurveda, Soutrik Maitra <soutrikm

wrote:

 

> Can anyone please give me the pros & cons of HOT and COLD

showers. It can really improve the life-style, i believe because

bathing is regular routine.

[Guest guest]

hi GB

 

hmmm/// from a strictly hydrotherapeutic perspective, hot opens capillaries and cold

closes them

 

heat opens the surface, and promotes the free secretion of blood - this why heat should

never be applied in bleeding - in contrast cold promotes the constriction of blood flow,

(which is how frostbite occurs, and in severe cases, gangrene)

 

cold water clearly constrict the capillaries and lower the body's temperature, from the

surface in - afterwards, if a normal temperature environment is introduced, the effects of

the cold shower wear off as blood flow is restored, making the person feel warm - note

also, that the body's thermostatic mechanism is essentially reset, and one becomes more

cold tolerant

 

in contrast, hot showers cause vasodilation (which is why the skin looks red after

showering) - afterwards, if a normal temperature environment is introduced, the effects of

the hot shower, with the help of sweating, the blood flow returns to the interior of the

body, making the person feel cooler - similar with cold showers, the body's thermostatic

mechanism is again reset, and one becomes more heat tolerant / cold intolerant

 

afterwhile, the effects of either wears off and the body more or less adjusts itself the

environmental temperature, based on indivdual predilections (kapha, pitta, vata), dietary

factors, exercise, etc etc.

 

note that these results apply with regard to the restoration of a "normal" body temperature

environment - if the normal temperature however is quite warm, warm showers simply

make you too hot, and the net result could be heat-stroke; conversely, cold showers in a

cold enviroment are likely to promote coldness, numbness, tingling, clumsiness or worse

 

the practice of alternating hot/cold, ending with cold functions to remove obstructions to

circulation, and a more fluid control over the self-regulation of body temperature - it is

widely used among nordic peoples to ensure proper circulation

 

in some spiritual practices, exposing oneself to cold (without prior heat) is an advnaced

trainng method to generating the internal heat, but i believe this to be a different thing

altogether and even shamans in north america would typically do a sweat first

 

as for eating, any kind of bathing is contraindicated, just before or after

 

as for colds, don't forget the famous 'wet blanket treatment,' which is a kind of

hydrotherapeutic technique, also involving sweating (svedana)

 

best.. todd

 

 

 

 

ayurveda, "greatyoga" <greatyoga wrote:

> Cold showers open up the capillaries. The body feels the coldness

> and sends more blood to the surface to keep it warm. Warm showers

> do the opposite. Some people alternate hot and cold so the blood

> goes to the extremeties and then to the internal organs and then

> back, etc. Showers increase the effect since small hard streams of

> water "massage" the skin. I would not take a cold shower after

> eating since you would want the blood going to the internal organs

> to help with digestion. They are not to be taken when one is sick.

> If one is already chilled, then it might be contraindicated. I live

> in Alaska and take cold morning showers even in the winter. They

> really wake me up.

[Guest guest]

Hi ,

Wow this is too much of information , a shower has so much . In simple words , what type of shower should one have to lead a healthy life . Does Cold shower improve nerves ??

Thanks

Soutrik

[Guest guest]

hullo,

 

i am not sure about the effects of hot shoers but cold ones improve memory, hair shine and a general sense of well-being. also it helps to cool the system down during the hotter months.

 

hope this helps.

 

laksmi

[Guest guest]

Soutrik,

 

I think it does. My teacher said it does. According to yogic

scriptures, a cold shower is equal to an hour of yoga. I feel wide

awake in the morning after my cold shower and not before. I remember

looking at "Life" magazine in the late 50's or early 60's of people in

Russia, who would cut a hole in the ice in a lake and take a cold dip

every morning. A few years ago, Isaw a special on TV about differeent

preparations of teams for the Olympics. The US volleyball team went

into a freezer wearing only sandals and a "Speedo" swimsuit (Like a

loincloth made of nylon). They stayed in the freezer for 5 minutes a

day. Guru Gobind Singh built high towers for his soldiers. Each day

they would manually carry water up to fill the tanks for cold showers

so the force of the water on the skin is an asset to the cold showers. knows more about the thermodynamics.

 

 

GB

 

ayurveda, Soutrik Maitra <soutrikm

wrote:

> Wow this is too much of information , a shower has so much . In

simple words , what type of shower should one have to lead a healthy

life . Does Cold shower improve nerves ??

[Guest guest]

I saw a show on Beyond 2000 backin the 90's, where a Japanese doctor

healed rheamatoid arthritis by putting people in a chamber where it

was something like 200 below O(f).

 

___________

> heat opens the surface, and promotes the free secretion of blood - ...

[Guest guest]

> Soutrik,

a cold shower is equal to an hour of yoga. I feel wide

> awake in the morning after my cold shower and not before. I remember

> looking at "Life" magazine in the late 50's or early 60's of people in

> Russia, who would cut a hole in the ice in a lake and take a cold dip

> every morning. A few years ago, I saw a special on TV about differeent

> preparations of teams for the Olympics. The US volleyball team went

> into a freezer wearing only sandals and a "Speedo" swimsuit (Like a

> loincloth made of nylon). They stayed in the freezer for 5 minutes a

> day.

 

cold showers are good for balancing pitta - for active people, esp.

men, eating the heavy/warming food (of winter climates), or suffering

from excess heat

 

for such individuals cold has positive, stimulatory effect, and

balances the flow of blood/fluids from the peripheral to internal

regions

 

generally water is used in allopathic manner - opposite cures opposite

 

but there are exceptions, for e.g. athletes will use ice to promote

the healing of injuries and promote blood flow to an injured area (as

part of the Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation protocol)

 

but in this case, how the ice is applied is very important, and in

many cases the proper procedure isn't observed

when ice is applied for only a few minutes, and taken off to allow

the affected area to re-warm, and then applied again in this fashion

every 10 minutes, the effect is to promote a rebound vasodilation,

which encourages blood flow to the area, leaving it noticeably reddened

 

however, many people just leave the ice on until the area is numbed,

which relieves pain but suppresses the local immune response, and

discourages healing

 

in this way, we can see that short term exposure to cold in a normal

temperature environment will help promote circulation

 

but in someone with a cold constitution or suffering from cold, cold

water will only make matters worse

 

if you think about it, the whole dynamic functions on a yin-yang

basis, with a little yin in the yang, and a little yang in the yin

 

that should keep the homeopaths happy too ;-)

 

as for shower advice, have a warm shower and gradually increase the

temperature until it is quite hot and then finish by turning it to

cold for a few seconds or even a minute, if you can handle it - this

will have the most potent effect, and you will notice after a couple

days if you feel better from this or not

 

generally speaking, the hydrotherapeutic principle is to begin with

heat and end with cold, even when used in an alternating fashion

 

FYI, here i thought i'd interject with a description of the old

physiomedical "wet sheet" treatment, for colds, flus and detoxification

 

have a hot bath, as hot as you can stand it, drinking a few cups of a

herbal tea that promotes sweating, such as yarrow

when you can't stand it anymore, stand up and have someone wrap you

in a COLD wet white sheet, followed by several dry towels

you are then put to bed, with several blankets, and proceed to sweat

all evening

in the morning the sheet is removed, and with any luck, the white

sheet will be quite dirty, containing all the "toxins" discharged

and you should feel much better besides

 

sort of a home-style svedana treatment...

 

best...

Caldecott

todd (AT) toddcaldecott (DOT) com

www.toddcaldecott.com