Anxious? Try Taking Cold Showers
You’ve probably heard that there are a lot of benefits to taking cold showers. A lot of people take cold showers to help with things like muscles aches or to wake up in the morning. According to Healthline, there’s also talk about how cold water could be used to treat anxiety.
Chronic anxiety problems can be treated in many different ways with the help of mental health professionals. However, sometimes complementary therapies, like taking cold showers, can also help.
Before you start taking cold showers for your anxiety it’s good to think about if the cold water might actually help with your anxiety. You should also talk to your doctor about your anxiety and the ways that you could manage it long term.
In theory, cold showers could help to lower anxiety symptoms, but more research is needed before it can be considered an effective treatment for anxiety. Some studies have looked into how hydrotherapy could be used to help treat other mental health conditions. The outcome of these studies suggest that there may be similar benefits when hydrotherapy is used for anxiety.
Anxiety usually causes your heart rate to increase. Some studies found that cold hydrotherapy, when used to treat depression, could lead to an increase in heart rate. However, others found that cold water therapy can lower your heart rate by as much as 15 percent.
Its been proven that cold showers can help to improve circulation. When your body gets cooled down by the water, your body temperature drops, which leads to fresh blood circulation. The increase in blood pressure that anxiety can cause would, in theory, go down due to the cold water.
Cold showers also release endorphins, or feel-good hormones. These endorphins help to lower symptoms caused by both depression and anxiety.