![using the wim hof method while sick using the wim hof method while sick](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/9y1rEIJv540/maxresdefault.jpg)
When activated, it keeps the body warm by burning calories. Moreover, cold temperatures activate the brown - or good - fat in the body.īrown fat doesn’t have any proven connection to immunity, but it does affect the body’s thermoregulation.
![using the wim hof method while sick using the wim hof method while sick](https://www.gqmiddleeast.com/2021/06/Ice-baths-copy.jpg)
It involves a neuroendocrine effect and triggers our fight-or-flight response, causing hormones like cortisol to increase, shortly before we shift to a relaxation response. Cold temperatures make you shiver - an autonomous response to keep your body temperature up. The exact effect on the immune system is unclear, but we do have some knowledge of the pathway through which it works. But either their symptoms were less severe or they felt more energetic, so they were better able to push through the sickness and function anyway. This is a subtle but important point: Participants who took the cold showers actually reported feeling ill just as many days, on average, as the people who showered normally. HBR: But why would cold showers make us less sick? People who took them for at least 30 seconds for one month called in sick 29% less than our control group - and 54% less if they also engaged in regular physical exercise. Buijze, defend your research.īuijze: This is the first high-level evidence showing that cold showers can benefit your health. The researchers’ conclusion: Cold showers lead to fewer sick days. On average, in all the groups that doused themselves with cold water, people were absent 29% fewer days than people in the control group. Then the researchers looked at the work attendance records of the same people over that period. Buijze and his colleagues asked 3,000 volunteers in the Netherlands to finish their morning showers with a 30-, 60-, or 90-second blast of cold water, or to shower as they usually did, for 30 consecutive days.