Cold Showers - why they work....

Hi everyone

There seems to be some confusion about why the torture of cold showers should lead to radiant health.

The short answer is brown fat, this is a metabolically active fatty tissue which helps to balance body temperature by turning itsself on (heat by burning fat reserves), or off (if the body is already warm enough).

Cold showers and baths are an extreme way to lose body heat quickly, signalling to the body it needs to turn on brown fat metabolism to generate body heat. If you are persistant in taking cold showers / baths your body will start making more brown fat tissue to keep up with your needs to face a cold environment and keep warm. You can re-enforced this cold stimulus by not wearing too much, switching off the house heating and generally being active outdoors in the winter (again not wearing too much)- like bicyling in shorts and T shirt in winter, just keep wearing warm shoes and some gloves, and maybe some ear protectors.

Net result is that your overall metabolic rate goes up, you feel warm even in cold environments (and overly hot in heated envioronments), more energy as your metabolism is speeded up, and obvious weight loss possibilities (note - combine cold exposure with increased outdoor activity to maximise this effect).

Babies are born with brown fat, and this is active in regulating body temperature, out door professionals in cold countries like lumber jacks have brown fat, but the rest if us heated indoor types lose brown fat to a small residual amount, so most body fat is white not metabolically active (just an energy reserve store).

Cold showering leads to 'radiant health' - now you know why!

Happy hunting everyone - Cambridge Tweet