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OVERVIEW Warm showers are popular throughout society; however, due to recent studies, cold showers are identified to have many health benefits as well as additional environmental benefits. From mental health, hair care, and personal care- cold showers have the ability to do more than wake you up in the morning. Cold showers even have the ability to reduce our carbon footprint, benefitting our futures as well as those coming after us. Warm showers emit CO2 due to the heating of water. When taking cold showers, we simply do not have to do that. While warm showers are what we have come to know and love, being a societal norm, cold showers were initially all that humankind had. Cold showers eventually evolved to help “cure” the mentally unstable. While we may hate cold showers, viewing them as a nuisance, and out of routine, switching them into our routine would have an overall benefit for ourselves and those around us.

HEALTH BENEFITS Cold showers, or cold water in general, have proven to benefit the health of the human body. Cold water and cold compresses are used as a way to revive people that have been injured and lost consciousness. Cold showers have different effects on the body, both physically and psychologically. Physically, our bodies experience a “shock” when exposed to cold temperatures. This “shock” has been shown to help the respiratory system, but is also great for helping any sort of muscle pains. It has also been shown to help with hair care. Rather than drying up the molecules in your hair, cold water preserves them, keeping your hair healthy. The same effects can be seen with skin since hot water can dry out and irritate your skin. Psychologically, cold water has effects, specifically, on your attitudes and how you perceive life. Studies have shown that making the decision to embrace cold water at the beginning of each day provides a better outlook on the rest of your day. The New York Times stated, “Eat a live frog first thing in the morning, and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” This means that by starting each day doing something unenjoyable, the unenjoyable things that you can’t control throughout the rest of your day won’t be as bad.

HISTORY In the mid-17th century, a madman escaped from his chains and jumped into a lake to get away from his capturers. He fainted and people thought he was dead; however, he recovered and was no longer insane. This enlightened Van Helmont to plunge patients into cold water to cure them of their insanity. Cold-shock showers were utilized for the insane and the criminal. Cold water has natural qualities that constrict blood vessels, which is said to be the location of madness, and redirect the blood away from the brain towards the internal organs to reduce inflammation and congestion in the brain. Doctors directed cold showers onto patients’ heads to cool their madness. A new treatment emerged in the mid-19th century that no longer accepted bodies being subdued to provoke fear. The function of the cold-shock shower was for tranquility, until it was deemed immoral and barbaric. In prisons and insane asylums, the focus shifted to hygiene and cleanliness. Dr. Delabost, a French prison physician, attempted to have cold showers installed for hydrotherapy in prisons. Hydrotherapy was the use of cold water and pressure to ease one’s physical and mental symptoms. Since it failed, people started using warm showers to benefit them.

SCIENTIFIC STUDY Climate change models predict that in the 21st century global surface temperature is to increase anywhere from 0.3°C - 4.8°C. The Paris Agreement adopted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) established a global basis for reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) noted that global warming should increase a max of 1.5°C. CO2 embedded in water represents 5% of all U.S. carbon emission. Studies suggest Japan’s residential water systems account for 5% of CO2 emissions and 60% of the emission comes from heating water. In Hong Kong, 40% of domestic water is used for showering and bathing. The carbon footprint is another benefit for taking cold showers because it doesn’t increase CO2 emission from heating the water. A study done in Sweden resulted in an average of an 8.7-minute shower 6 times a week, with 15 liters of warm water at 35°C. Warm water showers produce up to 248kg of CO2 per person a year, the same as taking a flight from Zurich to France. The CO2 emission increases significantly per household when the house is run off natural gas or oil. It is possible that 15% of per capita CO2 emissions could be saved to meet the 2030 target. Cold showers help with mental benefits and global benefits.

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