Why Cold Therapy Is The Best Thing You Could Do For Your Body?
When you don’t put something to use for a long time, it eventually loses the ability to work. Same goes for your body – it has to adapt. Your body adapts just like your muscles do – if you exercise, they get stronger.
Cold therapy or Cryotherapy has recently gained popularity and has become an alternative to sauna. In the US, spas that offer this effective cold therapy is becoming more fashionable than saunas.
If we don’t expose our body to temperature variations, it could turn our immune system into a weak, no-good mechanism – that’s why nature has different seasons throughout the year for us to benefit from these changes. As we are warm blooded beings, temperature is something that regulates every single chemical reaction in our body.
Cold therapy aids in improving immunity
There are many advantages of cold therapy. It boosts immunity by activating the lymph nodes. Cold water contracts the lymph nodes – as a result, lymphocytes flow out from them throughout our body, clearing the vessels off of any harmful toxins. In a study, volunteers who were told to spend two hours in a chamber at 5 degrees after exercise or a hot bath. The researchers monitored these participants and noted that the number of "killer cells", that protect us from diseases, increased in the blood.
Prevent DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness)
Ever wondered why athletes love bathing in a tub full of ice? It’s because the extreme cold helps in lowering the temperature of the damaged and constricts the blood vessels. It reduces inflammation and brings immediate relief to the over worked muscles.
Testimonial that cold therapy is effective
Wim Hof, a 58-year-old energetic Dutchman, traveled to the North Pole to beat the world record by holding his breath under the ice for six minutes and 20 seconds. He argues that we are not made for comfort. Our ancestors were hungry, cold and suffered during long walks outdoors, but they lived longer. Today, while we spend each day living in a perfect temperature, our immune system runs out of work to do – as a result, it goes crazy sometimes, attacking our healthy tissues with autoimmune diseases and chronic inflammation.