Why cold showers are bad for you

Stepping into a freezing cold shower may not be anyone’s idea of a pleasant way to start the day—but what if it could actually be good for your health?

As it turns out, cold shower benefits are numerous!

Benefits of cold showers for women

They have more health perks than you’d think—beyond just cooling you down during hot summer days, of course.

The act of immersing yourself in cold water, in fact, is considered a method of cryotherapy, or cold therapy—a general term relating to using cold for treatment, says Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D., a board-certified internist and an expert in the fields of chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, sleep, and pain.

The term can “apply to ice packs, coolant sprays, ice massage, and whirlpools or ice baths,” he says (and even those viral “polar plunges” you might have seen vides of online!)—all of which are often used to alleviate pain, especially by athletes.

Though more research is needed on the effects of cold therapy—including cold showers—on your health, experts say that there is promising research that shows

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