What is Kate Middleton and Lady Gaga’s habit to reduce anxiety? We’ll answer you.
- Cold water is beneficial for health and helps reduce anxiety.
- The Wim Hof method involves putting yourself in ice water, breathing and meditating, which would help you better manage stress and anxiety.
- In your daily life, taking cold water showers is also beneficial for your health.
“People have used cold water to promote health for centuriesexplains New York Times. Hippocrates believed that water therapy could relieve fatigue, and 18th-century doctors recommended cold baths to treat conditions such as fever and rickets“. In the 21st century, it is still relevant with the Wim Hof method which would reduce anxiety.
Reduce anxiety with cold water
In 2008, Wim Hof, a 62-year-old Dutchman, stayed in a bath filled with ice for nearly 1 hour and 8 minutes, setting a world record. To achieve this, he developed a method, the Wim Hof method: put yourself in ice water, breathe (three series of 30 to 40 rapid breaths, then hold your breath with your lungs full, then emptied) and meditate, which would allow you to better manage stress and anxiety.
Several stars and personalities practice this method, such as Kate Middleton: “When I bathe, I only want cold water, she explains in comments reported by Vogue.
But even without using this method, a simple cold water shower several times a week has many health benefits: improvement of blood flow, stimulation of the immune, respiratory and muscular systems, improvement of sleep, reduction of pain, and even an antidepressant effect.
What does cold water do to anxiety?
“Cold water causes an electrical surge in the brain which secretes the famous endorphins, which have an antidepressant effect, explain Philippe Stefaninidoctor in anthropobiology and CNRS researcher, co-author of “Health through cold water” (ed. Jouvence, 2020). A cold shower around 6 p.m. without wetting the head, full of phosphoric acid (the waste product of the brain) after a day of work, will have an immediate relaxing effect.
21% of adults are affected by an anxiety disorder during their lifetime, according to the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) and women are affected up to twice as often as men.
Taking cold water showers could therefore be a preventative habit to avoid anxiety and depression. “The best is to start at a change of warm season, indicates Philippe Stéfanini. There are effects when the water temperature is lower than that of the body, 37°C, but the ideal is between 0 and 18°C. The colder the water, the less time the application needs to be to be beneficial.”
