Daily Smart Fact #27: Cranky, Overweight, or Tired? There’s an easy remedy for that.

Note to self: Don't look up "shower" ever again on flickr.

Takeaway: A cold shower can increase fat loss, enhance pain and stress tolerance, strengthen immunity, ward off depression, and the list goes on and on and on.

A friend of mine recently shared an article about the great benefits of taking cold showers on Google+ (you know that facebook-like technology that only your friends who work at Google use?) and I found it quite intriguing, especially because I had heard something similar from Timothy Ferris’ 4-hour Body book about the benefits of cold showers, especially in the area of boosting metabolism and burning fat.  Essentially, Ferris recommends taking a 5 to 30 minute cold shower (working your way up in time, and working your way down in temperature) because “cold temperature activates brown fat, the fat-burning fat tissue in your body that burns energy to keep you warm.”

Besides boosting metabolism and increasing your ability to burn fat, cold showers have other great health benefits like:

• Increasing and improving blood circulation
• Increasing alertness (better than caffeine!)
• Helping with insomnia
• Improving skin texture and minimizing pores
• Reducing stress
• Stopping hair loss
• Decreasing chronic pain

And the list goes on.  One of our good friends only takes cold showers and he happens to also be tall, skinny, and athletic – coincidence?? Probably, but still, I thought I would give it a try.  So I did. And holy crap I was miserable…for the first 30 seconds or so.  But then my body became acclimated and I felt good, dare I say, rejuvenated.  Nay, I felt freaking awesome.  I liked it, a lot.  I probably won’t be taking only cold showers but I’ve resolved to end my showers with an icy cold rinse, which is good for now.  And maybe I’ll become tall, skinny, and athletic too…

Photo credit: uzi978