Recently, I've had arthritis flaring up especially in my hands to the point I've had to run cold water over them after I wake. It takes a couple minutes, more for the right hand, before I feel the swelling and inflammation go down.
Today I actually stuck both hands in a bucket of ice water and pulled them out once they started to hurt. That worked even better.
In the past (1990s) I've done hydrotherapy 'needle showers' of cold water to end a warm shower. But that was very short-term.
I've also been using cold showers to cool off in summertime. Our apartment can get very hot in summer (90°F+) and until this summer my knees would swell up badly the hotter it got. I'd direct the cold spray right onto my knees where the swelling was worst.
Of course, I'd dowse my head and neck too. I've noticed that cold spray down my spine was one of the quickest ways to cool of my whole body.
However, I didn't really understand the full value and significance of cold water therapy until yesterday when I came across a video interview with Wim Hof (Big Pharma VS Wim Hof). So I started reading his book.
Because most of our chronic diseases involve inflammation, the practice of cold showers, cold water immersion, or ice baths can benefit all of us. But it seems that direct bodily contact with the cold is a part of nature we've been avoiding — missing actually.
The Wim Hof Method
Breathe. It’s the key because breathing into the cold allows you to start relaxing into it.
Cold. Whatever you can start with that feels cold to you. Get into it gradually.
Commitment. It has to become part of a lifestyle routine (at least 5 days/week).
And you can start with whatever you can tolerate, rather than jumping into ice cold lakes.
Yes, cold is counter-intuitive.
Think about how (at least in English) we refer to the cold in negative terms, even equating it with contagious disease ('catching cold'). Warmth, which is so comforting in all its forms, has become civilization's comfort blanket. No one wants to be left 'out in the cold'. But that passing feeling or sensation is something we need, if for no other reason to know we can handle it, and life goes on.
What if the saying "Whatever doesn't kill you makes you stronger" is actually a question — and the answer is: the cold.
That cold water spray down my spine in summer was invigorating, even inducing laughter. It brings a refreshment no snack or beverage can bring.
It tones up the vascular system, which responds very quickly. If cold showers can do that, imagine what cold water immersion or ice baths can do deeper in the body.
Cold therapy in the NFL
Ice baths have been used by American football players for years now as a way to combat the quite serious inflammation they get from that hard-hitting contact sport. Many players speak of hurting all over after every game. I am certain that this therapy can be given much credit for the prolonged careers we're seeing with many players in the NFL.
I was tuned in to the Buffalo Bills vs. Denver Broncos game in the first week of the 2007 season when Kevin Everett suffered a serious, game-stopping injury to his cervical spine.
Kevin was able to move only his eyes as he was carted off the filed to an ambulance. He'd suffered a fracture and dislocation of the cervical spine, resulting in injury to his spinal cord. These kinds of injuries normally lead to paralysis. He was given less than a 10% chance of ever being mobile, walking, or regaining normal manual abilities.
Neuro-surgeon Dr. Barth Green was in charge of Kevin's treatment. He began hypothermic treatment with intravenous ice-cold saline within minutes of Kevin's injury. He referred to this method as an "ice-pack for his spinal cord."
Three months later, on December 7th, Kevin began to walk again without assistance. Before the 2007 NFL season was over, on December 23rd Kevin walked onto the field before the Bills final game vs. the New York Giants.
Nordic ice baths
Apparently there has been a long history of cold water dips going back to at least Viking times. The first Nordic ice-baths were opened to the public during the 1800s and have been very popular since. More recent research has documented the many benefits to immune system, vascular health, and overall well being.
A major missing element of nature
We seem to be missing a relationship with the cold, just as many of us are missing enough sunlight. I’m now convinced that if we want to reinvigorate we need the cold.
I am already integrating it into my life. Today I started my day by dowsing my knees and legs with cold shower spray for a few minutes. I found that after a minute or two I felt an Ahhhhh and relaxed.
Once the sense of a threat is gone, the sensation of cold is a welcome one.
Cheers to your health.
I think cold has its place in health therapy, but I don't think there is one smoking gun when it comes to health. There are times when heat is needed more than cold, and other times when cold is needed more than heat. Just depends on the situation and individual.
What I find interesting from a physics viewpoint is that cold doesn't exist as something unto itself. It only exists and is defined as a relative lack of heat/energy. I have found that this is one of those, "as above, so below" type mirror reflections between the physical and consciousness. In consciousness, there is only Source/Love and the relative lack (due to freewill choice exercising). If the lack becomes extreme, then we could label something as "evil or at least very negative, but it is not that evil exist independently and objectively unto itself, but only in the context of having a lack of Love/Source consciousness.
Interestingly, often times when people experience ghosts or negative entities, they perceive "coldness" in relation to them. It's like that slower vibratory state is getting "translated" and interpreted by the body and/or conscious mind as lack of heat i.e. relative coldness.
On a very different side note, what stones would you recommend for increasing physical energy/vitality? My only thought so far is red stones like ruby, garnet, etc, or perhaps also orange stones?