Kalau yang membesar dikampung, zaman dulu dulu, sebelum airpaip ada, mandi diperigi pukul 5 pagi, lepas tu kena berjalan beberapa meter untuk balik kerumah dengan kain basahan dan tuala mandi.
Perigi tu kiranya sebagai tempat public bath jadinya ramai keluarga yang keluar dengan timba, gayung sabun dan sebagainya ke perigi untuk mandi. Bayangkan jika pagi yang berangin, memang sejuk.
Ada pengalaman balik kampung mandi di perigi di pagi hari masa kecil. Sejuk air perigi kena ditubuh.. tapi ibu segera mengelap dan mengeringkan badan. Memang rasa segar..
Bila masuk alam persekolahan, bangun pukul 5 pagi mandi air paip bukan air perigi. Air didalam kolah.. bila terkena air terus terbuka segar mata.
Bila dah tua, dewasa, bila mandi air sejuk walaupun tidur tidak cukup dan ada sakit kepala, bila kena air kolah yang dingin terus segar dan darah menderu ke kepala. Sakir kepala terus hilang atau lega.
Bila siap berpakaian terus rasa segar. Tiadalah cranky mood itu ini .
Syukurlah kita tinggal di negara yang panas sepanjang tahun. Maka kita tidak perlu memkai water heater dan kena membayar bil elektrik yang tinggi. Dibawah diambil artikel artikel untuk kita berkongsi kebaikan mandi air sejuk..
Biasakan lah anak anak untuk mandi air didalam suhu biasa/air sejuk tanpa pemanas dari mereka kecil. Trick nya mandikan anak anak yang kecil lewat didalam pukul ,10 pagi keatas ketika matahari sudah memancar, jadi mereka tidak rasa sejuk sangat. Cara menyesuaikan tubuh mereka mandi air sejuk/suhu biasa tanpa water heater.
Mandi air sejuk ini amat menyihatkan. perhatikan mak mak, bapa. tok nenek moyang, semua mandi sepanjang hidup mereka mana ada pakai water heater? Sihat dan panjang umur, demam demamni jarang kena.
malas nak translate articles dibawah, bacalah ya...
This bit taken ::from earth cliniic: with thanks:
Generally speaking, hot showers are not good as they tend to depress the various physiological systems of the body.
Cold showers have the following positive effects:
* Brings blood to the capillaries, therefore increasing circulation throughout the body.
* Cleans the circulatory system.
* Reduces blood pressure on internal organs.
* Provides flushing for the organs and provides a new supply of blood.
* Strengthens the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.
* Contracts the muscles to eliminate toxins and poisonous wastes.
* Strengthens the mucous membranes, which help resist hay fever, allergies, colds, coughs.
Many health problems are reduced or even eliminated over time by providing proper circulation of the blood to the affected area using the cold shower massage.
::Cold showers are good for you - official::
::Sunday, 21 November 1999 taken fr Independent.co.uk with thanks:
Cold showers and cold baths, which were part of the regular regime of Edwardian gentlemen, may be set for a comeback. Later generations have dismissed cold showers as a masochistic fetish designed to control sexual appetite. But now German doctors have found that immersion in cold water has beneficial effects on body chemistry.
Cold showers and cold baths, which were part of the regular regime of Edwardian gentlemen, may be set for a comeback. Later generations have dismissed cold showers as a masochistic fetish designed to control sexual appetite. But now German doctors have found that immersion in cold water has beneficial effects on body chemistry.
Year-round swimmers in Berlin have half as many chest infections as other people, say doctors from the Herzog-Julius Hospital in Bad Harzburg and the Medical School at Humboldt University in Berlin. Swimming in freezing water, cold plunges in ice water following a sauna, and other forms of cold immersion harden the body and benefit health by increasing resistance to chest infections, the German doctors say.
Dr Werner Siems, a biochemist at Herzog-Julius Hospital became interested after observing patients with rheumatoid arthritis who were given exposure to cold at -110C for up to three minutes at a time. Patients, who wear shoes and gloves and special protection for the nose, mouth, ears and other sensitive parts, report a reduction in pain following treatment in the cold chamber.
Studies of year-round swimmers, both men and women, have found that regular exposure to cold changes the body's chemistry, making it more resistant to oxidative stress. The swimmers' bodies have increased quantities of a substance, glutathione, and elevated levels of several enzymes that enable the body to remove reactive oxygen from the body more quickly.
It appears that swimming in cold water may help the body combat natural decay caused by reactive oxygen. Among the possible, but as yet unproven benefits could be protection against heart and blood vessel disease. "Modern life has a deficiency of stimulating factors such as cold, heat and physical stress and this results in poor resistance to disease," said Dr Siems. "Brief exposure to cold causes a mild oxidative stress which may prepare the body to resist a greater stress."
Cold treatment is popular in Siberia, where it has been witnessed by Professor William Keatinge, of Queen Mary and Westfield College in London, an expert on cold exposure.
"In Russia they call this treatment Ivanov therapy after a guru who walks in the snow barefoot and without a shirt," Professor Keatinge said. "I saw a number of expectant mothers in Krasnoyarsk, central Siberia, troop out of the hospital clinic into the snow in bikinis, meditate for a few minutes, and then troop back.
"But I was even more astonished to see a newborn baby given Ivanov therapy. The baby was only a few hours old when a nurse poured a bucket of ice-cold water over its head. Then I was shown a one-year-old boy who had been given the treatment every day of his life. He had become so used to cold water that he continued to play on the floor after it was poured over him as if nothing had happened."
Russian doctors particularly recommend the ice-water treatment for what they call post-Chernobyl syndrome, an anxiety condition recognised in Russia which may have psychological aspects similar to ME, the persistent fatigue syndrome.
Professor Keatinge has for many years been studying the increase in deaths in this country during the winter. He has shown that some 30,000 people in Britain die each winter as a result of exposure to cold. These are mostly older people who go outdoors wearing insufficient clothing during cold weather when they may, for example, have to wait in the cold at a bus stop.
"Cold stress acting over a period of half-an-hour to several hours causes the blood to become more concentrated and increases the risk of a heart attack," said Professor Keatinge. "Shorter exposures to cold may make people more resistant to it, but there are risks. People who swim in the cold may suffer heart attacks. So it is not advisable for older people, unless they have been doing it for a long time. It is particularly ill-advised for anyone who suffers from angina."
'It's brilliant. It is like an addiction'
The air had a frosty nip as Chris Ruocco dived into water at 9C (48F), writes Oliver Gillie. Every morning, winter or summer, Mr Ruocco swims in Highgate pond, north London, along with other members of the Highgate Lifebuoys.
He began swimming in the pond at the age of 10, when, as a boy boxer, he worked out with the legendary trainer, Georgie Francis, and has been swimming year in, year out ever since. The cold baptism of Highgate ponds has blessed a generation of boxers such as Frank Bruno, John Conteh, Cornelius Boza Edwards, and Bunny Stirling who all hardened themselves in its water under the guidance of Francis.
"It is good for toughening up," said Mr Ruocco, who won prizes in the ring as a young amateur.
The cold plunge gives Mr Ruocco a big lift before he begins his work as a tailor. His clients have included pop groups such as Wham!, Bananarama and Spandau Ballet. Now after more than three decades of toughening up Mr Ruocco does not look his age.
"An hour after swimming you feel a glorious glow through the body. It's brilliant. I have to do it. It is like an addiction," he said. In the winter the Lifebuoys have to break the ice before they can swim.
Along with a few others Mr Ruocco swims year round despite warnings from Health and Safety Officers employed by the City of London Corporation who are responsible for Highgate pond.
Tim Graydon, secretary of the Lifebuoys, warns: "You have to build up to it slowly. I wouldn't recommend cold swimming for someone who does not take other regular exercise. It doesn't matter who you are, diving into cold water in mid-winter is a shock to the system. Nobody can stand cold water for long - you have to get out sharpish."
The Lifebuoys, who were founded in 1903, run a Christmas day race which has had to be cancelled twice when the ice was too thick to break.
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Article below taken from Marksdailyapple.com with many thanks
Cold Water Therapy
You’re in the middle of a nice, hot shower, feeling your muscles relax, the day’s tension (or night’s sleepiness) melt away. As you bask in the quiet moment of repose, suddenly your body gets a startling jolt. After a second of disoriented shock, you realize something has happened to the hot water. Did someone start the washer? Is the water heater going berserk? Your hopes of relaxation now dashed, your stress level through the roof, you finish only the most obligatory rinsing and step out of the shower cursing, muttering and shivering as you reach for your towel.
But does a cold shower need to ruin the day? Can they actually be more than a nuisance, but a legitimate health therapy as some say? We thought we’d do some digging to explore the notion MDA reader Alex recently put forth: “The way Grok kept himself clean sure wasn’t with sustained periods of temperature controlled hot water. Maybe we shouldn’t either.” The results we found were very intriguing (and encouraging) indeed.
The underlying premise of cold water therapy is that briefly and somewhat regularly exposing the body to certain kinds of natural stresses (like cold water) can enhance health. Promoters of cold water therapy say that it can boost immune function, decrease inflammation and pain, and increase blood flow. Some argue that a shower setting is suitable, while others say some level of immersion is necessary for real benefit. What does the research say? Here’s what we found.
The benefits of cold water therapy appear to depend on the subject’s adaptation over time. In other words, regular polar dips seem to enhance long term health, but a single cold burst in the shower won’t offer much beyond a good wake-up jolt. The power of cold water therapy, it seems, is in the habituation itself.
In studies comparing regular winter swimmers with subjects not adapted to cold immersion, winter swimmers showed an ability “to survive a significantly greater temperature gradient between body and environment than non-cold-adapted subjects.” Their advantage over the non-adapted subjects was a modification of the “sensory functions of hypothalamic thermoregulatory centres to lower heat loss and produce less heat during cold exposure.” The researchers concluded that regular winter swimmers show “metabolic, hypothermic and insulative” kinds of adaptation to cold temperatures.
Cold showers, research shows, can help this habituation process, but only water at 10 degrees Celsius (as opposed to 15 degrees C) made a difference. Habituation also seems to be somewhat long-term. In a British study, subjects’ responses showed that habituation to cold water lasted 7-14 months as measured by respiration and heart rate.
Some of the specific benefits? A German study examined oxidative stress associated with ice-bathing in regular winter swimmers and found these swimmers showed an “adaptive response” through enhanced “antioxidative defense” as measured by several blood markers.
Other research highlighting cold water’s effect on immunity shows an increase in both the number and activity of peripheral cytotoxic T lymphocytes in those regularly exposed to cold therapies.
Full body cold water immersion and cryotherapy (cold air chamber) also resulted in a sustained increase in norepinephrine, which substantiates the long-term pain relief touted by cold therapy promoters. Exposure to cold also increases metabolic rate.
Finally, the benefits of cold water therapy show promise for those with chronic fatigue syndrome, chronic heart failure, and some (non-lymphoid) types of cancers.
So, are you intrigued yet? Though the jury may still be out on some of the findings related to specific medical conditions, healthy individuals seem to have much to gain from the cold. It’s all about upregulating our systems, taxing them in a healthy, natural way like intermittent fasting. While the findings don’t suggest people should, in the name of health, give up hot showers altogether (who would give them up even if they did!) Alex may have a legitimate point after all. We will be keeping our eyes and ears open for new research around cold water therapy for future posts.
Some specific suggestions based on the findings? Very cold showers appear to be beneficial for the purpose of habituation, but we’d recommend alternating them occasionally with immersion when you can. Those of you in Northern climates might have more fun and social occasions (e.g. New Year’s polar dips) for such an exercise, but we can all spare the water heater for a day now and then for a nice cold dip in the old tub.
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Article from ::blogfind healthy food:: with thanks
::Cold Shower Morning Health Benefit::
-The health benefits of a cold shower therapy.-
Nobody can deny that a cold shower is stimulating. When having a cold shower in the morning, our body, which are still left exhausted after sleeping at night can feel fresh and be ready to perform our daily activities. Cold showers stimulate the circulation, help the body rid itself of toxins, and can even promote energy and a sense of well-being.
Cold Shower Morning Health Benefit
The reason for this is the shocking effect a cold shower has on the system. As the change in temperature is the most important aspect of a cold shower, ensure that you shower in a warm room. If taken regularly, cold showers can increase your general health as well as help you feel energetic in the short term. Yoga practitioners recommend cold showers to help build immunity to cold and flu.
Showering with cold water everyday fools your body into thinking that you are about to get sick, so your immune system gets triggered and is prepared for any virus or microbes coming your way for the rest of the day. The other good news for men who want to pursue the cold shower treatment, cold showers may actually help if you are a male trying to father a child. This is because a cold shower stimulates the testicles so that they produce more sperm.
Hot showers cause depression, bad posture, back pain, lowering of the immune system, low energy, they are horrible for your skin as they dry it out completely and makes your skin looser and makes you look older, its bad for your hair as it also dries it out and makes it weak and brittle.
Warm water makes the blood rush to your skin, and cool water makes the blood rush to your organs. This switching between hot and cold triggers better circulation in your blood by forcing the blood to move. The ideal practice would be to switch numerous times between hot and cold water, but merely ending the shower with cold water does help with circulation. Why should you worry about having good circulation? Well, it prevents such problems as hypertension, hardening of the arteries, and the appearance of varicose veins. Good circulation improves the performance of your system and thus help looking and feeling better.
You should not try cold showers if you have a heart problem. Cold showers may cause discomfort to women during menstruation. These folks should try a lukewarm shower instead and avoid giving shocks to the body.
Cold showers have the following positive health effects:
•Brings blood to the capillaries, therefore increasing circulation throughout the body.
•Increase men fertility by produce more high quality sperm
•Cleans the circulatory system.
•Reduces blood pressure on internal organs.
•Provides flushing for the organs and provides a new supply of blood.
•Strengthens the parasympathetic and sympathetic nervous systems.
•Contracts the muscles to eliminate toxins and poisonous wastes.
•Strengthens the mucous membranes, which help resist hay fever, allergies, colds, coughs.
When we have cold showers, it sets the heart pumping, pushing oxygen and blood throughout the body at a higher rate. It contracts the muscles, which then take in fresh blood and release toxins. It stimulates circulation to all areas of the body. It also prompts a release of chemicals from your brain, waking you up. Once you are out of the shower, the increased circulation of oxygen in your body should give you a sense of calm and well-being.
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Article taken from http://www.1needmotivation.com/ with thanks
::A friend of mine is 45 years old, has no gray hair, and very good skin for her age. I wanted to find out if there was anything in her routine that could have been a reason for such youthful looks for her age (all without any surgery by the way!). Leaving genetics out of the equation for a moment, the one interesting thing that popped up was the fact that she takes a cold shower every morning. So I did a little research about the subject and found 4 main benefits that you gain by taking cold showers.
Now when I say cold shower, I want to clarify exactly what I mean by that. Taking a full cold shower, meaning no hot or warm or lukewarm water at all, is borderline torture! Especially in the cold winter months (I am from Montreal, and it is VERY cold here!). Besides, there are many benefits to taking a warm shower, the primary one being that it feels really good! But seriously, what I mean in this context, is the practice of starting with a warm shower, and ending the last few minutes with cool to cold water. Here are the benefits that you gain by incorporating a cold shower into your shower routine:
1- Better Circulation
Warm water makes the blood rush to your skin, and cool water makes the blood rush to your organs. This switching between hot and cold triggers better circulation in your blood by forcing the blood to move. The ideal practice would be to switch numerous times between hot and cold water, but merely ending the shower with cold water does help with circulation. Why should you worry about having good circulation? Well, it prevents such problems as hypertension, hardening of the arteries, and the appearance of varicose veins. Good circulation improves the performance of your system and thus help looking and feeling better.
2- Better looking skin
When you shower with warm water, it opens up your pores. Then you wash and this cleans up your pores. That’s all good. When you end, it would be best to close your pores and cold water does just that. It’s good to close your pores after you are all cleaned up because it will prevent the pores from being easily clogged by dirt and oil, which causes skin imperfections such as acne for example. Another benefit is that cold water makes your blood vessels constrict which reduces swelling and the appearance of dark circles under your eyes (where skin is at its thinnest). This provides you with a young, healthy glow.
3- Healthier hair
Cold water makes your hair look healthier and shinier. As a matter of fact, cool air makes your hair shinier too (that’s why there is a cool air button on your hair dryer). What the cold water does is that it closes the cuticle which makes the hair stronger and prevents dirt from easily accumulating within your scalp. Basically, the same principle with how it closes the pores of your skin as mentioned above. Stronger hair, of course, prevents hair from being easily pulled out when you are combing, and it helps in slowing down overall hair loss.
4- Mental benefits
There are plenty of mental benefits to ending your shower with cold water. The ancient samurai warriors used to pour buckets of cold river water on their heads every morning in a Shinto practice called Misogi. This was a purification ritual on a spiritual level. They believe that it cleansed their spirit and helped start a new day & new adventure fresh. Cold water obviously helps waking you up, which is what you want in the morning. Also, it energizes you and invigorates your entire being with the essence of life. Give it a try, you will definitely feel more alive! It can also lift you up if you are feeling a little down or unmotivated.
Ending your shower with cold water clearly has its advantages. Many benefits to cold showers, as you can see. I know this is something that can be very difficult for many people to do. The key is to not torture yourself. Go about it gradually. Start with a level of cold you can deal with, and slowly make it colder after each shower. As long as you get your feet wet (no pun intended!), and begin adding this routine at the end of your showers, you will be on your way to making a habit out of it and enjoy the benefits that this practice can bring you. Who knows, maybe you can avoid gray hair altogether like my friend! Maybe the fountain of youth is made up of very cold water?! ::
::the article below taken from gettingstronger.org:: with many thanks..
Want to experience the benefits of hormesis very directly? Take a cold shower! And don’t just try it once, make it a habit and take cold showers daily. I have been doing it daily for the past six months and am loving it!
As one form of hydrotherapy, the health benefits of cold water therapy are numerous. Cold showers provide a gentle form of stress that leads to thermogenesis (internal generation of body heat), turning on the body’s adaptive repair systems to strengthen immunity, enhance pain and stress tolerance, and ward off depression, overcome chronic fatigue syndrome, and stimulate anti-tumor responses.
Some people advocate starting with a warm shower, and switching over to cool or cold water only at the end of the shower. This is fine, particularly if you are afraid that a pure cold shower would just be too uncomfortable or intolerable. But I prefer just jumping right in. When you start with cold water, you will experience the phenomenon of cold shock, an involuntary response characterized by a sudden rapid breathing and increased heart rate. This in itself is very beneficial. The extent of cold shock has been shown to decrease with habituation, and exposure to colder water (10C or 50F) appears to be more effective than just cool water (15 C or 59F) in promoting habituation. The habituation itself is what is most beneficial, both objectively and subjectively. There is an analogy here with high intensity resistance exercise and interval training, both of which elevate heart rate and lead to long term adaptations to stress, with improved cardiovascular capacity and athletic performance.
But cold showers provide a different and probably complementary type of habituation to that which results from exercise. A study of winter swimmers compared them with a control group in their physiological response to being immersed in cold water: Both groups responded to cold water by thermogenesis (internal production of body heat), but the winter swimmers did so by raising their core temperature and did not shiver until much later than the controls, whereas the control subjects responded by shivering to increase their peripheral temperatures. The winter swimmers also tolerated much larger temperature differences and conserved their energy better. Other studies confirm that the benefits of habituation show up only after several weeks of cold showering. For example, adaptation to cold leads to increased output of the beneficial “short term stress” hormones adrenaline and thyroxine, leading to mobilization of fatty acids, and substantial fat loss over a 1-2 week period.
So regular cold showers, like high intensity exercise, and intermittent fasting, appear to provide similar, but not identical hormetic benefits.
But now I’d like to focus on the subjective experience of taking cold showers, something not commented on in many of the studies I’ve read. If you follow my approach and plunge right into a cold shower, you’ll get the initial “cold shock” mentioned above: a quickened pace of breathing and a pumping heart. Often I find myself involuntarily smiling or even laughing. For waking up, this beats caffeine. I keep the water cold the whole time. It helps to brace yourself when entering by gritting your teeth and stiffening your muscles. Go in head first and alternate from back to front to make sure you are getting cold all over, including your hands and arms and any sensitive zones. After about a minute, you’ll find the cold water starts to become more tolerable, and after 2 or 3 minutes you’ll feel your body getting warm by its own efforts. This is thermogenesis. I make a point of staying in the shower until I’m no longer uncomfortable. I found that at first my hands were the most sensitive part, and now they are no longer as sensitive, so they have habituated.
When I started taking cold showers, I measured the water temperature at around 60 F (16 C), but over time I have reduced this somewhat to 50-55 F (10-13C) as my body has adapted. (You can determine this by bringing into the shower a plastic cup and meat or candy thermometer and collecting some water once the temperature equilibrates). Of course, depending on where you live and the season, there is a lower limit to how cold you can go, but in general you should be able to get at least as cold as 60F in most places. Also, my cold showers used to be very short, maybe 4 or 5 minutes, but now they last as long as my previous warm showers, perhaps 10 minutes. I still take the occasional warm shower, perhaps once every week or so, but I prefer the cold ones.
I find that cold showers are great for the mood. Not only are they physically invigorating, they make you feel alive, vital and ready to take on the day. They stimulate thinking early in the morning. I also believe that they have the effect of slightly raising blood glucose very quickly — by perhaps 10 mg/dl, and thereby have an appetite suppressing effect. Generally, this rise in blood glucose is relatively short in duration, but that’s good enough to prime the pump and get the day started. This effect of cold showers works well with my practice of skipping breakfast most days and often fasting until dinner.
These effects are apparent with the first cold shower. If you continue the practice for several weeks, you’ll find the psychological benefits are even greater. First and foremost, cold showers appear to have improved my stress tolerance, by buffering emotional reactions. What I mean by this is that bad news, surprises, arguments, or events that would have previously caused a brief surge in adrenaline or an emotional flush, no longer have that effect, or at most have a very attenuated effect. I think this is a consequence of becoming acclimated to the the adrenaline-producing effect of the cold shock. A deeper explanation of why cold showers are effective in boosting mood, and why the psychological benefits of cold showers increase the longer and more frequently you take them is addressed in my recent post on the opponent-process theory of emotions.
As with any application of Hormetism, you can experiment with the intensity of cold, the duration, and the frequency of cold showers to improve your tolerance at a tolerable rate. If you find that your heart is beating uncomfortably fast or you are going numb, that’s a good reason to ease into the routine more slowly. But don’t sell yourself short and rush through a cold shower, because you may find that extending a few more minutes provides the greatest benefits in adapting your body to tolerate stress. Not just cold stress — but physical and emotional stress in general