Who and when can safely take cold shower

This article is based on clinical experience of 200 Russian doctors. They taught the Buteyko self-oxygenation breathing therapy to ten thousands of Russian patients. (This therapy is officially approved by Russian Health Ministry). Taking cold shower is an integral part of the Buteyko breathing method. Why? Doctor Buteyko and his colleagues found that taking cold shower, when safe, increases oxygenation of the body and improves personal well-being.

For these reasons, all these doctors explained the main rules regarding water- and cold-tempering activities. When it is safe? Rule #1 is to have sufficient body oxygen stores. The patient should measure own oxygenation level using the stress-free breath holding time test: the CP (Control Pause). For this medical therapy, the CP is the key parameter of health.

How the CP test is done?
After your usual exhale, pinch your nose and count your breath holding time (CP) in seconds. Keep nose pinched until you experience the first desire to breathe. Practice shows that this first desire appears together with an involuntary push of the diaphragm or swallowing movement in the throat. (Your body warns you, "Enough!") If you release the nose and start breathing at this time, you can resume your usual breathing pattern (in the same way as you were breathing prior to the test).
Do not extend breath holding too long. This is the most common mistake. You should not gasp for air or open your mouth when you release your nose. The test should be easy and not cause you any stress. The CP test does not interfere with your usual breathing.
These Russian doctors tested thousands of patients and discovered the following results.
Severely sick, hospitalized, and terminally ill patients have from 1 to 10 s CP. With approaching death, their breathing gets bigger, deeper, and heavier, while breath holding time approaches zero: 5, 4, 3, 2, and only 1 second of oxygen in the body just before the death.
Sick patients with mild forms of the disease (asthma, heart disease, diabetes, cancer, etc.) have about 10-20 s CP. These patients are usually on medication to control their symptoms.
Asymptomatic asthmatics, heart patients and many others have slightly more than 20 s of oxygen.
Healthy adults, according to published western results, should have about 40 s CP, but Doctor Buteyko found that 60 s CP is incompatible with about 150 chronic diseases or diseases of civilization. Hence, he established 60 s as a standard of ideal health.

Rule #1, according to Russian doctors, is to have over 20 s of oxygen in the body when you take cold shower. If one’s oxygenation is less, the patient is likely to get an infection, fever, sore throat, blocked nose, and/or other negative symptoms.
Other rules are:
2. Start with warming up bones and deeper body tissues with warm water, if they got cold after prolonged cold exposure.
3. Very gradually change water temperature from warm to cold (or apply cold water to various body parts in sequence) so that transition to cold is very gradual (up to 40-60 s).
4. Apply cold shower for about 30-60 s.
5. If you use contrast shower (cold-warm-cold-warm…), always finish with cold water.
You should not take cold shower immediately after exhausting physical exercise, or when your blood glucose level can be low, or soon after meals. Ideally, it should be done on empty stomach.

Regular cold showers promote formation of brown fat cells (with large mitochondria concentrations), favor redistribution of blood volume from the surface of the body to the brain, heart, and other internal organs, and increase our sense of health and well-being.