It’s probably something that we’ve all had to think about at some stage. Either you’re used to taking a shower in the morning, or you like to soak in the tub at night, but then one day you had to spend time away from home, and the place you were staying at only had one or the other – only a shower, or only a bath. And with your usual customary shower or soak taken away from you, you were knocked out of your comfort zone and forced to adapt to something that you were not entirely used to. However, there may be more to it than mere personal choice.
In fact, taking a good soak in the bath has been proven to have several health benefits. The most obvious of these is the deep muscle relaxation caused by the warm water surrounding your body. This effect is very much like a massage. At the same time, your circulation improves due to the vasodilatory effect of the warm water (“vasodilatory” is a fancy way of saying that your blood vessels widen – chocolate and alcohol also cause this), making it easier for nourishing blood to reach the tissues of your body. The opposite effect, namely constriction (narrowing) of your blood vessels, is achieved by bathing in cold water.
Bathing in warm water has also been shown to decrease your blood sugar level, making it a good idea for those who have diabetes. Spending 30 minutes in a bath with the water at about 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) can cause a reduction in your blood sugar level of around 13%. Taking a cold bath has the opposite effect, by increasing your blood sugar. A further benefit of a warm bath is that it opens up your pores, so that toxins are able to leave your body. This cleansing effect is very important, and can be enhanced by the addition of milk to the water, which will make your skin softer and smoother. There is also a whole range of plant oils that you can add to the bath water in order to create an aromatherapy effect, such as chamomile, which relieves stress.
However, there are those who do not enjoy taking a bath. Besides the time factor, a bath also uses more water than a shower. This is an issue particularly in homes of more than one person. There cannot be many things as annoying as turning on the taps in the shower only to be greeted by cold water because someone has used up all the hot water running a bath. And obviously the more water you use, the more you are going to pay for it.
A bath holds anything between 100 and 200 litres of water, which is about 30 to 50 gallons. That’s a lot of water – you could make 400 to 800 cups of tea with that amount of water. A shower doesn’t even use half of that. And you should also keep in mind that most of the water in the bath is hot water, which requires energy to heat. The geyser is one of the biggest consumers of energy in a home. You can try switching it off at strategic times in order to save energy, but you can’t really prevent the large amount of energy that it takes to run a bath. And one day you may forget to switch the geyser on again, and then you will be forced to take an icy dip, or wait a few hours.
Speaking of icy dips, taking a cold shower has been found to have several health benefits. Besides the fact that it is a sure-fire way of waking you up properly in the morning, it also improves circulation, by causing more blood to flow to your organs. The cold water causes your body’s metabolic rate to rise, and it is believed that this improves the functioning of your immune system.
For the guys, cold showers have been shown to increase the level of testosterone in your body. This isn’t only about macho tendencies – men may find that due to the increased level of the hormone, they will have more energy in general. Research has also shown that bathing in warm water decreases a man’s sperm count, due to the relatively high temperature of the water surrounding the testes. This is something to keep in mind if you are struggling with infertility issues.
However, there are times when a cold shower should be avoided. If you are suffering from heart disease, high blood pressure or a fever, a cold shower is not a good idea, due to the fact that it causes constriction of your blood vessels. The sudden cooling of your body may also exacerbate the fever.
Modern psychology recognises that some people simply hate showering – the condition is known as ablutophobia, or fear of showers. But for whatever reason, there are those of us who prefer to take a bath, just as there are those who shower every day while the bath gathers dust and trapped insect corpses. It’s as much about personal choice as your favourite colour or the food that you eat. But at least you can say that next time you’re deciding whether to take a soak or a quick shower, you are making an informed choice.
