Showers - Feeling down? Have a cold shower, says expert

21/12/2007

A cold shower can be effective treatment for sufferers of debilitating depression, it has been claimed.

According to Nikolai Shevchuk of the Department of Radiation Oncology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, who is the author of a study into the subject, immersing yourself in cold water won't just make you cleaner, it'll clear your mind too.

Mr Shevchuk believes this is because cold showers stimulate the locus cerelus - or blue spot - in the brain.

The cerelus is then prompted to produce the hormone noradrenaline, which has been shown to help mitigate depression.

Just as possible, however, is that cold showers deliver a small electric shock, not entirely dissimilar to more brutal treatments for depression from our less enlightened past, Mr Shevchuk said.

He told Discovery News: "The possible antidepressant effect may also have to do with the mild electroshock delivered to the brain by a cold shower, because of the unusually high density of cold receptors in the skin."

Heat and Plumb don't do therapy. We do however sell showers and shower fittings aplenty, including products from Image, Duchy, Wadebridge, Duchy and Coram.