Body Warmth before Cold bath Important
Many people take colder baths than they should for their condition, then stand before a fire or radiator, or use some other form of artificial heat, to bring about the reaction their own powers fail to provide. Cold bathing under such condi¬tions will not be sufficiently beneficial to justify its use. Such artificial heat brings about an atonic reaction, as do all hot applications.
It would be far better to take very moderate baths and have the reaction come about naturally through response of the vital mechanism governing reaction. This does not apply to bathing in a warm room. It is necessary that the skin be warm before taking a cold bath, and this is more likely to be the case when the room is warm. But artificial heat applied to the surface warms the skin and brings the blood to the surface from the interior through no increase in heat production within the body. Hence it cannot be invigorating and bracing. However, if one has taken a bath too cold for normal reaction to take place, it is better to bring about warmth of body by artificial heat than to remain cold. After that the temperature of the bath water should be tem¬pered so that such artificial warming will not be necessary. A very important condition governing reaction is that one should be thoroughly warm before taking a bath.
For this reason a good time to take the bath is immediately after jumping out of bed in the mornings, provided the place of bathing is conveniently near and at the proper temperature so that there will be no chilling of the body between the time of arising and entering the bath. For the same reason it is usually advantageous to take the cold bath after active exer¬cise, when one is warmed through and through with the natural heat of the body.
There is an old theory that one should never take a cold bath when the body is very warm. But the supposed dangers of this have been greatly exaggerated, to say the least. If there were any truth in the theory, it would be detrimental to summer bathers to jump into ocean, lake, or river, for in many cases the bodies of these bathers are very warm without any exertion whatever, while the water may be at such low tem-peratures as to cause a distinct shock to whoever enters it. There would also be considerable detriment to health in taking the Turkish or Russian bath, either of which is followed by a cold application.