Dr Paul Galbraith in his book Reversing Ageing — The Natural Way Look and Feel Ten Years Younger talks about how a shower can make you look and feel years younger.
Water is the most universal and the most ancient of all remedial agents, dating back to the days of the early Egyptian and Assyrian dynasties. The early Spartans enacted laws making cold-water bathing compulsory, while under the Romans the therapeutic use of water reached a peak. In Japan, the cold bath has been used for healing for over 900 years.
Two personalities stand out in the history of the therapeutic use of water. The first is Hippocrates, the ‘Father of Medicine’. He successfully treated the great variety of maladies with water therapy, including fevers, ulcers and hemorrhages. He had an excellent understanding of the physiological properties of water. The second is Vincent Priessnitz, an Austrian farmer’s son who observed that sick animals tried to get to streams and rivers to bathe in running water. In the early 1800s he built a water treatment establishment that could deal with 100o patients at a time—a forerunner of the modern hydrotherapy spas of Europe.
With proper procedure, a hot shower followed by a short cool shower, or a cool shower alone, can rejuvenate the whole system. There are two basic techniques you can use: one from yoga and the other a modern Western technique. Both are based on the same principle and work equally well, so try both to see which suits better.
When the body is warmed up, either by a hot water shower or exercise, the blood vessels in the skin expand, increasing their capacity to take in blood. To fill these expanded blood vessels in the skin, blood rushes from the deeper tissues to the skin. When a brief cool shower is then taken, the skin blood vessels contract, causing more warm blood to go back to the deeper tissues. At the same time, the brain records this coolness in the skin area and compensates by sending the warm blood from the liver into circulation. This causes fresh warm blood to go to all parts of the body. This flushing of the deeper tissues of the body with extra fresh warm blood causes a general feeling of warmth throughout the body, even though a cool shower has been taken. It also causes a feeling of vitality and freshness.
This warm glow and feeling of vitality will last all day if the proper technique is followed. The technique also shows how to stimulate the powerful nerve centers of the spine, including the solar plexus.
It’s important to follow these instructions for maximum benefits.
The yoga shower
This involves a cool shower only, without warming up with a hot shower first. Some aerobic (fitness) exercise is done first to warm up. This may be a jog, a brisk walk, aerobics or just running on the spot for two minutes.
Next take a cool shower for a few minutes. Make sure the water is cool, and not cold. Cold water is unpleasant and can be a shock to the body not used to it. Over a period of a few months you may gradually make the water cooler, allowing your body to adapt to completely cold water. It’s also best to run the shower slowly, so as not to cool the body excessively. To warm yourself up in the shower, rub your body vigorously with your hands or a coarse cloth. This also enhances the physiological effect of the shower. To further increase the effectiveness, breath deeply while taking the shower.
After the shower, rub the hands vigorously over the body several times. There is something in the human hand that cannot be duplicated by a towel. Continue the deep breathing while you do this. Don’t dry yourself; just leave a little moisture on the surface of the skin.
Next, dress immediately in warm clothes. Don’t worry, you won’t feel cold. In fact, you will experience a pleasant feeling of warmth all over the body and radiate a magnetic flow. This is what the Yogis call the “warm reaction”. It’s an indication that your whole day is being rejuvenated makes you feel better the whole day.
To further intensify the effect, do a little exercise immediately after dressing, like running on the spot.
If you find cool water too daunting, start with water that is just warm and gradually make the water cooler.
The western method
The basic difference from the Yoga method is that the Western method a hot shower is taken before the cool shower, and after the shower the body us dried vigorously with the towel.
Exercise is not necessary with this method as the body is already warm due to the hot water shower, although aerobic type exercise before the shower will increase its effectiveness.
Take a hot shower for two to three minutes. Next turn the shower to cool — as cool as you can take — but make sure you run the cool shower slowly. Run the cool shower for about thirty seconds only, simultaneously rubbing the body vigorously with your hands. Don’t run the cool shower for more than about thirty seconds, since it’s rule of the hydrotherapy that the hot shower should last between four and five times linger than the cool shower. If you run the cool shower for too long, the body will cool down too much and you will lose some of the benefit.
After the shower, rub the body almost dry with your hands and then dry completely with thick towel. Dress warmly immediately and spend two or three minutes doing light exercise to increase the effect.
As with the yoga shower, you will experience a peculiar warm glow will last day and indicate the rejuvenation is taking place.
The streamlined method
All you do is direct slow-running cool water on the scalp and face for about ten seconds only, and then run cool water on the lower half of the spine, at the level of the navel, for about ten seconds. This area of the spine is where the solar plexus is located. This can be done with or without first taking a hot shower. Make sure you follow the other procedures as described in the yoga or the Western shower, depending on whether you take hot shower first or not.
Cool water on the head stimulates the brain, the most important nerve centre and organ in the body. Cool water on the lower half of the spine stimulates the solar plexus, which is the second most important nerve center in the body — in fact it is regarded by yoga as a second brain. It is composed of white and gray matter similar to that of the brain, controls the main internal organ and plays a much more important role than is recognised by modern science. The yoga masters consider the solar plexus to be the great central storehouse of prana (life force). ‘Solar’ is a good name for this powerful nerve center, since it radiates strength and energy to all the parts of the body. Even the brain depends upon it as a storehouse of prana.
Two or three minutes of exercise will enhance the effect of the shower. This method is the synthesis of ancient yoga and modern science and is very time economical.
If you have heart trouble, don’t use cold water, since the stimulation may be excessive. Instead use water that is just cool, and make sure you are feeling warm first.
Benefits
The rejuvenation showers produce several benefits including increased vitality due to stimulation of all glands, especially the adrenal glands. There is an increase in the blood circulation and in body metabolism, including increased efficiency in burning up excess fat. There is also an increase in blood count. More blood cells in circulation mean more oxygen in the system and more resistance to infection.
This shower stimulates the nervous system, including the brain and spine. There is an increase in muscle and skin tone. The muscles and skin will become firmer, giving a younger, healthier appearance.
The book is published by Orient Paperback and is priced at Rs 190.
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