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5 Possible Health Benefits of Cold Water Therapy

Taking an icy plunge may help relieve pain, aid exercise recovery, and boost your mood. Here’s what research and experts say.
5 Possible Health Benefits of Cold Water Therapy
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Updated on June 24, 2025
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Sitting in a tub of ice-cold water may sound a bit crazy, yet people worldwide do it regularly for its potential health benefits.

This practice, known as cold water immersion, is becoming an increasingly popular form of cold water therapy. Wim “the Iceman” Hof, a Dutch extreme athlete, earned his nickname by breaking world records related to cold exposure, as well as by creating a program involving cold water immersion, breath work, and willpower for possible wellness perks. But Hof wasn’t the first.

Various cultures have used cold water as a cryotherapeutic practice (an umbrella term for therapies involving cold temperatures) for thousands of years.

 And today, physical therapists, chiropractors, personal trainers, and other healthcare professionals use cold water immersion and other forms of cold water therapy (such as contrast water therapy, which alternates exposure to hot and cold water) to relieve pain, potentially speed up muscle recovery, and more.

5 Potential Health Benefits of Cryotherapy

Cold therapy, also known as cryotherapy, can reduce pain, boost muscle recovery, and even aid in weight loss.
5 Potential Health Benefits of Cryotherapy

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How Cold Water Therapy Works

Plunging your body into cold water causes blood vessels to constrict (known as vasoconstriction).

 When blood vessels contract, they push blood toward your organs, says Jonathan Leary, a doctor of chiropractic medicine and the CEO and founder of Remedy Place, a wellness facility with offices in New York City, Boston, and California that offer ice bath classes. Directing blood toward the organs supplies them with more oxygen and nutrients, he explains.
When you get out of the cold water, your blood vessels open up (known as vasodilation), Dr. Leary says. This allows oxygen- and nutrient-rich blood to return to your tissues to help remove waste products like lactic acid buildup. If left to sit in the muscles, that waste may delay healing.

Here are some of the potential health benefits of cold water therapy.

1. May Enhance Recovery From Exercise

Many professional and everyday athletes who work with licensed trainers or healthcare professionals use cold water therapy to aid recovery from an intense workout. Some evidence suggests that cold-water immersion reduces delayed onset muscle soreness after exercise, compared with passive interventions involving rest (or no intervention at all).

To evaluate different types of cold therapy, researchers in a randomized, controlled trial of 10 men compared cold water immersion (10 minutes at 50 degrees F) with whole-body cryotherapy (three minutes at negative 166 degrees F) for lowering muscle soreness after exercise. They found that cold water immersion may be more effective than whole-body cryotherapy (a therapeutic technique that involves sitting or standing in a chamber where the air is up to negative 200 degrees F).

 However, much larger studies are needed to better understand the efficacy of different cold therapy techniques on postexercise recovery, per one article.

Another caveat: Cold water immersion may limit long-term gains in muscle growth and strength, according to research.

 “You wouldn’t want to use it after every single workout,” says Scott J. Biehl, DO, an orthopedic and sports medicine physician at Rochester Regional Health in New York. He recommends saving it for after a particularly intense training session, game, or competition.

2. May Reduce Pain

Cold water therapy may help with short-term (acute) and long-term (chronic) pain in a couple of ways.

The first is by lowering inflammation. “Inflammation in the body can cause pain, so if you can reduce inflammation, you may be able to reduce overall pain,” says John Gallucci Jr., DPT, a medical coordinator for Major League Soccer based in Bridgewater, New Jersey.

Contrast water therapy — alternating between hot and cold water — may be especially helpful. In fact, contrast water therapy has reportedly been used for treating pain from rheumatoid arthritis, carpal tunnel syndrome, foot and ankle sprains, and diabetes, according to a descriptive laboratory study published in the Journal of Athletic Training.

It’s thought that switching from hot to cold water creates a pumping effect as the blood vessels constrict and expand. This boosts blood flow to deliver more oxygen and nutrients to the tissues, helping lower inflammation.

Another way that cold water therapy may help with pain is through its effects on the nerves. Some research suggests that both water immersion and cold temperatures block nerve cells that signal pain in the body.


Possible Health Benefits of Cold Water Therapy, May enhance exercise recovery, may reduce pain, may improve circulation, may boost mood, ice bucket illustration center, everyday health logo bottom left
Everyday Health

3. May Improve Circulation

Many of cold water therapy’s perks can be traced back to its effects on circulation.

In that Journal of Athletic Training study, 10 healthy adults had a 30-minute contrast water session with one lower leg submerged and the other above water. Researchers found that contrast water therapy significantly improved circulation and increased oxygen levels in the submerged leg muscles, compared with the leg that wasn’t submerged.

The circulatory system (also known as the cardiovascular system) pumps blood to the lungs to transfer oxygen via the heart to the rest of the body. The better that your heart and blood vessels can perform these functions, the better they’ll be able to rid your body of waste. The end result? Healthier organs, muscles, and tissues, per the Cleveland Clinic.

4. May Boost Your Mood

The bracing effects of cold water may offer a quick mood boost.

A study of 33 healthy adults, ages 20 to 45, who took a 68 degree F bath for five minutes found that participants reported feeling more active and alert, and less distressed and nervous, after a cold water bath. The authors conclude that submerging the body, but not the head, in cold water for short periods of time may be associated with a positive effect on the brain, including increased levels of dopamine.

 Dopamine is known as the “feel good hormone” because of the key role it plays in regulating mood, per the Cleveland Clinic.

“Dopamine boosts our mental state at the moment, and it also helps with mental acuity and alertness throughout the day,” says Mathew Welch, CSCS, an exercise physiologist at the Hospital for Special Surgery in New York City.

Another small randomized, controlled trial out of Indonesia found that taking a 20-minute cold water bath (68 to 86 degrees F) four days a week lowered pain and improved overall quality of life in people with gout. The subjects reported less stress, anxiety, and depression by the end of the four-week study. However, some mood benefits may have been due to improvements in pain and mobility, not necessarily attributed to cold water therapy directly.

While some research suggests that cold water therapy may benefit depression and anxiety,

 it can’t replace conventional care for mood disorders, Dr. Biehl says.

5. May Build Resilience

Regularly challenging yourself to withstand cold temperatures may help you build resilience, or the ability to handle other stressful situations when they arise.

“I think there’s a lot to be said about exposing your body to those types of stimuli in a controlled manner,” Welch says. Exposure to cold water triggers the release of hormones like adrenaline, epinephrine, and noradrenaline (also known as norepinephrine), he explains, all of which are associated with the fight-or-flight response.

In addition, a survey of routine winter ocean bathers found that this practice was associated with lower levels of self-reported stress and greater well-being, compared with those who did not enter cold ocean waters, according to research.

This hormone release is part of your body’s natural stress response. “We go through an alarm phase when we’re hit with a stressor like cold water,” Welch says. “Then we have a resistance phase, when our body adapts to the stressor.” Eventually, you’ll reach a point at which you’re more resilient to the cold water.

“This is more of a mental benefit than a physical benefit, but for people struggling with anxiety or those who feel like they lack the control to start teaching their body and mind to remain calm in extreme situations, cold water therapy can be an amazing thing,” Leary says.

The Takeaway

  • Cold water therapy has been used for healing purposes by cultures around the world for thousands of years, and today, many people frequently take ice baths, cold plunges, and chilly showers for purported health benefits.
  • Possible benefits of cold water therapy include improved circulation and boosted mood, as well as reduced pain and enhanced postexercise recovery.
  • However, research is limited on the possible mental and physical benefits of this practice, so be sure to speak with your healthcare provider before trying it.
EDITORIAL SOURCES
Everyday Health follows strict sourcing guidelines to ensure the accuracy of its content, outlined in our editorial policy. We use only trustworthy sources, including peer-reviewed studies, board-certified medical experts, patients with lived experience, and information from top institutions.
Resources
  1. Allan R et al. Cold for Centuries: A Brief History of Cryotherapies to Improve Health, Injury and Post-Exercise Recovery. European Journal of Applied Physiology. February 23, 2022.
  2. Xiao F et al. Effects of Cold Water Immersion After Exercise on Fatigue Recovery and Exercise Performance—Meta Analysis. Frontiers in Physiology. January 20, 2023.
  3. How Cold Water Immersion Therapy Works. Rochester Regional Health. May 31, 2022.
  4. Moore E et al. Impact of Cold-Water Immersion Compared with Passive Recovery Following a Single Bout of Strenuous Exercise on Athletic Performance in Physically Active Participants: A Systematic Review with Meta-analysis and Meta-regression. Sports Medicine. February 14, 2022.
  5. Abaïdia A-E et al. Recovery From Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: Cold-Water Immersion Versus Whole-Body Cryotherapy. International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance. March 12, 2017.
  6. Allan R et al. Cold for Centuries: A Brief History of Cryotherapies to Improve Health, Injury and Post-Exercise Recovery. European Journal of Applied Physiology. February 23, 2022.
  7. Fuchs CJ et al. Postexercise Cooling Impairs Muscle Protein Synthesis Rates in Recreational Athletes. The Journal of Physiology. February 2020.
  8. Shadgan B et al. Contrast Baths, Intramuscular Hemodynamics, and Oxygenation as Monitored by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy. Journal of Athletic Training. August 2018.
  9. Mooventhan A et al. Scientific Evidence-Based Effects of Hydrotherapy on Various Systems of the Body. North American Journal of Medical Sciences. May 2014.
  10. Circulatory System. Cleveland Clinic. September 4, 2024.
  11. Yankouskaya A et al. Short-Term Head-Out Whole-Body Cold-Water Immersion Facilitates Positive Affect and Increases Interaction between Large-Scale Brain Networks. Biology. January 19, 2023.
  12. Dopamine. Cleveland Clinic. March 23, 2022.
  13. Kurniasari MD et al. Cold Water Immersion Directly and Mediated by Alleviated Pain to Promote Quality of Life in Indonesian with Gout Arthritis: A Community-based Randomized Controlled Trial. Biological Research For Nursing. April 2022.
  14. Demori I et al. Effects of Winter Sea Bathing on Psychoneuroendocrinoimmunological Parameters. Explore. March-April 2021.
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