The Herbal Medicine-Maker's Handbook_ A Home Manual - James Green [134]
Heat and cold, as noted before, are relative terms. Objects are recognized as cold by the body when they have a temperature less than that of the skin—and the reverse. For convenience in this discussion of the physiological effects of water, as well as for describing therapeutic application of various forms of baths, we can use the terms that have been commonly applied: very cold, cold, cool, tepid, warm, hot, very hot. It is not easy, however, to fix the limits of temperature to which each term should be applied, and this seems to have given rise to much discussion in the hydrotherapy world.
The following table of temperatures appears agreeable to most hydrotherapy texts and is convenient for our practical application:
Very cold 32° to 50° F.
Cold 50° to 65° F.
Cool 65° to 75° F.
Tepid 75° to 85° F.
Warm 85° to 98° F.
Hot 98° to 104° F.
Very hot 104° F. and above.
WHOLE BODY BATHS
THE COLD BATH (QUICK COLD PLUNGE)
(APPROXIMATELY 32° TO 65° F.)
The effects of cold water on the living body are complex. They include the direct abstraction of heat, and are followed by a multitude of fascinating reflex effects due to the mutually responsive relations between the skin and the body’s internal organs. The interior of a healthy body maintains a certain average temperature or within two or three degrees of it, in spite of the temperature of the surrounding medium. The loss of heat by the contact of cold water with the skin is more or less completely balanced by the generation of heat through the organic changes which are steadily active in every tissue. This immediate and powerful reaction of the body to cold, along with its efforts to replace the heat that has been lost by restoring the equilibrium of the body temperature, is referred to, in hydrotherapy circles, as a thermic reaction.
The brief application of cold to the skin is so quickly followed by thermic reaction that the effects seem to be those of direct stimulation, mimicking the body’s initial reactions to the application of heat. However, when the body undergoes a continual abstraction of heat by a prolonged immersion in cold water (or any cold medium), all the vital processes are depressed; there is a diminished production of heat, the skin grows pale and shriveled, the internal organs are overloaded with blood, the pulse beats slowly, the secretions are diminished, and the muscles grow lethargic.
When a person plunges into a cold bath, she or he is first sensible of a sudden sensation of cold upon the surface, accompanied by an oppression of breathing, causing this function to be performed in convulsive gasps. This is called the shock, and is caused by a rapid contraction of the cutaneous capillaries pushing a rush of blood back to the lungs and other internal organs. In a short time the difficulty of breathing disappears, the temperature becomes agreeable, and if the person now leaves the water, a warmth of the surface of the body comes on, termed the glow or the reaction. This is followed by a sense of invigoration of the entire system and an upliftment of the mind and emotions. (Try it, you’ll love the glow, invigoration, and upliftment parts.)
However, should the person remain too long in the water, for whatever reason, another train of symptoms becomes apparent. The sensation of cold soon turns to an unpleasant degree of chilliness, followed by tremors. Soon, the surface of the body shows a bluish tint as the blood accumulates in the internal organs. Upon leaving the water there