Cold medicine
Doing physical education, neglecting hardening, is the same as leaving the front door open, strengthening the walls of a fortress before an assault. Hardening the body is an affordable, cheap and quite effective means of preventing colds and flu, which account for about half of all cases of temporary disability and thereby cause enormous material damage to society.
For hardened people, flu and acute respiratory diseases (ARI) are a rather rare phenomenon.
The healing properties of cold and icy water have been known for a long time. Even doctors of Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome used bathing in cold water. The names of Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Asclepius, Antony Muses are most closely associated with the propaganda and use of cold water procedures for health improvement. Avicenna resorted to hardening the body, doctors and teachers in the Middle Ages and in subsequent centuries called for it. In Russia, treatment with cold water has long been practiced. In the 19th century, the use of cold water as a therapeutic and hardening agent became widespread. This was facilitated by the propaganda activities of the Silesian peasant Vincent Prisnitz and his compatriots: Professor Winteritz - in the first half of the 19th century, and in the second - the folk doctor Sebastian Kneipp, called the "apostle of cold water".
Although more than enough has been said and written about the benefits of hardening with cold water, at present, practical successes in this area are very small and the number of colds is not decreasing, but tends to grow, despite the significant efforts of our doctors. After all, hypothermia of an organism that does not have a high degree of resistance to cold plays a significant role in the occurrence of influenza-like diseases (the maximum number of diseases occurs in the autumn-winter months, that is, in the period characterized by low temperatures). The material costs of society associated with this disease alone are enormous. The nature of this phenomenon can be partially explained by the fact that a simple and wise means of hardening has been forgotten - pouring cold water over it, but the main reason lies in the low efficiency of traditional hardening methods.
As is known, in the existing recommendations for hardening with cold water, it is proposed to start the procedure with pouring warm water (32-330 C), reducing the water temperature by 10 C after 1-2 days. And only after a long time (1.5 - 2 months or more) can one proceed to cold procedures if the person is healthy and not weakened.
An increasing number of specialists believe that this method does not justify itself. Thus, V. A. Sergeev (1967) points out that "according to the new idea, resistance to cold should be developed under the influence of cold, with a gradual increase in the duration of the procedures. For example, having started the first pouring of cold water up to the waist for 2-3 seconds, its duration should be increased by 1 second per day."
"The practice of the Nikitin family, numerous winter swimming clubs also assures that the "pitiful" hardening method has outlived its usefulness" (V. A. Sergeev, 1974).
S. B. Tikhvinsky (1972) said the following about the hardening methods used: "It is time to review traditional hardening methods as ineffective, and to study more carefully the accumulated experience of enthusiasts of non-traditional hardening methods."
So, not a gradual decrease in water temperature, but the effect on the body immediately with cold water. It is only necessary to increase the time of pouring and the area of irrigation of the body.
Experiments by I. A. Arshavsky (1990) showed that in a short time (from 10 s to 1-2 min) the human body does not stop cooling down, but the entire nervous system wakes up, the body's thermoregulators are actively included.
It is advisable to pour water completely with your head. A wonderful doctor, Mikhail Lomovsky, a confident follower of cold water, who practiced hydrotherapy in hospitals, noted that all you need is strength and steadfastness of good will and cold healing streams of crystal well water, which, irrigating from head to toe, will strengthen everyone's health in all respects.
For those who find it difficult to completely douse themselves, you can start with the legs (at least from the knees). If this is also difficult to do, then you can start at least with the feet. The main thing is not to be afraid and carry out dousing procedures without interrupting them for a single day.
The main criterion for the duration of the procedure is personal feelings, however, the duration of the procedure should not exceed 1-2 minutes. You should not "brag" about cold water, you should not set any records! The duration of the procedure is an individual matter. For a guideline, you can still indicate the initial time of dousing - 5-10 seconds. After all, the main thing here is not even the hardening effect of cold water, but the activation of the central nervous system. I. P. Pavlov explained the mechanism of the beneficial effect of cold on the body by "shock of nerve cells", a sharp effect on the central nervous system.
A powerful, but short-term dose of cold leads to an increase in metabolic processes in the body. And this, in turn, leads to the production of an increased dose of heat inside it. Therefore, after pouring cold water, it is not recommended to rub the body, but only to dry it. If the body is still cold (this can sometimes be observed at first), then you should do exercises or run. Yu. N. Chusov (1985) advises to warm up after bathing in cold water.
Under the influence of cold impulses, stimulation of the endocrine glands occurs, which leads to an increase in the reactivity of the body, that is, the mobilization of all its protective forces.
Experiments by A. K. Podshybyakin, I. A. Kairo (1986) showed that the main cause of colds is not a strong, sharp effect of cold, but a slow, weak cooling of part of the skin surface. Short but sharp temperature drops (19-150C) lead to a rapid restoration of the temperature of the cooled area.
According to G. V. Folbort (1962), the faster the heat energy of an organ, system or organism is spent during muscular activity, the faster the recovery processes in them occur.
Insufficient intensity and short duration of cold exposure do not lead to the development of stable adaptive processes of adaptation to cooling in both humans and animals.
Practice also confirms that the short-term sharp effect of cold stress when dousing with water is more physiological than a gradual decrease in water temperature by 1, 2, 3 0C or more. By the way, this method of gradually lowering water temperature is very complicated at home and, moreover, poorly substantiated, which has served as the reason for a critical attitude towards it.
In a naked person at rest, the increase in metabolic processes when the external temperature decreases by 10C is 10%, and with intensive cooling they can increase three times compared to the level of basal metabolism.
In the range of body temperature from 36-370C to 32-300C, a number of functional systems are activated. Pulmonary ventilation increases due to both acceleration and deepening of breathing. Oxygen consumption by the body increases. An increase in pulmonary ventilation and gas exchange leads to an increase in blood oxygen tension in the arterial system and its decrease in the venous system. The hemoglobin content and the number of erythrocytes increase.
The cold effect causes a narrowing of the skin vessels, a decrease in blood flow and thermal conductivity of the skin. It is estimated that the maximum narrowing of the skin vessels can increase the body's thermal insulation by 4 times.
With intense cooling, along with the narrowing of the skin vessels, their expansion also takes place. This is the so-called cold vasodilation. In this case, the skin temperature initially decreases, but after 3-5 minutes it increases due to the expansion of the skin vessels. In skeletal muscles, muscle blood flow increases, which can increase 5-9 times, coronary blood flow even becomes more intense during cold stress. This contributes to adequate blood supply to the heart muscle.
In people trained for cold, oxygen utilization from inhaled air increases, evaporative and convective heat transfer decreases, and this reduces the risk of cold damage to the respiratory organs.
Due to the reduction in heat loss, the energy requirement for maintaining temperature in a hardened person decreases by an average of 20%. It is important to note that the increase in the body's heat production is also facilitated by the contractile activity of muscles. Shivering causes additional heat production, and the process of muscle contraction itself includes the so-called muscle pumps (N. I. Arinchyn, 1984), which in turn facilitate the work of the heart, since they themselves perform the function of cardiac contraction. The generally accepted opinion that shivering is an unfavorable factor in hardening should be reconsidered. If it comes to shivering, and this happens much less often in hardened people than in ordinary people, then there is no particular danger in this. Of course, it is not desirable that shivering appears as late as possible, in the cold.
In the muscles of people trained for the cold, an increase in bioelectrical activity is observed without the development of tension in the muscles themselves. The study of bioelectrical processes shows that this increases the tone of blood vessels and reduces heat loss.
In an adapted person, the functioning of "cold" points, skin thermoreceptors, changes significantly. The process of thermoregulation becomes more economical and perfect. It is still necessary to clarify why the number of such points decreases: perhaps, the transition to a warmer lifestyle, the use of clothing by a person, additional adaptations (in this case, these are points) have developed in the body, which are not always necessary.