NatNews

It’s not uncommon for an individual to have experienced the unexpected situation of being in the shower and either losing hot water or discovering only cold water is available at the time. For some, it’s a tragic event. However, others might not mind it as much, and there are even individuals who intentionally take cold showers on a regular basis.

Standing under a shower head spewing out frigid water can actually result in several benefits, including improved circulation, a healthier skin appearance, improved muscle recovery, a boost in one’s immune system, reduction in pain, a decrease in depression symptoms, and a potential increase in metabolism.

According to a recent NatNews research initiative, 43 percent of survey participants said they do or would take cold showers, 33 percent said they currently do not take them, 13 percent said they probably would, and 11 percent said they will never even consider doing so. Dallas-area resident Bill Smith said he is not opposed to taking cold showers, though he typically doesn’t begin his daily cleanliness routine without warmer water.

“I end every shower with a cold temperature but rarely take a full cold shower unless I’m camping,” he said.

Smith said he practices this habit because, when he was younger, he learned that doing so helps a person have better skin.

“Warm water opens the pores to clean, and the cold water closes them to keep them clean longer,” he said. “Thinking about it now, I never researched or questioned this bit of knowledge. It could be just what I was told because as the youngest of six, my siblings were trying to save warm water.”

Though cold water does not permanently shrink one’s pores, according to the Cleveland Clinic, it can temporarily tighten them. It can also help increase blood flow to nourish the skin and clear out toxins, creating a freshness and glow in appearance.

For Dallas-area resident Kim Endo-Campbell, using cold water in the shower is not related to health benefits, as she has a past medical history that resulted in her body not being able to regulate itself in certain temperatures.

“I was dry hyperthermic, and I don’t care to put my body through something it doesn’t need to go through,” she said. “Call it natural PTSD or whatnot—I am averse to it because, in a way, my body activated the survival instinct.”

So, instead, Endo-Campbell uses cold showers on more of a seasonal basis after she has gone running in the heat.

“In my case, the benefit is that my body cools down faster, so when I hop out of the shower in the summer, I’m not still sweating,” she said. “Therefore, I can get ready faster in the summer without still sweating in my real-people clothes.”

Like Endo-Campbell, Dallas resident Michael Ryan said he might be willing to take a cold shower on purpose if he did so right after a hot run. However, he normally does not intentionally turn the faucet to the colder setting. For him, the only cold showers he has taken are those that were not exactly by choice.

“I remember one time my power went out mid-shower, and I have a tankless water heater—that was one of the coldest showers I’ve taken,” he said. “I also took cold showers on a mission trip in Honduras because they didn’t have a water heater.”

Ryan said he thinks there are likely advantages to taking cold showers, though he isn’t aware of specific benefits. However, he said he noticed slight impacts in his own experiences.

“I did feel energized afterward, but I think it was because I was just happy to be out of it,” he said.

Connecticut resident Emily Baldwin said she would never willingly take a cold shower, especially after experiencing what she did while living in New York last summer.

“My apartment in Queens had the worst water pressure of any place I’ve ever lived, and every time I took a shower, I had to decide between a semi-warm shower that would take forever with low water pressure or a freezing shower that had better water pressure,” she said. “Ever since then, I’ve never taken a warm shower for granted. Taking a shower already feels like a chore to me, so why would I want to be even more uncomfortable?”

Baldwin said she has read information about cold showers helping with hair growth and improving one’s nervous system, but she doesn’t believe that such factors are worth suffering through a cold shower.

“I think the cons outweigh the benefits for me,” she said. “I don’t want to start or end my day shivering out of the shower.”

NatNews wasn’t able to obtain an interview with David Goggins on how cold showers relate to mental toughness, but Endo-Campbell said while mental strength may be the main reason some individuals are able to endure cold showers, she believes that there are more components than those in the mind. 

“You can build resilience by pushing past comfort zones,” she said. “Some bodies are better adapted to handle the cold, and some aren’t. You can get used to it and get numb to the shock over time, but I still wouldn’t call it being mentally tough.”

Because the cold showers Ryan has taken have been solely out of necessity, he said they weren’t necessarily about callusing the mind, so to speak, though there might have been such an aspect in a slight sense.

“I either didn’t shower or took a cold shower,” he said. “Both options would require some mental toughness—smell bad all day or take a cold shower.”

As an alternative to (or in addition to) cold showers, some individuals opt to partake in activities that require them to remain in extremely frigid water for certain amounts of time. In Smith’s viewpoint, doing so is much more of a mental battle than what one would face in the shower.

“I think enduring a cold plunge would take serious mental toughness,” he said. “A shower, though, seems to pass very quickly.”

Like Smith, Baldwin cites sitting through cold plunges as requiring much more mental toughness than taking cold showers and doesn’t believe that showers determine one’s mental fortitude.

“I think cold showers are more of a preference,” she said. “If you want to take them to test your mental toughness, that’s fine, but I don’t think others who don’t take cold showers are mentally weak for their decision to be comfortable during their showers.”

Alpine bumblebees can fly at altitudes as high as 30,000 feet, which is higher than the peak of Mount Everest (approximately 29,032 feet).

With so many new shows and movies coming out on different streaming on-demand video services, it’s not uncommon for people to find themselves almost losing track of how many fees they are paying monthly to keep their entertainment needs met.

According to Deloitte’s 2025 Digital Media Trends report, streaming services subscribers spend an average of $69 per month on four separate services combined, a 13-percent increase from an average of $61 last year but still less than the $125 per month individuals pay for their cable or satellite TV subscriptions. Dallas-area resident Jason Vaile said he pays monthly subscriptions for six different services (Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime, Disney+, ESPN, and HBO Max), some of which he believes are at least justifiable investments.

“It’s ridiculous—I’m paying as much or more than when I had Direct TV,” he said. “I feel like I get my money’s worth from some of the services. HBO and Netflix produce some great films and series that are worth their fees.”

Like Vaile, Dallas-area resident Steven Gorena said he currently subscribes to multiple streaming services, though he doesn’t keep all of them active on a year-round basis. Right now, he has Hulu on pause and has Apple TV as part of a family bundle that includes Apple Music, Apple News, and iCloud storage. He also subscribes to Amazon Prime, Netflix, and Peacock (he notched a deal on Peacock for $29 a year), and he uses HBO on a friend’s account. For Gorena, the notion of whether or not such services are worth the monthly fees is contingent upon his active use of them, though he also doesn’t see the services as permanent components of his life.

“I’m not afraid to cancel or pause a service if there’s nothing I’m interested in watching,” he said. “For example, Hulu is paused for 12 weeks right now. I recently reactivated Netflix because I wanted to catch up on Black Mirror, Squid Game, Wednesday, and a few other shows. I treat subscriptions like rotating tools—active when needed, off when they’re not.”

Connecticut resident Alicia Wyatt said she currently subscribes to nine services, some of which are bundled or provided through her cell phone company. For her, the amount she pays each month is part of her budget so that she can have entertainment at her fingertips when she needs it.

“On a cost basis, I don’t mind what I am paying for what I get,” she said. “I like to be able to watch a show when I want to watch it and not wait for it to get picked up by another network, so for me, it is worth it.”

The Deloitte report indicated that, on average, consumers spend approximately six hours with media and entertainment content each day, though the time varies by generation, and almost three of those hours come from combined time watching TV shows or movies on streaming services and cable or live-streaming TV (1.4 hours each).

While more individuals, especially in younger generations, are turning to streaming services because of the ability to watch live TV and sports on such platforms, they aren’t necessarily happy with the prices they pay. In fact, nearly half of consumers reported believing they pay too much in terms of the perceived value from the services to which they subscribe.

“When streaming first became popular, cutting the cord offered real savings, especially for people who were paying $150 or more for cable with premium channels or sports packages,” Gorena said. “But that landscape has changed. Now, with so many streaming platforms, especially if you’re opting for ad-free versions, the costs start to add up fast. In many cases, having multiple services ends up costing about the same as cable used to.”

As one solution that may help some individuals, Gorena recommends having a device like a Fire Stick or something similar that supports free streaming options, such as Miramax, Tubi, Crackle, Freevee, and Pluto TV.

“These add serious value,” he said. “I recently discovered that Miramax even offers live TV, which brings back that nostalgic feeling of flipping through channels and being surprised by what’s on—something that’s kind of lost in today’s on-demand world.”

For Vaile, one way he has discovered he can save money is by removing services he notices he isn’t using much or at all.

“I cut off YouTube Live TV when football season is over,” he said. “I save $70 a month because I just don’t watch that much live TV, and I cut off Apple TV whenever I finish the new season of Ted Lasso.”

While different companies and offerings make it challenging for everything to be on one simple platform together, Vaile said some of the bundles available seem like they offer quality value to consumers.

“I watch a lot of the Disney+/ESPN/Hulu/HBO programming, so that seems worth the price tag,” he said. “I don’t like tiered options where I have to watch commercials. Isn’t that what we’re paying to avoid? There’s nothing like paying a premium price for a subscription and still having to sit through a five-minute ad for their new shows coming out—very irritating.”

As Wyatt sees it, the different streaming platforms are the answer to what consumers desired years ago when complaining about how expensive cable had become.

“They wanted the opportunity to pick and choose which networks they wanted à la carte, and that is what streaming has become,” she said. “So, I feel it already is the personalized option. I think that the networks keeping their programming on their own networks helps keep the cost of each one lower and the catalog of available things to see larger.”

Gorena said because he works in information technology, he believes in redundancy and tends to lean toward keeping services separate, unless bundling offers significant savings.

“A big factor for me is the limit on simultaneous streams,” he said. “Some platforms only allow two devices at a time. If I have Netflix and HBO separately, I can have more people watching at once across different services. If everything was crammed into one app and limited to just two streams, that would be a problem in my household. Keeping things separate gives us more flexibility.”

WEEKLY PHOTO OP

The leader of NatNews had a semi-unsocial weekend, so here’s a picture of her without friends working on your favorite weekly newsletter 

Monday, August 11: Rangers vs. Diamondbacks at Globe Life Field
Tuesday, August 12: Free Rooftop Movie — The Bodyguard at Sundown at Granada; Addison Speed Dating & Singles Mixer (ages 30–40) at Hawkers Asian Street Food
Wednesday, August 13: Frisco RoughRiders vs. Midland Rockhounds at Riders Field
Thursday, August 14: Candlelight — Coldplay vs. Imagine Dragons at First Presbyterian Church of Dallas; 5th Annual Irish Slammer at Harwood Arms
Friday, August 15: Taylorville — A Tribute to Taylor Swift at Comerica Center; ‘til Midnight at the Nasher; Dallas Wings vs. Los Angeles Sparks at College Park Center
Saturday, August 16: WRRC Saturday run from Taco Joint; Le Freak at Legacy Hall; Big Time Rush at Dos Equis Pavilion
Sunday, August 17: Big3 at the American Airlines Center; Yogarita at Le Meridian Dallas at The Stoneleigh