Did you know that a short exposure to very cold water (e.g. 30 to 60 seconds of cold shower) can induce a "transient" increase in your white blood cells?

Remember that white blood cells are your immune cells. They are responsible for defending you against viruses, bacteria, toxins and other foreign invaders.

A "transient" rise in white blood cells means: it's temporary, the effect goes away after a short while.

What you don't want is a "non-transient" rise in white blood cells: when your immune system is overactive on a consistent basis, it can result in your white blood cells attacking your own body. This is called "autoimmune disease", which includes Celiac disease, Hashimoto's, Multiple Sclerosis, Psoriasis, and others.

But a "transient" (temporary) increase is a good thing: it builds a stronger immune system, and the short but significant increase in white blood cells allows your immune system to attack and destroy viruses and bacterial "early", before they have the chance to multiply.

In fact, this is quite relevant in the context of COVID-19: people who are ending up in the ICU because of COVID-19 are often doing so because of something called a "cytokine storm".

I won't get into the technical details of a cytokine storm here, but suffice it so say that a big contributor to it is a "very late" response from the immune system, after the virus has already spread.

Bottom line: cold water exposure has numerous benefits. Even a short exposure (bursts of 30 seconds in the shower) can result in a significant boost in your immune system.

Link to a study about this if you're interested.

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