By Meredith Lepore
Though showers have been proven to help relieve stress and even serve as your own personal think tank at times, the bath is making a comeback it seems. Yes, sometimes soaking in your filth is absolutely necessary it seems.
A new study from the Japan Health and Research Center, Tokyo City University and Jichi Medical University found that there are a number of physical, as well as mental health, benefits from a daily soak in the tub.
The study surveyed 33 people who spent two straight weeks taking baths every day followed by two weeks of taking showers every day. The subjects reported that the bath weeks helped improve their health and skin conditions and also helped to decrease stress, fatigue, and pain.
Soak it up
The authors of the study believe the positive impacts were due to the hyperthermic properties of baths which can increase your body temperature and stimulate your metabolism. And let’s face it, putting nice oils in your bath mixed with some candles and Norah Jones playing in the background sounds a little more relaxing than hopping in the shower.
Another Japanese study recently showed that the stress markers, cortisol, and chromogranin, decreased in people who took a bath after approximately 60 minutes of a particularly stressful event.
This is a small sample size but do, at least, consider a bath after a long, stressful day at work.
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Originally published at www.theladders.com