Drinking a glass of cold water on a hot summer afternoon is just feels heavenly. It is natural for you to reach for a glass of chilled water when you are all warmed up on a sunny day.
There is nothing wrong in occasionally enjoying a glass of cold water. However, the problem becomes more apparent when you make it a regular practice.
Unlike the popular belief that water is water irrespective of its temperature, you choose to consume. Your body treats hot and cold water differently. While hot or lukewarm water is very good for your body’s health and its healthy functioning, cold water, on the other hand, can be very damaging when consumed regularly.
So, what are the dangers of drinking cold water? Let’s find out
It slows down digestion
Drinking enough fluids is very vital for the smooth functioning of your digestive system. However, many practitioners of ancient medical sciences like Ayurveda and Siddha believe that temperature with which you consume these fluids has a greater impact on the efficiency with which your digestive system functions.
Drinking cold water is believed to constrict your blood vessels that reach the stomach. Result? Reduced blood flow and enzyme secretion to the organ, contributing to slower metabolism and digestion.
While drinking lukewarm or normal water they believe has an opposite effect.
Although, there are no conclusive studies to back this claim that drinking cold water impacts your digestion. There is this one study (1) that involved patients who suffered functional dyspepsia (a condition where the food from stomach takes abnormally a very long time to reach the small intestines) found that warmer foods actually accelerated the speed at which the stomach was emptied.
This doesn’t mean to say that warmer fluids will have similar effects, but we cannot deny the claim by practitioners of alternative medicine either.
Could slow down your heart rate
Gulping on ice-cold water all of a sudden after a hard workout session or after the exposure to warm sunlight could trigger problems with the way your heartbeats.
The sudden intake of ice-cold water could signal emergency response from your brain leading to the secretion of adrenaline and other stress hormones. This increases the amount of blood to the chest area taxing your heart.
While this is not a big problem for someone with a healthy heart. However, for someone with a history of heart problem, this could potentially disturb the natural rhythm of the heart and lower heart rate. (2)
May worsen your headache
A 2001 study (3) which involved 660 women found that drinking cold water increases the chances of getting a headache. The study also found that participants with active migraine are twice likely to experience a headache after drinking cold water.
If you are someone suffering from migraines, then staying away from cold water is a good idea.
Could Worsen Cold or Flu
A small study was done in 1978 (4) involving 15 participants who suffered from cold and flu found that drinking cold water thickened nasal mucous and made it more difficult to pass through the respiratory tract, making their condition feel much worse.
When the same participants were made to consume hot chicken soup with water, they found that it eased their condition and made them to breath better.
If you have a cold or flu attack then it is a good idea to drink warm water till you feel better.
