EurekAlert · 30 Oct 2026 · Research
People who finished a cold-shower trial reported fewer sick days in a Basel doctoral study
EurekAlert posted this on 30 October 2026. It is a University of Basel report of a doctoral project by psychologist Lena Glaser, not a peer-reviewed journal paper. The notes that agree, including Swiss and Dutch coverage of the same report, describe 719 healthy adults aged 18 to 65 who were not already taking cold showers. For 12 weeks they showered as cold as the shower allowed. A control group kept their usual showers. Dropout was high in the first two weeks and then declined, which the report treats as habituation. People who remained said they felt better. That feeling is subjective. They reported feeling unwell on 26 percent fewer days and 31 percent fewer absences from work. For a 45-liter shower, dropping the water from 40 C to 15 C saves about 1.3 kilowatt-hours. The report estimates about 15 kg of CO2 per person over 12 weeks, on the order of 100 km of driving. It is not known whether people kept the habit afterward. Sex was not reported, and the release does not split results by age, so this card is not tagged to one age band. Self-report and dropout limit the result. It does not show that cold showers prevent illness. Not medical advice.
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