# Cold showers

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-showers/372875>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 15, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-showers/372875 "2006-09-15T19:43:49Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2006, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-showers/372875/1 "2006-09-15T19:43:49Z")

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Two questions.

When I was a teenager, I heard that some people can get a heart attack taking a cold shower after heating up from vigorous exercise like football pracdtise in Auigust. True?

Secondly, I’ve had sex in the shallow waters of a beach and the cold water had no effect on me( that was almost 30 years ago). Are cold showers really effective in diminishing sex drive?

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**Author:** ![corkboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9bcb4/32.png) [@corkboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/corkboard)\
**Post date:** [September 15, 2006, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-showers/372875/2 "2006-09-15T20:48:40Z")

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I’ve always assumed that people take cold showers to de-hornify themselves because cold showers are unpleasant and one tends not to linger unnecessarily- you get in, get clean, and get out. All that unpleasantness and moving with a purpose tends to make you forget about your arousal. Momentarily, anyway. I don’t think it has any long-term effect on one’s sex drive.

As to your first question, I have no idea, but I guess it could happen. I heard about a kid who died from fright while watching a scary movie (sorry, no cite), so if the heart is susceptible to that, I guess a cold shower after being overheated could be enough of a shock to the system to stop a heart.

Just realized this is GQ, and I have no actual knowledge, just opinion. So I’ll go away…

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**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\
**Post date:** [September 16, 2006, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/cold-showers/372875/3 "2006-09-16T00:24:39Z")

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[QUOTE=The Flying Dutchman]

Secondly, I’ve had sex in the shallow waters of a beach and the cold water had no effect on me( that was almost 30 years ago). Are cold showers really effective in diminishing sex drive?  
[/QUOTE]

I think the stimulus has to be removed from the situation for the cold shower to work. I you where horny and the girl was standing in the cold shower with you, I don’t think that would work. Similarly, if you where horny and the girl got in her car and left and you went for a dip in the cold water, I think that would work.