I was reading the TDI blog post on decompression theory, linked by @boulderjohn else thread, and the part about endothelium made me wonder: has anyone ever looked at contrast showers in our context?
For those unfamiliar: you start as hot as you can get, then go full cold, repeat a few times. The idea is hot makes peripheral blood vessels dilate, dropping the core BP. Cold makes them contract and squeeze the blood into core pipes, raising core BP. So you're basically doing "reps" on your vascular system. (Don't try this at home, void where prohibited, etc.)
They are commonly used in sports to accelerate recovery although AFAIK the jury is still out on what they actually do and why.
For those unfamiliar: you start as hot as you can get, then go full cold, repeat a few times. The idea is hot makes peripheral blood vessels dilate, dropping the core BP. Cold makes them contract and squeeze the blood into core pipes, raising core BP. So you're basically doing "reps" on your vascular system. (Don't try this at home, void where prohibited, etc.)
They are commonly used in sports to accelerate recovery although AFAIK the jury is still out on what they actually do and why.