How to bathe to avoid stroke, can people with high blood pressure take cold or hot baths, what is the time not to bathe... are many concerns related to this personal hygiene habit.

Inappropriate bathing time is one of many factors that contribute to increased risk of stroke. A study published by the American Heart Association has shown that people with high blood pressure stepping out of a warm bath tend to have an average blood pressure increase of about 15 mmHg compared to the hot season. Significant increases in blood pressure are closely related to the occurrence of cerebral infarction.

Here are the times when you should not bathe, especially for people with high blood pressure, to help prevent strokes that you can refer to:

1. Do not bathe when you just wake up

Many people believe that bathing early in the morning, right after waking up, will help the body remove sweat and dead cells accumulated on the skin after a long night's sleep as well as help improve mood and wake up more quickly.

People with high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease should not bathe when they just wake up (Photo: ST)

However, for people with underlying diseases such as high blood pressure, the time from 6 - 10 am every day is the time when blood pressure can peak and bathing at this time can cause capillaries to dilate, blood pressure to drop sharply, easily leading to ischemia of the heart, thereby increasing the risk of stroke or cerebral infarction.

According to Chinese Oriental medicine, morning is the time when yang energy is generated, bathing in the morning right after waking up can easily damage yang energy and have a negative impact on health. Especially at the time of changing seasons, the morning temperature is often lower, if you bathe early in the morning, it can easily cause symptoms such as dizziness, headache, and more seriously, stroke.

2. Do not bathe after 10 pm

In addition to the time when you should not bathe in the early morning, another time when you should not bathe is after 10 pm. Bathing after 10 pm, also known as bathing at night, has been shown to be closely related to the risk of stroke. Bathing at night causes stroke, especially when bathing in cold water affects people who are sensitive to changes in blood circulation.

Bathing at night can cause the body temperature to change rapidly, forcing the body to adjust by constricting or dilating blood vessels to retain or release heat, which can easily cause sudden blood vessel spasms, headaches, stiff neck and shoulders, and increase blood pressure or affect diseases such as coronary heart disease. This can lead to stroke or cerebral infarction.

Washing your hair late at night will also cause the nerves to contract. When the blood vessels are blocked, they will not provide enough blood to the facial nerves, which can easily lead to facial paralysis and mouth distortion.

In particular, you should not go to bed immediately after bathing. You should only sleep 1 to 2 hours after bathing and dry your body and hair before going to bed.

3. The time you should not bathe is when you are too full or hungry

First, the time you should not bathe is after a full meal because after eating, blood flow tends to increase in the digestive organs, helping the digestion and absorption of nutrients more smoothly. At this time, if you bathe after eating, it can cause the body's blood flow to be "confused" because bathing stimulates and dilates the skin and blood vessels, leading to increased blood flow, increased heart rate and hindering blood circulation to the digestive organs.

Especially for people with cardiovascular diseases, washing your hair immediately after eating can cause ischemia of the heart, thereby causing serious cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases such as stroke.



It is best to only bathe after eating at least 30 - 40 minutes or preferably about 1 hour to avoid affecting the digestive process.

Another time you should not bathe is when you are hungry. If you bathe on an empty stomach, the stuffy environment in the bathroom can consume the body's energy, the higher temperature will speed up the metabolism, making the feeling of hunger more obvious, even making you dizzy, headache and fainting due to low blood sugar, affecting blood pressure.

In general, for the elderly or people with diseases such as high blood pressure, the appropriate time to bathe is from 10 am to 12 pm or from 3 pm to 5 pm. Depending on the physical condition, environmental temperature, especially on rainy days, cold weather, the bathing time also needs to be adjusted accordingly.

In addition to the 3 times you should not bathe mentioned above, to prevent stroke, people should not bathe immediately after drinking alcohol, especially when drinking too much because alcohol can cause serious dehydration if not compensated promptly, causing symptoms such as dizziness, lightheadedness, increasing the risk of injury when bathing. Bathing after drinking alcohol will also cause the dilated blood vessels to rupture and cause a stroke.

In addition, bathing in hot water after drinking alcohol can cause the temperature to accumulate further, increasing the feeling of drunkenness. On the contrary, bathing in cold water after drinking alcohol causes the body's glucose to be consumed quickly, increasing the feeling of dizziness and increasing the risk of catching a cold.