<div class="bbWrapper">I usually get sick if I'm really stressed and lacking in sleep.<br />
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However, I also used to have a lower-than-average WBC (white blood cell count), which is pretty much the biggest factor in how often you get sick and how you handle infections.<br />
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But after recovering from covid in March 2022, I've been taking cold showers every single day and my WBC is nearly DOUBLE what it used to be. For context, my WBC was lowish for quite a few years, so that was my normal AND I've made no other changes.<br />
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Last week was the first time I'd been sick since covid – because both my girlfriend and my mother, whom I was visiting, were coughing and sneezing all over the place.<br />
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There IS scientific evidence that cold showers boost your white blood cell count. Google "cold showers white blood cell count" and "cold showers lymphocytes".<br />
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But there's also an interesting story...<br />
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Many, many years ago a famous Roman botanist called Antonius Musa helped a very young and <i>very </i>ill <b>Augustus Caesar</b> recover with cold compresses and baths.<br />
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Augustus Caesar, plagued by chronic illnesses throughout his childhood and early adulthood, used to be so ill at the time that Rome's enemies mocked him and did not take him seriously at all – probably because their spies told them things were looking dire for the young emperor.<br />
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He recovered, obviously, and ordered a statue to be erected in the center of Rome to honor the healer. He also promoted him to "equities" or "knight" which was only second to the Senate in the Roman hierarchy.<br />
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<b>Oh, and he made all Roman doctors exempt from taxes.</b><br />
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A friend of mine got this from a book, but there's some info online, too:<br />
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Antonius Musa was a Greek botanist and the Roman Emperor Augustus's physician; Antonius was a freedman who received freeborn status along with other honours. <br />
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When the emperor was seriously ill, and had been made worse by a hot regimen and treatment, B. C. 23, Antonins Musa succeeded in restoring him to health by means of cold bathing and cooling drinks, for which service he received from Augustus and the senate a large sum of money and the permission to wear a gold ring, and also had a statue erected in his honour near that of Aesculapius by public subscription. (Dio Cass. <i>l.c. ;</i> Schol. <i>ad Horat. Epist.</i> 1.15. 3; Sneton. <i>August.</i> 59, 81; <b><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.%20Nat.%2019.38&lang=original" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">Plin. Nat. 19.38</a></b>, <b><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.%20Nat.%2025.38&lang=original" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">25.38</a></b>, <b><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Plin.%20Nat.%2029.5&lang=original" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">29.5</a></b>.) He seems to have been attached to this mode of treatment, to which Horace alludes <i>l.c.</i>), but failed when he applied it to the case of M. Marcellus, who died under his care a few months after the recovery of Augustus, B. C. 23. (Dio Cass. <i>l.c.</i>)<br />
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<b>The emperor likely suffered from a liver abscess or typhoid fever.</b>
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So Augustus recovered with cold therapy but his nephew didn't.<br />
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Unexpectedly, Marcellus fell ill and died in Baiae in 23 BCE. As often happens in such unexpected situations, there were voices about the assassination. There were rumors that Livia had poisoned Marcellus. This version of events was supported by the boy’s mother, Octavia. Most likely, however, the reason for the death was natural. <b>Marcellus became ill with an infection of the upper respiratory tract</b>, which was unskilfully tried to heal. Hydrotherapy (cold baths) was fashionable at that time, which only accelerated the development of the disease and led to death. Octavian, despite his family tragedy, kept searching for his successor.
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Interestingly, there are quite a few disagreements when it comes to what they were actually afflicted by. Some sources state that Augustus Caesar likely had a liver abscess or typhoid fever while in the paragraph above it's stated that Marcellus, his nephew, suffered from an upper respiratory infection.<br />
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Wikipedia, on the other hand, has this to say:<br />
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<b>That year, an illness was spreading in Rome which afflicted both Augustus and Marcellus. </b>Augustus caught it earlier in the year, while Marcellus caught it later, after the emperor had already recovered. The illness proved fatal and killed Marcellus at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baiae" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">Baiae</a>, in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campania" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">Campania</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italy" target="_blank" class="link link--external" rel="nofollow ugc noopener">Italy</a>.
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So what's the truth? Who knows, this happened 2000 years ago, lol.<br />
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But it looks like cold therapy isn't as novel as people perceive it to be.<br />
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<div class="contentRow-snippet js-unfurl-desc">In the times of the first emperor - Octavian Augustus, the princeps himself was highly appreciated by a medic, a certain Antonius Musa.</div>
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<div class="contentRow-snippet js-unfurl-desc">Marcus Claudius Marcellus was the nephew of Augustus. The emperor saw in the boy his successor, whom he carefully prepared for the future role.</div>
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