In terms of survival, you'd want to train your body to enter cold water in case you ever fell in by accident for example.
The #1 cause of death in cold water isn't frost bite - it's loss of breath & the ability to recapture it.
No recapture= loss of control = ded
There we go - this is what I am looking for! Is it just done for infants, and to what purpose?
One Spanish chronicler said bathing was “as common and frequent as eating” among the native Americans. Mostly this was done in rivers and lakes, but Mesoamericans also developed a highly sophisticated bathing house, which used steam, cool water, natural soaps, and plant scrubbers to keep themselves clean.
That's interesting. I wasn't confining this to water, as I see cryo-chambers as the same thing in modern times. Are you sure about that, though? It wouldn't be frostbite, but I would think hypothermia or exhaustion would ultimately claim more lives, if we are including prolonged cold water deaths.
Here's a personal experience. As a boy, maybe 6 yrs old, I was running on the docks, tripped and fell in the water. I was in a life jacket - we always had to wear them outside of the house, for reasons exactly like this. There was some skim ice on the water, so it was plenty cold.
My parents were up at the house, but luckily heard my shouts or something and were able to find me and pull me out. Some hot cocoa and all was well, but I'm sure I gave them a horrible scare. I've actually experienced this in nightmares with my own children drowning and me not able to save them.
I live near rivers that people die in every year, because they think they can swim across them, but the spring snow melt runoff in the rivers is so cold that it exhausts them before they make it across.
As a survival skill, I'm not convinced cold plunging would be high on the list, compared to avoiding situations where an accidental exposure would happen, or being prepared with flotation or other safeguards.
