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Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

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Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#121

Post by prox »

mettamage wrote: post #107
prox wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is because he got it from the Buddhist Tummo techniques. >It has similarities to Tibetan Tummo meditation and pranayama, both of which employ breathing techniques.[25] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tummo I won’t say he appropriated it, because he is quite open about it and adapted it, but it did not originate with him.

I don't think so. I know that he was interested in Buddhist stuff (source: some documentary). But when I talked to him, he told us (part of the Radboud experiment in 2014, I think) that he just jumped into cold water and was forced to learn how to breath in such a way that he wouldn't freak out. Note/edit: As you can see from my writing my memory isn't pinpoint accurate. Given that the article was published in 2014 […

I am quite sure he mentioned it as inspiration (or he even learned it somewhere, on that count I am not sure) in some interview.

Things do not exist in a vacuum, though. Especially something such as breath would be pretty universal despite in what cultural context.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#122

Post by jml7c5 »

mettamage wrote: post #108
rubatuga wrote: post #66

This is all pseudoscience peddled as a mental health miracle

I'm sorry Rubatuga, I flagged you. To be fair: I'm not having the best of days, so I might be a bit quicker to flag, but I find this behavior on HN unacceptable. You make an overgeneralized claim ("this is all ") and give no evidence. There is an extreme amount of evidence on the contrary that the WHM has a lot of novel scientific elements to it. See [1] as an example. Medlife crisis also did a good nuanced video on…

[1] shows only that repeatedly hyperventilating then depriving oneself of oxygen affects various blood parameters. This is not surprising, and not evidence that the more pseudoscientific mind-over-body claims of the Wim Hof method are valid.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#123

Post by Netcob »

mettamage wrote: post #108
rubatuga wrote: post #66

This is all pseudoscience peddled as a mental health miracle

I'm sorry Rubatuga, I flagged you. To be fair: I'm not having the best of days, so I might be a bit quicker to flag, but I find this behavior on HN unacceptable. You make an overgeneralized claim ("this is all ") and give no evidence. There is an extreme amount of evidence on the contrary that the WHM has a lot of novel scientific elements to it. See [1] as an example. Medlife crisis also did a good nuanced video on…

Thanks to the censorship I can only assume OP said something critical towards WHM, which would be in the minority in this thread, but I'll never know.

Which is a bit chilling, pardon the pun.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#124

Post by elif »

gnarbarian wrote: post #54
brnt wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you wrote 'way better than coffee', I had to think of my favourite morning routine: getting up and going straight to work on my bicycle. In winter this gives me a sort of freshness shock that may be similar to the cold shower. There's nothing quite like it in terms of waking up: indeed it's better than coffee.

I agree except when I bike an hour to work at -10f I actually need a few minutes for my brain to defrost before I'm even capable of having a conversation. I'm not sure why, it's like everything I didn't exercise is stiff and needs to thaw out. Feels fuckin great though do recommend!

According to the Wim Hof philosophy, your cold exercise is activating a similar pathway to survival or even fight-or-flight if you approach it correctly. Your blood chemistry and neuro-chemistry are substantially different, and it takes time for your logical, civilized neural pathways to be preferred again.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#125

Post by 7thaccount »

s5300 wrote: post #17
7thaccount wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's also legitimately hard to find foods without mass amounts of sugar. Just look at spaghetti sauce. Sugar is everywhere.

I come from a family that was borderline of the definition of "extreme poverty" within the U.S. This is a really poor argument. Aldi spaghetti sauces have ~10g sugars compared to a bottle of coke having ~65g sugars. Look into how many people are using Aldi's spaghetti sauces vs how many people are guzzling coke. Is over sugarized shit literally everywhere in the U.S.? Yes. Can you genuinely not find anything without?…

It's irrelevant that a bottle of coke has more here. My argument is even if you're being good and skipping candy/soda...etc that just the normal food you eat is loaded with the stuff. White bread, most cereal, sauces...goes on and on. There are items without it, but it's more expensive and certainly hard to say no to the sugary stuff even when we knows it's bad.

I'll cede that I misspoke when I said it couldn't be found at all, but it certainly takes more effort.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#126

Post by anonyxyz »

DoingIsLearning wrote: post #89
pugio wrote: post #36

For those interested in going deeper into the incredible world of breathing techniques I recommend "Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art" [0]. Part personal account, part research summary, the book covers a lot of the world's ancient breathing traditions (including Wim Hof and his antecedents), as well as what modern science has to say about them. As with many other aspects of holistic health, it's incredible how We…

> exercise your jaw. This can help build wider mouths (new bone growth!) and open up your airways. Do you have a citation for that? Jaw bone pretty much stops growing in your late teens. Increasing bone density is not the same as actual bone growth. By that rational doing deadlifts would stimulate your leg bones to continue grow which is obviously untrue.

The source is the book. He talks about it at depth and the scientists he worked with to come to that conclusion.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#127

Post by can16358p »

amelius wrote: post #119

I wonder, would walking outside in the cold with only a t-shirt work as well as cold showers?

Well while I'm not a professional in the topic in any way, I'd personally seen the benefits of walking in the cold (e.g. in winter where people were wearing many clothes on top of each other) with just a tshirt: it makes me feel much more alive, alert (in a good way, not in an anxious way), and much more immune to pretty much anything both physically and mentally.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#128

Post by throw1234651234 »

ta1234567890 wrote: post #19

When a friend first told me about taking cold showers everyday, I thought he was incredibly motivated and a little crazy. Then when I finally decided to look into it and did the breathing technique, I realized I might be able to take a cold shower. Now I've been taking 1-2min cold showers (after my regular hot shower), every day for the last 4 months. It gives me a huge boost of energy, way better than coffee. Also,…

I take cold showers. They do virtually nothing for me except if I am extremely sleepy.

"make a continuous effort to face the uncomfortable"

That's not the Buddhist teaching. The Buddhist teaching is apathy to everything via lack of desire.

"but with the goal of reaching full detachment (Nirvana). You can also do both together."

The stated goal of Buddhism is lack of desire. The stated goal of modern meditation is a reduction in cortisol/blood pressure(source: Altered Traits) and improvements in the frontal cortex(source: Kelly McGonigal). Neither of these work better than medicine for the former or say, athletic training, for the latter.

Meditation is magic to HN. It's weird. I am also sure 90% of people claiming it's magic have it done it for a week of something - if you did it long enough, you would know it does nothing.

Bring the downvotes (though I challenge you to try to reply what you disagree with, if you do). The author of Altered Traits, who spent a lifetime researching meditation, still ended up taking blood pressure meds after his retreats failed to lower his BP.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#129

Post by DoingIsLearning »

JackMorgan wrote: post #117
DoingIsLearning wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> exercise your jaw. This can help build wider mouths (new bone growth!) and open up your airways. Do you have a citation for that? Jaw bone pretty much stops growing in your late teens. Increasing bone density is not the same as actual bone growth. By that rational doing deadlifts would stimulate your leg bones to continue grow which is obviously untrue.

I suspect it does actually cause your leg bones to adapt, however not by getting longer. Just how often are powerlifter's skeletons examined for adaptations? See the research into the arm bones of British archers who pulled a +100lb bow. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kristinakillgrove/2015/09/30/br...

Agreed, your bone tissue effectively has mini piezoelectric sensors, the more mechanical pressure you apply on them the more you signal for tissue 'reinforcement', this leads to an increased _density_ (not growth) of the bone tissue in that region.

Bone _growth_ during childhood and early adulthood is mostly hormone regulated AFAIK.

There is nothing that I know that supports that earlier claim that chewing hard things makes your jaw bone 'grow'.

Re: Wim Hof’s teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges

#130

Post by TeaDrunk »

loceng wrote: post #98
NalNezumi wrote: post #56

Ah Wim Hof, reminds me of my friend that had to fight crippling depression.(and still is fighting) He found out about the cold shower, breathing technique from Win Hof, and started practicing it. What worked better than cold shower was Ice bath in the frozen lake. I were very skeptical at the practice first but oh boy, the sudden freezing shock really do wake some survival instinct inside you out, and your mind becom…

Kambo, a properly dosed frog poison applied to the limbic system by first searing small dots through top layer of skin, has a similar effect by strongly engaging the immune system once it detects the poison - and causes a whole body reaction where the limbic/lymphatic system rapidly clears out the poison (and whatever other stagnant toxins are in the system), dumping them into the stomach which then have to be thrown…

Could you cite a source that says that toxins are dumped into the stomach in particular? I’m not very educated in anatomy but I’ve never heard of the lymphatic system interacting with the digestive system in this way. Thank you!
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