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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

#131

Post by criddell »

loceng wrote: post #95
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.

Lookup the term "mewing" - apparently jaw changes after age 25 are difficult but apparently not impossible. I'd recommend watching this interview between John Mew (orthodontist) and Bret Weinstein too: https://youtu.be/JYpPu-NrYSI

I wonder if that could help with tinnitus?

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

#132

Post by collyw »

coldtea wrote: post #94
collyw wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If placebo works as well as many prescription drugs, why is it looked down upon so much?

I guess placebo was the wrong word here -- as it implies effectiveness. Replace it with pure make-believe of "feeling better" (as opposed to any physiological improvement).

"Pure make believe"?

Negative thinking can have a detrimental effect on physical health - usually labelled as stress. It seems completely reasonable that positive thinking could have positive heath benefits (assuming that our base line is somewhere in the middle between positive and negative). We should be investigating the mechanisms and encouraging people to do what has positive results.

Homeopathy sounds like a lot quackery to me, but if it works (via placebo or otherwise) and can improve peoples outcomes in a cost effective manner, then I am all for it.

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

#133

Post by matwood »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #60

A reminder that holding your breath under water until you become light headed is not a good idea: https://www.capradio.org/articles/2017/07/28/breath-holding-...

The reminder is never ever practice these techniques alone or at the same time as someone else. You need to have someone nearby who is aware of the practice, and can monitor your status at all times.

https://www.chicagotribune.com/nation-world/ct-navy-seals-dr...

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

#134

Post by ekanes »

anitil wrote: post #39
troughway wrote: post #5

From the intro blurb: >Wim Hof's teachings about breath work and the health benefits of cold plunges have attracted millions of followers who swear it has cured everything from depression to diabetes and makes them happier and stronger. If it cured diabetes, certainly there is a way to scientifically confirm this rather than merely "swearing" it is so. And if it did, that would be a breakthrough of unthinkable propor…

The claims by and around Wim Hof are often pretty absurd. I wouldn't go so far as to call him a charlatan, but there's a sliding scale and he's more to one side than the other. I'm sure there's _some_ benefit to breathing techniques, but I wouldn't be surprised if they were at about the level of 'general exercise and wellbeing'.

Have you actually looked into it? The stuff he's doing is quite scientifically controlled/verified. He's controlling his autonomic nervous system in interesting ways, and his advanced students are doing the same thing.

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

#135

Post by ekanes »

spirobel wrote: post #38
Hnrobert42 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US obesity epidemic probably has more to do with the sugar content of processed foods than with laziness. As you note, people in general are lazy. Vietnam has the lowest rate of adult obesity yet is the 8th most sedentary population in the world.

thats nonsense. The slimmest and fittest I ever was, was when I ate the most processed food in my life. I was cycling from my hometown in bavaria to nice in france. So I just had to eat all this garbage from the supermarket but it got burned immediatly. Funny that he gets downvoted he expressed his point in a very friendly way. I will just say it plainly: fat people are lazy. thats the reason they are fat. You can ea…

Age is also a factor -- when I was younger I could eat two large pizzas at one point without a problem. Now a couple slices and I feel like junk. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

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

#136

Post by graeme »

watwut wrote: post #114
graeme wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, hadn’t read that about the study. Does make it seem more likely Wim Hof achieved some real effects. However I should note that I randomly ended up in one of his workshops years back and he actually did claim that gradually increasing exposure does make you better at cold. It wasn’t the main thing but he did claim it.

I found it by clicking on reference in wikipedia the parent quoted. Here is full study: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4094425/ > However I should note that I randomly ended up in one of his workshops years back and he actually did claim that gradually increasing exposure does make you better at cold. It wasn’t the main thing but he did claim it. Ah, ok. I personally find that part uncontroversial, wint…

Yeah I would be very surprised it the body has no methods of cold adaptation frankly.

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

#137

Post by pge »

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.

If I understand correctly from the various articles on this topic, there is a theory (with some evidence) that the lack of difficult chewing in childhood while the jaw is developing, leads to smaller mouths and tooth or breathing issues. Nestor's book does not make the claim that chewing tough foods as an adult makes a difference. What he does refer to extensively is a doctor that has an expander device to enlarge the jaw (which does work in adulthood).

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

#138

Post by SanderNL »

throw1234651234 wrote: post #128
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 r…

> The stated goal of Buddhism is lack of desire.

No, actually not as that is totally and utterly physically and mentally impossible. Your body and your mind are _made_ to desire and act, there is no sense in denying this and Buddha sure as hell did not.

What you're looking for is lack of attachment. Desire is no problem, it's the attachment to it (and it's the same with everything). The belief in an I that is doing the desiring, that is what is causing trouble, not desire itself. It is nature doing its thing, there is no problem there.

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

#139

Post by Geee »

te_chris wrote: post #84

Not Wim Hof, but during the pandemic I've switched from swimming indoors to outside in a local lake which is a open water swimming spot managed by the council. I switched in the height of the northern summer - so no need for a wetsuit when I started, water was up to 26degC. As the weather has worsened though, the water temperature has gradually declined and I've just kept swimming. Down thorugh 22, 20, 18, 16 and on…

That's not very cold though. The water should be ice cold i.e 0 C° for the best effect.

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

#140

Post by nkurz »

Netcob wrote: post #123
mettamage wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

I'd call it "moderation" rather than "censorship", but if you want to view the "uncensored" version of the site, you can click on your sign-in name in the top-right of the header, and you will be taken to your profile. From there, set "show-dead" to "yes" to be able to view this and other flag-killed comments.

I and many others on the site prefer to view it in this form. If you have show-dead on and some minimum number of HN points (30?) you can "vouch" to revive a killed comment. I thought this particular example would have been better handled with a downvote-of-disagreement rather than a flag, so I vouched for it. I can understand mettamage's reaction, though, and don't blame him for flagging it.

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