I did this because I got sick and tired of catching a cold every year and having a very high fever (39 to 41 C all the time). I blamed having being overperscribed antibiotics as a child, which at the time I believed had weakened my immune system. That was probably nonsense, although it's true that when I was a kid it was common to give kids antibiotics for viral infections, so I got a lot of antibiotics for no good reason at all. I figured that exposing myself to cold would help me build up my immune system again. Also probably nonsense.

I can't tell if anything changed by what I was doing. I never felt any different from doing it, not "more alive" etc as others report. I got over my colds with high fever but that was most probably because I grew up (I think adults don't get such high temperatures from a cold as kids do). I sure got lots of strange looks and people kept asking me whether I'm a) cold and b) mad.

I didn't use any breathing techniques or meditation or anything like that. I didn't particularly exercise much, though I was a strong lad at the time (now, not so much). I think I just sort of willed myself to do it and did it and then realised it wasn't that hard after all. I think the true secret, the real lesson, is that we are made to withstand a lot more cold than we think and we're just used to being warm a lot more than we were meant to be if we lived without all our technology. Except of course we don't have to be cold because we have all that technology. So there's no reason for breathing exercises and so on to learn how to withstand the cold. That's what our brains are for.

Also, don't follow gurus.

Wikipedia states that no pharmokinetic studies have been done on this "Kambo cleanse". https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kambo_cleanse

When I lived in Berlin, I would run in the mornings in the winter... it'd be below freezing. 1st 5 minutes I'd be cold, but once I started running-running, I was warm and the temps didn't bother me.

Then I'd come home, shower, breakfast and ride my bike to the office. I'd be cold.

As in, don't do it gradually.

Drop it INSTANTLY and just see how long you can last, even if it's only a few seconds. I know at first I was like okay, 5 seconds f* this.

But then you can make it a bit of a game for yourself, and after a while it just becomes habit.

(and fyi, I live in Florida, so staying in longer is much easier-- But I can say this switch made me change from dreading visiting relatives up North because that would ALWAYS make me sick --- to "aww yeah super cold showers in the morning," and you know, not getting sick.)

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

> In contrast, in trained individuals, practicing the learned breathing techniques resulted in an immediate and profound decrease of pCO2 and bicarbonate, and an increase in pH (reaching up to 7.75 in individual subjects; Fig. 2 and Movie S2), indicating acute respiratory alkalosis.

I'm not a doctor, but since I was part of the study and asked them a lot of questions, I can sort of interpret what they found, which is that your CO2 levels drop (among other things).

With the WHM breathing technique that means you'll be getting into a territory of prolonged oxygen deprivation. In my case I'd be holding my breath for 3 minutes (while completely breathing out beforehand, without the WHM, I could only hold my breath for 20 seconds).

They measured that while doing the WHM your adrenaline level is on average higher than your peak adrenaline level while you're bungee jumping.

> Epinephrine levels in trained individuals were even higher than those reported in a recent study in which acute stress elicited by a bungee jump was found to suppress cytokine production by leukocytes ex vivo stimulated with LPS (13).

It might be in the article, but my suspicion is that this is because of prolonged oxygen deprivation. See also Fig 3A for how high the adrenaline levels got.

So to me it's clear that the WHM gives you a lot of adrenaline. What does adrenaline do? Well, it makes you numb, it acts as a painkiller in the sense that it makes you feel less (again not a doctor, but based on my limited knowledge this is a fact). So that's one reason why it's easier to jump into really cold water.

Moreover, it yields some evidence to some "mind over body" claims. It isn't really mind over body, it's adrenaline that can be conjured consciously at will. I'm speaking also from personal experience [1].

[1] I've done this at many Dutch dance festivals (e.g. Liquicity, Mysteryland). Instead of taking drugs, I'd do the WHM to spike my adrenaline levels as high as possible and had a great time.

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'.

Do this laying down. You are essentially hyperventilating. By the 35th cycle, you should be feeling very lightheaded, possibly seeing stars. You absolutely can pass out or at least fall down during this process. Do it laying down or at least sitting so you don't injure yourself. Obviously, definitely don't do this in the water (you don't do the breathing exercises and ice baths at the same time).

The inhale through your nose you do fully, really trying to get as much air into your lungs as possible. The exhale that follows is really just a matter of relaxing everything and letting your ribcage collapse back down and the air leave; you shouldn't be pushing it out.

If you've never done it before, it can be fun to have a clock or timer going where you can see it. See how long you can comfortably hold your breath before that urge to inhale comes. You'll be amazed. Similar techniques to this breathing exercise (hyperventilating to lower the carbon dioxide levels in your blood) are one of the ways magicians like Houdini and others that do underwater escapes can hold their breath for so long (of course, don't try that at home).

I seem to recall that earlier in the book he describes some research that documented this effect, but I don't have a reference.

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.

- 1 pint milk - coffee - 1/4 cup oatmeal

During the day, a big salad consisting of the following:

- kale - romaine lettuce - baby spinach - butter lettuce - arugula - carrots - mushrooms - sweet potato ribbons (uncooked) - shaved parmesan cheese - sunflower seeds - pumpkin seeds - peanuts - salt - pepper - unbelievable amounts of olive oil - avocado

Snacks:

- apples (1 or 2) - blueberries

Once a week I might have eggs & bacon, or a quest bar (low carb), or diet soda (I still have a sweet tooth)

> What about other forms of wheat products like semolina, couscous, etc? Other cereal grains?

I stay away from them, but I haven't done a rigorous study. I know that, as far as diabetes is concerned, white rice is terrible for you, and brown rice is just as bad.

In general the only carbo-foods I'm comfortable with are legumes (beans) because their carbs take longer to digest.

2.) Also notably, neither study nor wiki claim that both brothers had equal resistance to cold.

3.) Lastly, Wim Hof claim is not so much that "gradually increasing exposure" makes him better at cold, his claim is that he found breathing techniques and has batter control over body functions. That may or may not be bullshit, but again, study is not disproving that.

Here I am going to quote exact same study:

> Core temperature decreased in both subjects with a smaller decrease (−0.18°C) in subject A compared to subject B (−0.40°C). As the accuracy of the measurement is ±0.1°C and due to the small range within core temperature is held, we interpreted the difference of −0.22°C as physiologically different. There was a clear difference in cold sensation and comfort between both subjects. [...] Furthermore, subject A reported that he was comfortable with these temperatures during the entire experiment, whereas subject B felt between uncomfortable and very uncomfortable. Cold exposure slightly increased heart rate in subject A (baseline: 46 beats/min versus cold: 52 beats/min), whereas it slightly decreased in subject B (baseline: 51 beats/min versus cold: 47 beats/min).

tldr; some physiological responses were different and one brother felt uncomfortable while the other felt ok.

Edit: here is direct link to study quoted on wikipedia: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4094425/

[0] https://youtu.be/D6EPuUdIC1E?t=2215 (timestamped to the conclusions)

But this doesn't mean they're cured. For example, they can't binge on chocolate cake or pizza.

Instead, rather than using medicine to control their blood sugar, they use a strict diet & exercise.

I'm a type II diabetic, and when I saw my doctor with a good A1c (5.8), she said, "Another doctor wouldn't be able to tell you were diabetic looking at these numbers. But make no mistake: you can't go back to your old ways of eating, or else it'll all come back. Those days are over."

My metabolism is permanently broken. The symptoms are in remission, but I'm by no means cured.

Does that mean the same as cured?

Edit: The linked article says:

>and even achieve remission (no longer have diabetes)

https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/buddhism/beliefs/fo...

This is the first random "source" I pulled up, every other will say the same.

Them being outliers does not debunk notion of sport and training generally.

Sure. But that's neither here nor there, as bathing in ice cold water is not the mechanism - positive thinking is.

The idea that the Hof's regime did it, is what's the dellusion.

The 4 noble truths / the 8-fold path are a breath of fresh air in comparison.

2. Lacking desire and detachment from desire is pure semantics, as the goal is not to desire the object of your desire. See how redundant that statement is?

Essentially, Buddhism is about apathy. Why? Because poor people in India at the time of the rich-kid prince had no way to address suffering through action.

Being a Christian monk / ascetic is the same thing as being a Buddhist - escape from the real world.

--- "cessation of desire but detachment from that desire" "but detachment from that desire"

So, "a lack of desire for the object of desire", to address your quote specifically and stress what I said above.

When I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, I had to switch to a low-cab diet (which cut out a huge swath of processed foods), and I dropped from 170 lbs. to 150 lbs. in a few weeks. And I wasn't trying to lose weight—it just came off.

I'd like to see a citation for this claim and how it was measured. People in Vietnam seemed much more up and active than people in America and they're much slimmer despite drinks there being sweeter than pure syrup in America.

Maybe ignorance/functional illiteracy of knowing how to read a nutritional label is a slightly more sound argument. Food deserts are a legitimate issue too. However, simply not caring is quite prevalent.

I'm not making excuses here - it's more that unless you come from a privileged or niche background, especially before the internet, you would think this is normal. Imagine as a woman going to your GP doctor for a checkup in the 1980s and having them suggest you start eating spoonfuls of pure refined white sugar to help you control your appetite. Similar modern examples include the popularity of "Bubble tea" which should almost be regarded as a poison

It's not that its hard to find non-sugar food - it's hard to KNOW that's what you're meant to do, even in the most educated first world countries.

https://api.time.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/19710510.jpe...

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

IIRC most western countries are vastly over-caloried, and have a roughly inverse relationship between BMI and income too.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/tooth-decay/

"Tooth decay is damage to a tooth caused by dental plaque turning sugars into acid."

https://www.nhs.uk/change4life/food-facts/sugar

https://www.health.com/condition/type-2-diabetes/high-blood-...