Enhance your health with Cold
I just got done reading the book “What doesn’t Kill Us” by Scott Carney and I have started to see changes in my health in just a few weeks. The book is written about how Scott Carney went to study and see if Wim Hoff, the man they call “The Ice Man” is for real. Wim Hof has been a legend in Poland for years, he has the ability to resit the cold and hold his breath for up to 6 minutes. In recent years he has made the claims that he can control his immune system consciously.
So this investigative reporter Scott Carney went to Poland to debunk this mans claims, but to his surprise he started to do some of the simple techniques that Wim Hof has been using and he too started to see changes in his own health and ability to resit the cold, increase his VO2 max, and even stop stress ulcers in his mouth.
When I first started to read the book I was more entertained at the stories and the like that this Wim Hof leads. But then I started to see that a lot of what Mr. Hof is teaching and practicing makes a lot of sense. It is very similar to our chiropractic philosophy. In a nut shell he states that we need to stress our bodies in everyday like so that they have to adapt to things like the cold, changing of the seasons, altitudes and different climates. In the absence of these types of stresses that the human species that had to deal with for all of civilization up until the last century, the body is bored and starts to attack itself to create stress.
In the modern day we live in climate controlled capsules that neither stress our nervous systems nor allow our bodies to utilize our mind body connection for our benefit. We go from our 75 deg house to our temperature controlled car, to our temperature controlled office and then back home again. In the winter we use heat and in the summer we use A/C.
If you think about this, we are the only species on earth that lives like this. All others live out in the elements and just adapt for survival, I he nor I think it is a coincidence that we are the only species that has chronic diseases and chronic degenerative conditions. Now he nor I are saying that living in the elements is the only cause of this human phenomenon. Ignoring our food, work lifestyles, over medication society, and sedentary lifestyles would be silly. However, if we look at the concept of living our lives closer to nature has major impacts in our health.
So back to my journey in this book. After reading the book and after all the stories and interviews of other people who has experimented with the techniques of Wim Hof, I too was inspired to try and see what it was all about. I started 2 weeks ago with the breathing techniques and cold showers. The breathing techniques consist of taking 30 deep quick breaths in and letting them out naturally. On the last breath I let it out all the way and then hold my breath. I hold my breath for as long as I can before I can’t take it any more have to breathe. Wim Hof calls this the “wedge”.
This is where you begin to learn how to control your own autonomic nervous system. I do this cycle 3 times, and with each cycle you can hold for longer. The fist few times I did this I could only get a 1 1/2 minutes or so, but with each day I could do more. Within a week I was up to close to 2 1/2 minutes. And now I routinely hold my breath for over 3 minutes. This sounds crazy I know but it works, you super saturate your blood with oxygen and get rid of the carbon Dioxide and you just stop breathing.
It is really crazy how you don’t feel the need to breathe for a long time. Then I finish the morning routine out with a cold shower (well somewhat of a cold shower the water in not that cold her in AZ when it is 110 out side). That’s it, and then I start my day. What I have noticed in the last two weeks is how alive I feel after the shower, I feel refreshed and ready to go for the day.
I have noticed better focus and clarity, I have had less joint pains, and I too used to get stress mouth ulcers and bouts of anxiety. Since I started the routine I have not had any mouth ulcers and my anxious feels from stress are all but gone. Now I just need to step it up a bit, I am going to start with some full body cryotherapy sessions to really give my body a shock.
I will let you know in a few weeks my progress…