Wim Hof ice baths and cold showers are rewriting the medical textbooks and for our brain health.
- Professor Selena Bartlett
- May 31, 2022
- 2 min read
Dr Diwadkar,professor of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences. has imaged the Iceman's brain- Wim Hof.
Listen to Episode #90 of the Thriving Minds podcast. https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/episode-90-wim-hof-ice-baths-are-rewriting-the/id1471835230?i=1000564358018
This is an excerpt from Diwadkar and Muzik paper and news press from Wayne State University and first discovery.
"They have shown how his brain responds during experimentally controlled whole-body cold exposure.
Over three days, Muzik and Diwadkar studied Hof's brain and body functions using two distinct imaging techniques -- including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study his brain and positron emission tomography (PET) to study his body.
During the studies, Hof wore a specifically designed whole-body suit the researchers could infuse with temperature-controlled water while the imaging data were acquired in order to relate changes in his biology to cold exposure.
The practice of the Wim Hof Method may lead to tonic changes in autonomous brain mechanisms, a speculation that has implications for managing medical conditions ranging from diseases of the immune system to more intriguingly psychiatric conditions such as mood and anxiety disorders," said Diwadkar,
"We are in the process of implementing interventional studies that will evaluate these questions using behavioral and biological assessments. These possibilities are too intriguing to ignore."
"Brain over body"-A study on the willful regulation of autonomic function during cold exposure
The defense of body temperature against environmental thermal challenges is a core objective of homeostatic regulation governed by the autonomic nervous system. Autonomous mechanisms of thermoregulation are only weakly affected by top-down modulation, allowing only transient tolerance for extreme cold. There is however, anecdotal evidence of a unique set of individuals known for extreme cold tolerance. Here we present a case study of a 57-year old Dutch national, Wim Hof, the so-called "Iceman", with the ability to withstand frequent prolonged periods of extreme cold exposure based on the practice of a self-developed technique involving a combination of forced breathing, cold exposure and meditation (collectively referred to as the Wim Hof Method, henceforth "WHM").
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