• JamesGoblin [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      1 year ago

      For what it’s worth, I do a VimHof breathing session anytime I even slightly syspect any of the symptoms. It is supposed to raise dopamine and immunity - and has some good effects on mood and performance aside COVID. If you CBAed to do full three cycles, do one or two at least but the longer the better.

      • I hate to break it to you, but the Wim Hof method is bullshit. The claims his brand makes about improving immunity are not true at all, the science does not work out. Behind the Bastards did a two part series on him which you can find here: Part 1 and Part 2. The guy is not ok and not someone people should be taking health advice from. CW: public indecency, severe injury, child abandonment, butt stuff, mention of suicide, death

        spoiler

        ___ He abandoned his children after the suicide of his wife, then got back in contact with his second oldest child years later. Wim Hof gave himself an enema in a public fountain while waiting for his son to show up. He claims to have given himself enemas in the public fountain nearly a hundred times previously. A new, higher pressure nozzle had been put on the fountain he enema’d himself with, and the water cut his intestines like a knife, so his first words in years to his son whom he had abandoned was that he needed to go to the hospital. Also some people have died while doing his his exercises.

        This is not a guy you want to be taking health advice from.

        • JamesGoblin [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          1 year ago

          No, it does help with both mood and performance - many tested it and it works, which I can also confirm from years of personal experience; IIRC there are studies confirming it but I CBAed to re-check, simply since it works very well for me. It’s basically rebranded Tumo breathing which is certainly not a scam, and it also helps with, say, cold showers and raises cold tolerance in general (one of basic things Tumo was designed for). IIRC it also raises dopamine, I did reading on it years ago and will check it again. People dying from it were doing it in bodies of water or driving or doing anything stupid that you don’t want to “do” potentially unconscious, since then there are disclaimers about that everywhere including the original WH site.

          Of course I didn’t just “trust” him but did a lot of reading - I was especially interested in what doctors/PhDs/studies have to say, besides testing it myself in many ways. It was years ago and I remember studies on immunity having mixed results and it all being in an early phase, the reason I used “is supposed to” and “for what it’s worth”. Anyway thanks for the links - I will check both carefully!

          • bumblebeehellbringer [fae/faer, they/them]@hexbear.net
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            1 year ago

            Affecting immunity and improving immunity are two very different things. Just to be clear, since we are in the Covid community, the Wim Hof method does NOT provide any protection against Covid-19. Again, affecting the immune system and improving immunity are two very different things. I invite you to look at this study, specifically what it concludes in the first paragraph.

            In conclusion, we demonstrate that voluntary activation of the sympa-thetic nervous system results in epinephrine release and subsequent suppression of the innate immune response in humans in vivo

            Especially this part:

            subsequent suppression of the innate immune response in humans

            It SUPPRESSES the immune response, not the other way around! It will not provide any protection against Covid or any other disease that requires an immune response!

            Like any marketable pseudoscience, the Wim Hof method contains a grain of truth; i.e. that it affects the immune system. The LIE is that it improves the immune system, the truth is that it suppresses it! There’s a grain of truth involved, but the lie is all the bullshit that Wim Hof and his team constantly say and imply. It’s important to have high standards for medical advice. When someone is lying and strongly implying lies much of the time, it’s important to be careful of whatever medical advice they give or imply.