Quote:
Originally Posted by DoubleF
To be fair... it kinda is.
We know the polar bear plunge/winter swimming claims to offer benefits for immune system and other things. Wim Hof has his cryotherapy concepts that adds to it. It actually is sorta measured/backed by science, but the science isn't well understood. It borderlines on pseudoscience on occasion, but there actually has been scientific research on it which has stated inconclusive vs incorrect.
But even if the science is totally valid, Wif Hof method and polar bear plunge all end up at a point where you're running around in the winter air in basically nothing but underwear... of course we be saying, "lol, this guy". People who do that are something else.
I'm pretty sure that comment wasn't parody and more bragging.
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There's a book by a guy who basically followed Wim Hof around for a year or so (
What Doesn't Kill Us), and it's quite good. Basically the guy does all the Wim Hof stuff like running up mountains of snow and ice in his underwear and swimming in freezing water. He ends with his fair share of skeptical takeaways, so it's not a glowing review across the board. One thing of note though is that Wim and several people he's trained in his method to undergo a procedure that is supposed to give them a reaction (cold or flu symptoms), and a statistically significant percentage of them do not get the reaction.
Scientifically things fall apart a bit when we deal with sample sizes that low and we use people who are evangelists of his method (the pharmacy of the mind is insane), but you wouldn't be crazy for concluding that when it comes to cold exposure and our immune response, there's
probably something there.