At this stage of your lives if you haven't heard of Wim Hof and his love for freezing cold conditions, you can't be a good family guy. But I'll freshen up your mind, though. Wim Hof is a complete nutter Dutch man with the looks of a cool 70's grandpa that survived the LSD flower-power generation doom Era, and instead of having fried his brains on lysergic acid, easy sex and opiates of many kinds, he instead developed an incomparable taste for personal development (and kudos for using himself as a guinea pig in the process). One must respect this gentleman as he talks the talk and walks the walk. Utter genius in my humble opinion. This gentleman has a history and story of his own to which this blog wouldn't be able to make justice, so I honestly advise you to go and check all you can about this person because one can only learn wonders in doing so (ACCESS HERE).
One of these days I was just browsing through some videos on the London academy/London Talk, I can't remember exactly where, and I found yet another interview to Wim Hof. I already know a lot about his method but I hadn't had the chance to try it myself, in practical terms. It seemed so hard that I was immediately missing on the predisposition to even try it in its easy demo version!!!!! But when he started talking about how his method could help bring a new fresh steady equilibrium to one's immune system, I thought this could only be great for my Sjogren's Syndrome. Because Wim Hof's method is simple and complex at the same time, I think the best person to talk about it is the man himself, so I once again advise you to search for his official content (beware, there are loads of wannabes out there trying to mimic his method; a method he developed and supported with scientific data but many try to reproduce ignorantly).
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One of the things that have stricken me straight and sharp was the cold showers alongside deep rapid breaths that he states really do improve the way the immune system operates. Sjogren's Syndrome being an autoimmune disease reflects the malfunctions of an imbalanced immune system, ergo! I wanted to search for scientific literature to support and validate the technique and the reasoning behind it. Recently, about two weeks ago or so, I started with the 1:30 min fast and deep breaths, followed by holding my breath until I feel the urge to breath, then another set of deep breaths, holding for another 15 seconds, then repeating the previous steps twice again, and ending with shock thermal therapy (5 minutes hot bath followed by a short cold water shower [as cold as possible] for about 2 minutes.
BUT BEFORE YOU GO TRY IT YOURSELF AND END UP DEAD IN THE TUB, PLEASE!, OHHHH PLEASE!, CHECK YOURSELF WITH A MEDICAL DOCTOR, EVALUATE YOUR CURRENT MEDICAL STATE AND THEN LEARN FROM THE MASTER WIM HOF HIMSELF; NOT FROM ME. I AM NOT ADVOCATING I MASTER THE METHOD, I AM SIMPLY ATTEMPTING TO FOLLOW IT MY WAY AND DISCUSSING ABOUT THE SCIENCE BEHIND SAID COLD SHOWER THERAPY.
Still alive? Good! Your listening skills are working fine. Let's go see the evidence out there, science-wise, supporting the Wim Hof theory that states the following benefits of cold showers:
1) Reduction of stress levels,
2) Higher level of alertness,
3) More robust immune response,
4) Increased will power,
5) Weight loss.
The literature I found on hormesis (a term used by toxicologists to describe a biphasic dose response to an environmental agent characterised by a low dose of a stimulation or beneficial agent followed by a high dose of inhibitory or toxic agent) definitely supports cold shower therapy as beneficial to the immune system:
Buijze et al (2016) [1] - The authors attempted to determine the cumulative effects of a thermal stress strategy (in the shape of hot-to-cold showers) on sickness, quality of life and productivity at work. Overall, they've observed that the study resulted in a 29% reduction in self-reported sick leave from work and 54% reduction of sickness absence. Surprisingly, the duration of the cold shower did not influence the final results!!! Amazing! And one of the most interesting (from the Sjogren's Syndrome patient's point-of-view) was that the most commonly reported beneficial effect was the increase in energy levels. Nevertheless, I am more interested in the effects observed in the immune system and unfortunately this article lacks such biochemical perspective. So I had to check yet another one.
Shevchuk and Radoja (2007) [2] - Sjogren's Syndrome patients have on average 5% more probability of developing a lymphoma due to the imbalanced immune system activity, hence a balanced modulated immune system being one of my major concerns. Considering these authors' findings, after they've tested a thermal-based hormetic hypothesis, where they were able to conclude that among the immediate/transient effects of cold-stress therapy one can find increased levels of: a) metabobolic rate, ACTH, norepinephrine, beta-endorphin, corticosterone, etc.. On the long-lasting effects (5 days to 6 weeks), they've searched the available literature and realised that minimal stress exposure to "moderate cold still seems to [produce] significant physiological and immunological effects" and "...may be useful for enhancing anti-tumour immunity...".
Dugue and Leppanen, 1999 [3] - Vintage science stuff is always so nice! I'll tell you why - no beating about the bush!!!! This 'old' article was clear as water and it studied the blood of healthy subjects after thermal stress collected at rest; thermal stress being sauna bath plus short swim in ice cold water. The assessed variables were serum cortisol (for an idea on stress levels), dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (a precursor steroidal hormone involved in the production of testosterone and oestradiol that is controlled in the brain in a negative feedback loop, and when in excess levels can be related to polycystic ovary syndrome and hirsutism in women, congenital adrenal hyperplasia in children, and depression in EVERYONE! When in insufficient levels it can be related to shorter life span, cardiovascular disease in males with type 2 diabetes mellitus, osteoporosis in women, and worse of all LOW LIBIDO) [2]; they also tested antidiuretic hormone (ADH) levels (the hormone levels that help control the amount of water in one's body through the kidney's); and finally the levels of different pro-inflammatory cytokines in plasma (these are signalling 'agents' operating in cell-to-cell communication and immediately related to the functioning of the immune system, thus serving as great indicators of its health). And the observations were quite clear for after thermal stress the total leukocyte, neutrophil, lymphocyte and erythrocyte counts were significantly higher than in the controls. In addition, the levels of IL-6, prolactin and ADH increased significantly. Overall, positively challenging the immune system for those who use the hormesis thermal therapy on a frequent basis.
I merely checked these three articles that popped out after a brief search, but in reality there is some great insightful scientific information available out there on the benefits of hormesis and the thermal stress therapy. I advise you once again that if you have some time go and fetch some of the scientific reasoning also made available in the Wim Hof Official website, you will find some of the most relevant info supporting cold-shower therapy as a boost for a better modulated immune system Here.
It's up to you know!
Post image kindly taken from Omni massage and guidance, [http://www.omg.massagetherapy.com/guidance-the-ice-man].
2nd post image Photo by Laura Marques on Unsplash
[1] Buijze, G. A., Sierevelt, I. N., van der Heijden, B. C. J. M. et al (2016). "The effect of cold showering on health, and work: A randomized Controlled Trial". PLOS ONE, 13(8), pp. 1-15.
[2] Dehydroepiandrosterone, You and Your Hormones, [http://www.yourhormones.info/hormones/dehydroepiandrosterone/], last visited on the 21st of November 2018, last update unknown.
[3] Dugue , B. and Leppanen, E. (2000). "Adaptation related to cytokines in man: effects of regularswimming in ice-cold water". Clinical Physiology, 20(2), pp. 114-121.
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