Mind, Matter, And Influenza

So it's cold and flu season, at least it is in here. In prison, if one person gets sick many people get sick.Especially in this open cube setting. I've been sick more time in the past six months, at this joint, than I have over the last 'four plus', years of my incarceration combined. Maybe, I'd catch a minor (and I mean minor) cold every year and a half, on average. But since I've been here I've gotten sick four times. Though the last two almost don't count...Almost.

Over the last few years I noticed a mild synchronicity popping up around this one particular person. I kept noticing this name, in random magazine articles, TV shows and news clips. His name is Wim Hoff. When I first came to prison I read about this European wild man in an article in Rolling Stone. They called him “The Iceman” and it mentioned all these feats of endurance he's been able accomplish. Most of them involve him withstanding below fridged temperatures for extended lengths of time. A small mention was made about his breathing process but the focus was more on these amazing feats and less on the techniques he used to accomplished them. It was an interesting read. I was impressed and intrigued but soon forgot about this strange man with his peculiar abilities.

Recently, a magazine was dropped off in my cube. And another article, about the Iceman Wim Hoff, found its way across my path. This article finally went more in depth about his actual practice, as well as some of the science behind his amazing abilities. 

He holds upwards of 30 world records. Longest ice bath, at just under two hours. Longest distance swam under solid ice…etc. He has also, and this seems the most amazing to me, hiked both Mt. Kilimanjaro and Mt. Everest in nothing but shorts and tennis shoes!

He goes on to explain that he is able to do these things by 'hacking' into the autonomous nervous system. Through this breathing/meditation/visualization technique (loosely based on the ancient Tibetan Buddhist meditation practice of 'Tummo' for generating heat) he claims to be able to control his core body temperature as well as his immune system (which most of modern medicine would claim to be impossible.)

Several studies have been done on Wim Hoff and his abilities. In a controlled experiment he was indeed able to raise and lower his core body temperature at will. Also, mentioned in the article, a test was done where several of his students were injected (with a bacteria or virus) that causes flu like symptoms. To which all of them showed little to no affects. 

In this article it also loosely explained the actual breathing technique that he uses. Needing more, I had my mom do a little research and send me a more detailed explanation. The technique is simple in explanation but more difficult in practice (at first). 

Loosely speaking, it's a series of ten of the deepest in and out breaths you can take, followed by thirty very fast in-out breaths (almost like you’re hyperventilating). On the last breath (of the thirty) you completely exhale (completely!) And you hold for at least 90 seconds. You then take a deep, deep, breath and hold it for sixty-seconds. The idea is that you flood your blood cells with oxygen. And immediately deprive your body afterwards. 

This holding of the breath is incredibly difficult at first. Holding your breath for several minutes is easy when your lungs are full, but exhaling completely first makes it difficult. You should reach a point where you are convinced that you can hold it no longer, that you are going to pass out or die, and then hold it longer, until your body can't take it a single second longer. Then you take a deep, deep, breath and hold it. You bear down on that held breath and feel the recently oxygen starved blood, now oxygenated, coursing through your veins to all the systems of your body (if you have a specific injury you can focus on that area). 

There are more detailed explanations of the mental visualizations that are incorporated in this practice. The idea is that in the final, most drastic, moments of holding your breath, your body and nervous system freaks out, releasing all kinds of stress hormones that are incredibly helpfull as anti inflammatories and aides to boost your immune system. It's a hack based on your physiology, induced by controlled breathing and mental activity.

I've become more and more adept at this practice over the last few months, and I’m now able to hold my breath for almost three minutes. But it doesn't matter exactly how long you hold it. Its about reaching the point where your nervous system starts to react.

I began this practice about about two months ago. Soon after, a cubie of mine got sick with a common cold. This provided me a control for my experiment. If I was to get sick, which I did, I'd have something to compare my experience to. From beginning to end he had symptoms for five days. Soar throat, headache, slight temperature, coughing and general lack of energy. As I felt it coming on I doubled down on the practice, doing it three times in succession (as it is recommended). 

It worked so well that I had a tough time initially telling if I had actually caught the sickness. I had no sore throat, no head ache, no coughing, but I could tell my body was fighting something off. It became more clear after a few days (it only lasted three) I spit up phlegm and was slightly congested. I was truly surprised that it worked so well. It wasn't just that I was able to deal with the symptoms better or that they were lessened. I genuinely didn't have most of them. Though I could tell that something was going on. I was indeed dealing with some sickness, it's just that it subtlety was surprising. I could tell that I had something and I could tell when it was gone but the symptoms never manifested in any discomforting way. But that was just the common cold. Maybe I just got lucky (which I never do with colds).