7 ms·

Is it like described here (https://thoughtbrick.com/wim-hof-method/wim-hof-method-power-breath-exercise-explained/ https://thoughtbrick.com/wim-hof-method/wim-h

Is it like described here (https://thoughtbrick.com/wim-hof-method/wim-hof-method-power-breath-exercise-explained/ https://thoughtbrick.com/wim-hof-method/wim-hof-method-power...)? I've had tinnitus for 25 years, and sometimes I wish I could be free of it, if only for a while.

mettamage 7y ago
Edit: if you are going to do this by yourself, please do let us know in this thread how it went for you! I hate to be an anecdotal n = 1 'experiment'. Note: this technique has some risks. Especially when you practice by yourself. The biggest one is that scientifically speaking, experts are a bit unfamiliar with it. I can only offer anecdotal experience. There are some articles written about it [1], but I wonder if they go into the risks of the technique (I don't think so, I was one of the people in the experiment). Yea, it's exactly as described there. The tinnitus will be temporarily gone in step 3 (when you hold your breath). Or at least, that is the case with me. It'll come back after you took your breath in step 4. So it's a temporary relieve, unfortunately. In any case, there are a couple of checks you can do to see whether step 3 is working as intended. 1) You are capable of holding your breath for more than 1 minute and 30 seconds. Note: if you go over 2 minutes, you might want to have someone by your side who can shake you a bit. I sometimes faint around 2 minutes and 10 seconds, I wake up without assistance as well though, but better close of small risks. Shaking works quite well (there was one case where I saw it almost fail, the person was unconscious for 3 minutes and then got to consciousness after 3 minutes of being shaked, normally it takes about 10 to 20 seconds, except for this one case). This is a hard requirement. 2) You feel a tingling sensation in your hands, feet or body. This is not only my experience, it's almost everyone's experience who did this. So this is a semi-hard requirement. 3) After doing this for 2 rounds, it is my experience that my body naturally understands how this type of breathing works. I naturally get into a flow of things. In a sense, I can only describe it is "my body is breathing like my life is depending on it". It's a very rare sensation, and definitely not similar to swimming under water and almost running out of air. This is not a hard requirement at all. [1] https://www.pnas.org/content/111/20/7379 https://www.pnas.org/content/111/20/7379
- mistermann 7y ago
  > Note: this technique has some risks. Especially when you practice by yourself. The biggest one is that scientifically speaking, experts are a bit unfamiliar with it. I can only offer anecdotal experience. I will also offer an anecdotal experience. I went to a "breathwork" seminar once that involved doing a form of hyperventilation (but without the breath holding part which is what Wim Hof also incorporates I believe?). I've always been a severe skeptic about this sort of spirituality woo woo, but of 10 people in the room, a significant number experienced what could only be described as full on psychedelic experiences, and my experience was similar enough that I don't doubt for a second that what they were saying was true, it was an eye opening experience to say the least. That said, after the session was over, the instructor quietly mentioned that during the process, I had gone into some sort of a mini-seizure, and for over a month after that I had pretty severe and constant migraine headaches, as well as significantly elevated blood pressure. I never bothered to research it afterwords, and I certainly will not be engaging in that practice again (as much as I would like to), but has anyone else ever heard of such a possibility for some minority of people?
  - mettamage 7y ago
    The worst I have seen is that one person was unconscious for 3 minutes. We were doing it with medical staff and they started to get the oxygen masks. Just before the mask was on he gained consciousness. As far as we all could tell, he didn't have a single issue. This guy could go crazy long without oxygen though, more than 3 minutes and 30 seconds. He was out for almost 7 minutes. I asked the doctors how it could be that he didn't sustain damage. They offered the following conjecture: since we're not in water, you still get some oxygen. So your oxygen count is very low, but not zero. I also have to note that, everyone has been fine with the breathing part of the technique. I have trained 4 people myself, and have seen about 10 others being trained (with doctor supervision). The part where it gets a bit exciting is only during the holding your breath part. I think there's a huge difference in sort of/kinda 'hyperventilating' for 30 breaths (it is slightly different [1]) and then stop breathing at all versus 'hyperventilating' for 20 minutes straight. [1] The bulk of the WHM breathing technique looks like hyperventilating. There is one huge difference though: you breath out as you normally do. In hyperventilation you breath out as fast as possible to breath in again as fast as possible. So the WHM breathing technique, while fast on the in-breath, is on average not super fast because of a normal speed out-breath.

mettamage 7y ago

Edit: if you are going to do this by yourself, please do let us know in this thread how it went for you! I hate to be an anecdotal n = 1 'experiment'. Note: this technique has some risks. Especially when you practice by yourself. The biggest one is that scientifically speaking, experts are a bit unfamiliar with it. I can only offer anecdotal experience. There are some articles written about it [1], but I wonder if they go into the risks of the technique (I don't think so, I was one of the people in the experiment). Yea, it's exactly as described there. The tinnitus will be temporarily gone in step 3 (when you hold your breath). Or at least, that is the case with me. It'll come back after you took your breath in step 4. So it's a temporary relieve, unfortunately. In any case, there are a couple of checks you can do to see whether step 3 is working as intended. 1) You are capable of holding your breath for more than 1 minute and 30 seconds. Note: if you go over 2 minutes, you might want to have someone by your side who can shake you a bit. I sometimes faint around 2 minutes and 10 seconds, I wake up without assistance as well though, but better close of small risks. Shaking works quite well (there was one case where I saw it almost fail, the person was unconscious for 3 minutes and then got to consciousness after 3 minutes of being shaked, normally it takes about 10 to 20 seconds, except for this one case). This is a hard requirement. 2) You feel a tingling sensation in your hands, feet or body. This is not only my experience, it's almost everyone's experience who did this. So this is a semi-hard requirement. 3) After doing this for 2 rounds, it is my experience that my body naturally understands how this type of breathing works. I naturally get into a flow of things. In a sense, I can only describe it is "my body is breathing like my life is depending on it". It's a very rare sensation, and definitely not similar to swimming under water and almost running out of air. This is not a hard requirement at all. [1] https://www.pnas.org/content/111/20/7379 https://www.pnas.org/content/111/20/7379

mistermann 7y ago
> Note: this technique has some risks. Especially when you practice by yourself. The biggest one is that scientifically speaking, experts are a bit unfamiliar with it. I can only offer anecdotal experience. I will also offer an anecdotal experience. I went to a "breathwork" seminar once that involved doing a form of hyperventilation (but without the breath holding part which is what Wim Hof also incorporates I believe?). I've always been a severe skeptic about this sort of spirituality woo woo, but of 10 people in the room, a significant number experienced what could only be described as full on psychedelic experiences, and my experience was similar enough that I don't doubt for a second that what they were saying was true, it was an eye opening experience to say the least. That said, after the session was over, the instructor quietly mentioned that during the process, I had gone into some sort of a mini-seizure, and for over a month after that I had pretty severe and constant migraine headaches, as well as significantly elevated blood pressure. I never bothered to research it afterwords, and I certainly will not be engaging in that practice again (as much as I would like to), but has anyone else ever heard of such a possibility for some minority of people?
- mettamage 7y ago
  The worst I have seen is that one person was unconscious for 3 minutes. We were doing it with medical staff and they started to get the oxygen masks. Just before the mask was on he gained consciousness. As far as we all could tell, he didn't have a single issue. This guy could go crazy long without oxygen though, more than 3 minutes and 30 seconds. He was out for almost 7 minutes. I asked the doctors how it could be that he didn't sustain damage. They offered the following conjecture: since we're not in water, you still get some oxygen. So your oxygen count is very low, but not zero. I also have to note that, everyone has been fine with the breathing part of the technique. I have trained 4 people myself, and have seen about 10 others being trained (with doctor supervision). The part where it gets a bit exciting is only during the holding your breath part. I think there's a huge difference in sort of/kinda 'hyperventilating' for 30 breaths (it is slightly different [1]) and then stop breathing at all versus 'hyperventilating' for 20 minutes straight. [1] The bulk of the WHM breathing technique looks like hyperventilating. There is one huge difference though: you breath out as you normally do. In hyperventilation you breath out as fast as possible to breath in again as fast as possible. So the WHM breathing technique, while fast on the in-breath, is on average not super fast because of a normal speed out-breath.