How Wim Hof and 12 other people got injected with an endotoxin

A revolutionary study from the Radboud UMC with...

revolutionary results.

Every few days he came in storming

to say, "This is ALSO the case”

“and this is ALSO correct and now we know the mechanism.”

All the pieces of the puzzle fell in place

and that was really nice to experience.

A scientific breakthrough.

March 23, 2013

Wim!

It is -15 °Celcius wind chill (5 °Fahrenheit)

I am freezing right now.

and you are walking like this.

Yes, because those mechanisms are working well with us.

Oh I have to...

Ja?

We’re feeling warm.

because those mechanisms are working now and have awakened.

That is why we are not feeling cold.

With you guys it doesn't work because you are wearing clothes.

He is world famous.

Wim Hof, better known as the ‘Iceman’.

8 o’clock on a Friday morning on January 25, 2008,

a chilly morning for most folks on the plaza.

Really really chilly.

He climbed Mount Everest in shorts.

And he ran a marathon in Lapland barefoot.

He does the impossible.

It has been two years since we last spoke.

There have sprouted some extra 'Hoffers’ since then,

It does seem like that yes.

In 2011, Radboud UMC conducted research into Wim Hof

At the time, Wim Hof came to us claiming he could influence his immune response

We said: ‘’That’s something you CAN’T influence.’’

But because Wim Hof has done a lot of special things,

we said ‘’It could be nice to give that man a chance to show us if that is the case.’’

Ok Wim.

Yes...

This is the endotoxin.

Okay.

A very low amount.

The last moment to say "No" is now, but I understand you want...

Let’s 100% continue.

Ok.

Well I'm going to administer it.

You won't notice that.

Let the battle begin.

Wim Hof gets part of a dead bacteria injected.

Harmless.

You won't notice anything immediatly.

After one and a half hour you will start to notice it.

But in the meantime, the body is already preparing right?

Correct.

So I'm going to...

You just continue meditating.

I'm going into the opposition.

Normally you’ll get sick from it for several hours.

But Wim Hof, because of his special meditation technique,

oddly enough doesn’t get sick.

Something happened.

Something good.

At that time, we had Wim Hof, performing his technique, as our only test subject

We compared him with over a hundred people who have undergone these types of research before.

With him, we found that he is capable of increasing his stress hormone.

What we know about these stress hormones is that they can suppress your immune system.

That was also the case with Wim. He had a very low amount of inflammatory protein in his blood.

However, that’s just ONE finding, with ONE person.

It is not scientific proof yet.

That’s why we were very motivated to say: ‘’We want to start comparing more groups of people’’

So, a group that has been trained by Wim Hof compared to a group that has not been trained.

We are very happy that we received funding to continue the research.

These volunteers back here are now playing soccer in the freezing cold...

they went with Wim to Poland for a week

and they were trained in his technique.

And we are now going to see if they are also able to suppress their immune system.

If they’ll be able do that...

What does that mean?

Well I don't really want to anticipate the results....

Sorry but the cold wind is bringing tears to my eyes.

It's very cold right? - It's freezing.

We're going to do those tests first.

Let's do the tests first and see how it will unfold.

And then we'll check what that could mean.

So it would be something really special if you could MENTALLY affect your immune system.

So yes that would be really special?

Yes for sure.

Twelve volunteers, all healthy young men, have been trained by Wim Hof in Poland for 4 days.

To learn in a short time what Wim Hof has been able to do for years.

using extreme cold and meditation.

Feel the power of your own body.

We had 24 guys who were all very eager to participate in training with Wim Hof in Poland.

They were available and afterwards, they were tested.

Half of them were put into the group that was going to be trained by Wim Hof, and the other half wasn’t.

Yes, we have arrived.

Great powers.

Guys,here it is!

If you don't feel the tingling sensation...

and don’t feel the lightheadedness ,

just keep on with the breathing,

Instead of 10 just do 20....

Then 5 more slowly and the last one you take in very deeply....

Then you should feel it.

We went with Wim to Poland, to his training.

That was a very special experience.

to see how Wim trained the group.

He really took it another level so to speak.

and turned them into a real team within a few days.

They did very challenging activites.

Really groundbreaking things.

They were playing soccer for almost an hour.

Minus 15 degrees Celius wind chill (5 °F)

Look they're all warm.

Yes

In 20 minutes we're all going into an ice bath.

Icy water,

Water conducts the cold 25 times more compared to air.

And we’ll look at the natural resilience that they’ve built during those 4 days.

In those 4 days, these people have gained tremendous improvement in their own strength and physiology.

And now they know how to go into ice water without experiencing the shock of cold

That will not happen anymore.

So that won’t happen?

Exactly.

Would you like some shampoo with that?

The exercise was about learning to close the arteries.

He demonstrated that.

Full circle.

Right on. Thank you.

So how was it?

Yeah fine. It's still cold, but if you learn how to control that, it’s not so unpleasant.

Why on earth do you want to participate in this?

Because this is an awesome experiment.

Really? - Yes! -

Do you want to learn how...

how to train your mind in such a way that you're in control.

That's a powerful feeling.

And then the research itself. Just like Wim in 2011,

the guys were injected with a part of the dead bacteria while using Wim Hof’s technique

Here comes the endotoxin.

And the result?

Nothing happens at all.

I’m going to ask you how you’re feeling Felix.

Nausea on a scale from 0 to 5?

‘0’ means nothing at all, ‘1’ means barely feeling something, and ‘5’ is the worst experience ever.

How would you rate it?

Well... zero... I feel great.

The same thing for your headache?

Yes.

I actually don’t have any complaints at the moment.

Muscle strain? - No muscle pain.

Back pain?

No.

Any shivering?

No.

And how would you rate your overall condition from 0 to 10?

‘10’ is the worst ever and ‘0’ the best.

Zero.

Ultimately, the blood results must provide the real scientific evidence.

These samples will show the results

The tests itself are a lot of work

but all lab determinations are quite a job as well.

I saw you this morning. It functioned like a mean machine.

Warriors.

Thanks man!

Great!

Yes.

More than great.

We’ll show it the whole world.

Next up: the control group

98...

and 0.87

Guys who had NOT been trained by Wim Hof.

The result? The guys are feeling sick. They even shiver.

I’ll check the saturation from here.

Many months have passed since then.

All blood tests from the twelve participants,

and the 12 people in the control group were done and compared with each other in a laboratory.

The results are very remarkable.

Our main conclusion is that we have now conclusively demonstrated.. .

that a human is able to influence his autonomic nervous system and his immune response in a voluntary way.

All academic books stated that was was impossible.

It's a scientific breakthrough.

The autonomic immune system CAN be influenced.

Until now science assumed that that was not possible.

Because we've done additional measurements, we have an idea of HOW they did it. we have an idea of HOW they do it.

Simply said, normally, you’ll get an immune response after injecting such a bacteria.

First, you get all inflammatory proteins that activate the immune response.

Afterwards, you get inflammatory proteins that reduce it.

What we found with the trained people is that, because of their training,

they are able to start a short state of stress within themselves.

Their adrenaline went up.

Adrenaline caused the inhibitory proteins to rise earlier and with higher volume.

The proteins that were designated for the inflammation were suppressed.

I can briefly explain what is shown here.

This is actually adrenaline, which we just talked about.

It is a substance which is produced during an acute stress reaction.

We can see that the adrenaline levels in the group that hasn’t been trained, (the control group)

It remained very low and only started peaking later. .

as a result of the inflammatory response of injecting the bacteria.

In the trained group, the guys who did the breathing exercises and were trained by Wim Hof,

we noticed that adrenaline levels went up immediately after starting the breathing exercises.

And so you can influence your...

Yes.

You can influence your immune system.

Knowingly and willingly.

Shall we do one more exercise?

The ‘Plank’?

Wonderful results but have we gained from this?

Can we all, like these guys and like Wim Hof, influence our own immune system?

And can you fight diseases now without any medication?

I really think we have to look only at what we have researched and what it has showed us.

which are very impressive and very beautiful results.

We are convinced that that is really something special.

But at the same time, you shouldn't think too far ahead and speculate

for example:"Ok now we have a solution for people with Rheumatoid arthritis.”

That is simply not true because that’s not what we have researched.

And even if somebody suffers from chronic inflammation,

so your inflammatory system is chronically overworked,

that it can't be suppressed with this technique.

We simply don't know that because it hasn't been tested.

But we have however made a great step here.

and we are a step closer to see what it can mean for patients.