I'm sure that most of us remember their parents shouting - "Put on some clothes. It's cold - you are going to get sick". Then again, have you heard your parents saying something like - "Eat those fresh fruits, they are going to make your immune system strong, and you will never be ill" ?
This picture is taken on 28.01.2018 at Vitosha mountain,Sofia,Bulgaria by @raranchev22. The temperature was around 1-2 degrees Celsius, but dropped bellow zero at some point. I spent one hour and twenty minutes as seen on the picture and afterwards another forty minutes just by my boxers. To this date I still haven't experienced any sign of catching a cold. Therefore, I believe that human beings can control their autonomous nervous system and immune response. As you will see in this article it is also scientifically tested and proved to be true.
What are we taught to believe
Today I am not talking about how society programs us. I would rather try and focus on practicality. Contemporary science claims that there are two types of diseases: infectious and non-infectious. Infectious illnesses being the ones caused by pathogens - viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. On the other hand, there are the non-infectious diseases which can't spread from person-to-person, like cancer. They develop because of an unhealthy lifestyle.
I believe that catching the flu is mostly related to poor overall health, daily stress and exhaustion. Nevertheless, if you ask your medical GP how getting infected works, he might tell you that there are some pathogens that are so adaptive, that they can overcome even the strongest immune system.
I would say that everyone that holds this belief has never heard of Wim Hof - a Dutchman that has been the subject of many studies. One of which was conducted in the year of 2014 at the Radboud university medical centre located in Nijmegen, Netherlands. This time the experiment included not only mr. Hof , but a group that he trained, and a control group, both of which were administered e. coli.
Here's the report by EenVandaag:
The turning point
"Normally, the bacteria makes you ill for several hours.Remarkably, for this group ( the one that was trained by Wim Hof), that is not the case." - an expected result I should say.
"Our main conclusion is that, for the first time, we have been able to find conclusive proof... that a human being is capable of voluntary influencing his autonomous nervous system and immune response" - says Peter Pickkers, MD PhD at Radboud.
It turns out, there are many ways to overcome illnesses - apart from the conventional medical procedures. I would recommend taking a glance at mr. Hofs youtube channel. There you will find not only an array of testimonials , but also guidelines about the methods that he uses, in order to achieve the forementioned results.
Sources:
[1] https://www.radboudumc.nl/en/research
[3] https://www.wimhofmethod.com/ - mr. Hofs website.
An interesting perspective, but it is taking a veryyyyy small amount of evidence and extrapolating to try and shut down what we understand through established medical science.
It's well known that we can regulate both our immune system and autonomic nervous system. Some meditators can regulate their ANS extremely well, and it's long been documented that mood has a massive impact on immune function.
What Mr Hofs research is lacking is a placebo group... with that his results might have held a lot more credibility.
I agree that more research should be done, if they want to make a scientific breakthrough. As far as mood is concerned - I went through a more recent study done by the same specialists.This experiment focused on the impact that "outcome expectancies" have on the end results.They measured optimism and neuroticism as variables.
The placebo group is an interesting proposal, but what the placebo should be?
hustle
Yes , my friend, I do work hard everyday! Thank you , for the support!
Oo Vitosha mountine, I love it !
Best place to chill , around Sofia!
Thank you!