Cold is a teacher only when the lesson is composure, not conquest. In this conversation from The Brain Surgeon's Take, the useful thread is not novelty for its own sake. It is the way small physiological signals become practical guidance for a more resilient life.
Transcript from The Brain Surgeon's Take. Timestamps open the original YouTube video at the corresponding moment.
today on this episode of The Crossover we will be discussing chill out the benefits of cold water immersion with legendary cold exposure Guru and 21-time Guinness World Record holder the Iceman Wim Hof learn how deliberate and controlled cold environments can have tremendous physical and mental benefits much more on this episode of The Crossover well good afternoon everyone we have the pleasure of speaking with the Iceman Wim Hof who's one of the most extreme athletes of all time Wim Hof is a cold exposure Guru Global Health leader and 21-time Guinness World Record holder he got his nickname The Iceman by breaking a number of Records related to cold exposure including climbing Mount Kilimanjaro and shorts running a half marathon across the Arctic Circle Barefoot and standing in an ice container for nearly two hours amazingly his extensive training has enabled Wim Hof to control his breathing heart rate circulation and allowing him to withstand extreme temperatures he is convinced that everyone can tap into their inner potential without having to invest the same Decades of study travel and daring he's made it his mission to share what he's learned with the rest of the world he teaches people all over the world from celebrities and professional athletes to peoples of all ages to control their body mind and Achieve extraordinary things and here today to discuss chill out the benefits of cold
discuss chill out the benefits of cold water immersion Wim Hof I'm a huge fan super excited to talk to you today thank you Ricardo for having me yourself are an authority in the brain functioning and when it goes wrong you are able to operate and I think we are able to prevent a lot of brain injuries by learning how to clear the brain waste the biochemical brain waste in the brain and I think we found a natural way to clear that and that will prevent the obstructive weight of too much biochemical residue in the brain causing inflammation causing all kinds of diseases so I'm very happy to talk about the cold but from the cold comes actually the deep breathing because when you go into the cold you learn to Deep breathe that means to activate the full potential of the physical body and then it connects directly with a deeper area of the brain which is the survival brain the brain stem which we never exercise and that is what the call does beside of uh making you learn to breathe deeper it uh it is the best
deeper it uh it is the best cardiovascular workout Fitness you can ever imagine it's like 80 000 miles of veins arteries capillaries inside and millions of little muscles the endothelium this is being trained by going into the cold it looks like hey when I sit in the cold up till here then that I'm doing nothing but my body from the inside is working like hell it's amazing what it does insight to the interior and we forgot about that one and here it is well tell us a little bit because I mean I do cold plunging so I've done a lot of research on this topic but I think many of our listeners this might be the first time that they're hearing about it tell us exactly what cold water immersion does to the human body cold water immersion directly ignites the adrenal axis which is the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland and the adrenal glands and that resets the body because it's such a profound aggressive power but your body is able to deal with it that it needs to resort to the depth of the brain the survival brain the danger and you have to become strong what happens when the adrenal axis is activated within just a minute and fully
activated within just a minute and fully on it expels anything that should not be in the body and that is from a recycled a damaged cells it activates stem cells it gets rid of cancer cells all the which is in the body need to be extradited out because you've got to be strong you gotta survive this is the mechanism we did not know about and we neglected it in our Industrial Way Extension tools comfort zone Behavior we became weak because there is no stimulation we dress ourselves up all day but while the or biggest organ of ours is our skin and all the receptors are in there to stimulate the internal uh the interior fully the 80 000 kilometers with the endothelium which is the millions of little muscles is everywhere and through the occult we just drain it all and we extradite what should not be in the body and that gives people such a good feeling because when we trained the endothelium the millions of little muscles blood flow goes much better through the body because these muscles are being stimulated heart rate goes down so distress signal goes out of the
down so distress signal goes out of the body normal cortisol and then and because the the blood vessels they are being helped by the endothelium by the millions of little muscles it reaches the blood much better into the cells thus energy up stressed out now what about the dopamine effect this is very interesting about mood treating depression because that's been shown that dopamine spikes and it lasts for a long time it is really 250 percent do no adrenaline 540 percent right and those are essential crucial hormones lacking causing depression depression is where there is no pressure and dopamine and no adrenaline bring up the pressure you feel alive and it stays there it it activates it throughout the body and suddenly they're rushing through all the cells is happening and then depression is out is gone it's amazing it's a matter of just neurotransmitters and I think also some of it is getting used to it now I want to ask you a question because the first cold plunge can be quite shocking I've been doing it now for about two months it's not really getting any easier how how do you what do you recommend I mean should it ever get easy or is it always so painful
to me after 40 years if I don't do it for two days then when I get back into the icy water and then I I just think wow I must be a genius because this feels so bloody great it's a noble force it brings you to the depths of yourself and there is no thinking there it is the deep brain doesn't talk in words but it talks in being that being without anything is the purpose of life is existence right over there and of course it gets easier yeah I'm able on my birthdays Ricardo when I became 60 I just went I'm going to show that I uh that I'm bloody strong that I got this a connection with my body I go 60 minutes into icy water no problem I was having a fun 61 when it became 61 61 minutes and that's 62 63 and now I'm 64. I didn't do it because I get bored I'm just having fun if I want to make it a world record I can easily do that right because I got this connection and like anything a connection becomes stronger after regular practice part neurological Pathways become stronger through practice and then once you I can't live without God I love the heat I love Miami
without God I love the heat I love Miami Miami hey it's it's good good loud man I love palm trees and all but in my backyard you will always find a bloody cold ice bath to do the plunge not only the plant I stay until I feel I'm here I love hearing that because that's it's thank God it's going to get easier at some point because right now it hasn't gotten easier so but how cold does the water have to be people might be like 70 60 50 40 what what temperature does it have to be to have a benefit uh all the between say 50 to 60 is great but if you go lower afterwards because you want a more powerful impact yeah there it is just follow your feeling and how long yes regardless what this is we are able to tackle uh killer number one in our society which is cardiovascular related diseases I. T older people go in uh 50 60 70 80 years going into regular cold icing water but natural bodies of water throughout the winter they don't become sick of course there's no money but health is more worth than money and it's there for everybody in the world this is the knowledge everybody needs to know
knowledge everybody needs to know that that there is the power that makes you able to control maintain your own health cardiovascular related diseases we can tackle it with this this episode is brought to you by Vitamin Water contains the optimal blend of electrolytes to fuel your day so whether it's doing brain surgery or simply relaxing at the beach vitamin water should be your source of hydration check out vitaminwater. com for more information and use promo code crossover for 20 off your first order that's crossover for 20 off how often do you have to cold Plunge in order to have the benefit once a week every other week five times a week every day what do you recommend I would say a call child will make a huge difference it's absolute deep stimulation of the cardiovascular system and when do you take a shower do you take a warm one but then finish up with a cold one it's great for your body so every day if you can yes as much as you can and me by my feeling I see hey every day it calls upon me and sometimes several times because I just like it I love it and now I'm like reaching out to a 100 million or more people and they all do it they
or more people and they all do it they like it they they love it they say I can't live without it anymore we can't imagine I have no am I electricity bills go down because my sensation of what is warm has completely changed that is the thermal regulator hypothalamus you train your hypothalamus by going into the cold and you adjust you get more control over that but now we get a different matter I'm talking about I'm going to talk about the breathing comes from the cold first time I went into the coldest I get a deep breath and I Look to deeply breathe controlled nicely and I could stay longer and longer in icy water that is what is that breathing I want to get the details of the Wim Hof method which is available everyone can get it online but I want you to talk about why breathing is so important and what type of breathing do you recommend in that cold water to overcome that stress in cold water you'd be relaxed you don't do breathing exercises it's just a relaxed in in cold water no uh fun activities Etc just the cold training this is coal training and you know in in 90 water nobody likes to play uh uh with a little bit with a football or or anything uh
bit with a football or or anything uh with the girls and uh and the girls with the boys no no that's not there it is called practice called icy water practice is separate from breathing techniques the breathing techniques they need to be done on a sofa or in bed why because you will lower the CO2 carbon dioxide by which the breathing trigger goes way down what happens when you reach that state and you go into retention like not breathing anymore because there is no feeling that you need to breathe you once again trigger the adrenal axis and that resets the body deeply and it is able to process a trauma trauma is stored up in the tissue you will be able to get into the tissue with this past the conditioned body and mind as we know we are able to go into that depth through this technique and that makes us able to release our to work on our fears on our blockages inhibitions and Trauma itself for that it is a therapeutical uh great psychiatric tool so and that has proven itself already so uh the breathing
uh the breathing on a sofa in bed because sometimes she can even faint so far it goes and that's why we say don't do it in water don't do it near the water don't do it in a car in bed and or a sofa mostly most of the times it doesn't happen but if it happens we don't want that to happen in water and or a car because when you lose the control in a car or in the water and you faint hey that's the end of the line so we don't but the therapeutical use of breathing techniques are multiple in in Psychiatry which I did in Detroit with Professor five of divakar and Auto music both professors they said and they published this now we have the compelling evidence of the key components of the autonomous processes in the brain related to mood regulation and this is what America needs the U. S with all these shootings with all their children who are in too much stress culminating into inflammation culminating into obstruction that they even lose identity of who they are and what they are they get crazy take a gun out I'm gonna
get crazy take a gun out I'm gonna excuse them all you know they even do not recognize their own friends they shoot their parents what is this this needs mood regulation if we bring these breathing techniques with all the safety protocols into schools and I'm busy with that together with the a German universities right now if we bring that into Implement that into schools children learn to regulate their mood that is one two breathing exercises make the stress residue in the brain go away and did Direct Express registration and we proved that law in uh April with the Penn State University in Erasmus University in the Netherlands we can bring down a distress registration in the brain by 10 times imagine that long term no stress in the brain makes children feel relaxed they don't get crazy they are able to perform better cognitive results and hence mood is regulated this is what I This is Love and power to the children we need to bring this to the children and show it hey how does it look like in the brain scan when there
look like in the brain scan when there is no stress anymore and or when we then bring the children into stressful task performance and still see no stress registration in the brain then we got a tool that every child in school should know now you're talking about breathing regulating stress which is fascinating the other component that you really uh push for is how breathing can regulate your immune system and the fact that you at will have said and you've proven that you can regulate your own autonomic nervous system explain that a little bit yes so the autonomic nervous system was considered to be impenetrable you could not influence and together with the innate immune immune system so that actually is inflammation you could not control and willfully nor the autonomic nervous system and now we found in 2014 first I did it I showed it after sixteen thousand hundred and thirty before people who could not control their autonomic nervous system and innate immune system after being injected with a bacteria E coli bacteria it's called endotoxinine and endotoxin experiment controlled and stick more than 16 000 times it has
and stick more than 16 000 times it has been shown everybody got sick for three to six hours and that day I did my breathing exercises and my motivation and it showed no registration and no inflammation inflammations were way down I didn't feel sick like the uh all the 16 000 people headaches all over Agony uh uh back aches vomiting fever all that for three to six hours me nothing and then they said but you are the Iceman I said no what I can do anybody can do and then they gave me a group of people I trained them four days now I need half hour because now we know how to do it I cleaned up four days and after the four days the group a competitive study one group did receive injections with the bacteria and without being trained they all became sick my group The trained group all hundred percent did not become sick and there we proved for the first time in medical science that the autonomic nervous system can deeply be influenced at will together with the innate immune system that is bringing down willfully inflammation
bringing down willfully inflammation within 50 minutes that was amazing and so that got into the proceedings of National Academy of Science and nature so that should have waken up the whole wide world medical world because inflammation we could not lower willfully but now we can through breathing exercises specific breathing exercises we showed how to bring down inflammation and that is the cause and effect of any disease and now of course it looks like oh yeah but he is not a professional he is not a medical uh medically uh grounded through Europe no I went into nature I tested myself I did the all the world records and then they began to test on me the professors and the doctors and then they saw me doing where for them it was a dead end street because I came from nature and I showed what you can learn in nature is much more than what is now registrated in books and so there it was the approve was there and they replicated that study and made it bigger I had the same results so that is revolutionary I mean it's incredible the power of breathing like you're saying right
breathing like you're saying right people talk about meditation and slowing your breathing but that's kind of cliche and what you're proving is that with specific methods and again everyone can get it online the Wim Hof method with specific methods not only does it help reduce stress but it reduces inflammation and helps you regulate your own autonomic nervous system going quickly back to the cold water immersion discuss how routine cold water immersion boosts your basal metabolic rate and increases Brown versus white fat yes uh size willfully a control Within by which the intercostal muscle activity enhances with 400 500 percent and that of course is metabolical race a metabolic rate needs fuel and then it gets into the brown fat you get and the brown fat activated it is more the Intercultural active and muscle activity that makes the body go wild in metabolic rate uh by which it needs to be fueled and it will get its fuel from the inside very effectively uh furthermore you learn to adapt you learn to slow your breathing and you learn to calm down that is the Vegas news you learn to connect with the
Vegas news you learn to connect with the vagal tone willfully you bring it down once you learn to bring down the stressful impact of the aggression of the icy water in two minutes you are a connecting neurologically with the vagus nerve with the hypothalamus with all it's amazing what is happening we need Ricardo we need more brain scans to show all this so we bring the solutions to a widespread to a global Health Care Don't Be Afraid let's do this we we found these techniques and it is to share it's it's love some power it's true knowledge we know no speculation we want to bring it and this is the way that's why I love talking to you because you know what I'm talking about 100 100 and I think it's you know just again someone who's done cold plunging I want to get your perspective is cold plunging the ability to cold plunge a hundred percent mental all comes from the brain and what is not yet operated from the brain through bodily emerges you learn to ignite and activate those uh uh mental Pathways and suddenly because you are doing it it gets within your willful control because
gets within your willful control because you are there with your will you are exercising and suddenly the whole body is connected to the brain and more brain functioning is going on we could do brain scans on that before and after and then you will see what we found Ricardo in a Hanover is that through these breathing techniques which comes from cold immersions deep breathing techniques we are able to neurologically activate the neural activity in the brain to 100 percent neural activity 100 and that comes from going into the cult that activate from the body the mind the brain it opens it up and because you are there you connect directly automatically naturally with all the brain is that that's amazing that's yeah I mean if we are able to show this once and we widespread it we give people the keys to the threshold of the unlimited power of their minds and that was always very abstract but now through the brain There Is No Escape it's physical let me ask you one final question for for our listeners who may be interested in doing cold water immersion but fearful I think a lot of people are just
fearful I think a lot of people are just so turned off by the idea of the initial shock what would you tell those people who are interested but fearful but you want to lose your fear the cold water is the best teacher it is the shortcut to learn to deal with 100 sight of yourself within your willful control think about that would you like to have 100 control over your brain and your psych your feeling your dopamine your serotonin your adrenaline your all would you like that then take the cold lunch get in gradually because we are dressed up we are we live like hot dogs we should get strip off and get naturally into deep stimulation cold water does it it is the best investment you can uh do for yourself in your life that's love and Power that's that's really well said thank you so much for an unbelievable interview shows the power of cold immersion the power of breathing everything that you've shown turning it from Theory into actual facts and science I think that's truly incredible for those that are interested the Wim Hof method free app is available in the Apple Store and Google Play I'm a huge fan of cold
and Google Play I'm a huge fan of cold plunging mad respect amazing what you've done and let's keep teaching the world let's really spread the gospel right on Ricardo let's keep on all the love all the power have a great day
Transcript auto-generated by YouTube. Verbatim — duplicates intentionally preserved.
The modern wellness world often turns mechanisms into promises. A calmer approach asks better questions. What is the body being asked to adapt to? What dose can it recover from? What practice still feels intelligent tomorrow?
"Cold water quickly exposes the relationship between breath, fear, and control."
the science of cold exposure creates a clear sympathetic response. Breathing changes, attention narrows, and the body prepares to protect itself. The practice becomes useful when you meet that signal with steadiness. Over time, the cold becomes a place to rehearse regulation.
The benefit does not come from chasing the lowest temperature. It comes from a repeatable dose the body can absorb. A brief, intentional exposure followed by warmth, food, movement, or rest can support resilience without adding unnecessary strain.
Use the idea as a ritual, not a performance. Start with the least dose that changes your state. Notice breath, sleep, appetite, training quality, and mood. Those signals tell you whether the protocol is building capacity or simply adding load.
Cold water quickly exposes the relationship between breath, fear, and control.
The point is not to imitate extremes but to train composure under a clear physical signal.
A measured cold practice can sharpen focus and build confidence when approached with respect.
Choose one practice you can repeat consistently for the next two weeks.
Track the felt outcome: sleep, focus, calm, recovery, or energy.
Increase intensity only when the current dose leaves you steadier.
