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Comment by darepublic | Hacker News Reader

I believe I encountered similar ideas googling wim hoff and the cold exposure therapy stuff. There was a time in my life where I was taking cold showers in the morning for a different therapeutic purpose, to cure depression. I can tell you that for the duration of the cold shower my existential angst was no longer top of mind.

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> I can tell you that for the duration of the cold shower my existential angst was no longer top of mind.

I bet you if you hit your thumb hard with a hammer, your existential angst will also no longer be at the the top of your mind.

Likely, any significant physical acute discomfort will remove existential angst from the top of your mind.

I think that we need a bit of physical discomfort to push against.

We have created an environment with the least amount of effort and variations and as a result the more prevalent diseases are the result of too much calories and not enough effort exerted.

I'm pretty sure that's the joke OP was making :)

Yeah that is kind of what I was low key trying to impart. That I couldn't be sure it was working. Certainly it was no silver bullet

I often wondered about a primal reptilian brain therapy. Where you overload your brain with deep priorities. Physical EMDR.

then you start reading things like: cold weather increases the risk of heart attacks, constricting blood vessels, etc, and suddenly that cold shower doesn't just feel shocking, it feels existentially dangerous!

It's risky for people who have already developed health issues. That doesn't make it dangerous for healthy people.

it was a bit tongue in cheek, but really I was alluding to the broader issue where some conditions/treatments/lifestyles/etc both decrease and increase different risk factors.

Or it could be like brucine in Count of Monte Cristo, as your body gets used to it, it's less likely to kill you.

Good old Selye. It's generally true that a stressor that doesn't overcome the body's capacity will result in adaptation toward future instances thereof.

Of course there are limits, as the idiot who tried working his way up from BBs to develop a bullet immunity learned the hard way.

>Of course there are limits, as the idiot who tried working his way up from BBs to develop a bullet immunity learned the hard way.

shut up, i don't believe you. Actually??

You definitely need to ease into cold to avoid the shock. Slowly ease one body part at a time into the cold stream. Or slowly turn down the temperature as it hits you.

not only that, cold water also helps with obesity and type 2 diabetes

https://you.com/search?q=cold+exposure+therapy+for+obesity

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