Dysphoria and dynorphin
Professor Marc Cohen is one of Australia’s pioneers in integrative and holistic medicine.
He is a registered GP with degrees in physiology and psychological medicine, as well as PhDs in Chinese medicine and biomedical engineering.
I had the pleasure and opportunity to speak with him for “Science on the Rocks” about his work and his perspective on the science behind the Wim Hof Method.
In this podcast, I was able to ask him about his view on topics such as hormesis (which will be one of our main topics on the podcast in the next weeks), mountain sickness, the main differences between sauna and ice immersions, why people with Raynaulds’ syndrome which is a medical condition showing spasm of arteries that itself causes episodes of reduced blood flow, have to be careful when going into the cold, the Bohr effect, a metabolite called dynorphin, and what mechanisms of the WHM might turn on stem cells in your body (which is an extraordinary process).
One of the things that I found highly interesting and which increased my understanding of the WHM breathing technique was Marc’s explanation of the five phases of breathing.
First, during the conscious hyperventilation, you increase your ph-level and your oxygen saturation while carbon dioxide decreases. Then you have an anaerobic phase during the breath retention. Here, lactate rises and the pH level is slowly decreasing.
And because hemoglobin’s oxygen binding affinity is inversely related both to acidity and to the concentration of carbon dioxide, it tends to keep oxygen much tighter in its structure during low carbon dioxide levels in this phase. You could measure this with an oximeter and notice that the oxygen saturation will stay as high as 100% for about a minute before carbon dioxide is increasing again.
Then, still in the retention phase, you come to the point when oxygen finally is released from hemoglobin (aerobic metabolism) and when you will realize that the urge to breathe again is getting stronger and stronger due to higher carbon dioxide in the blood.
The fourth phase is the action of the recovery breath when everything returns back to its physiological balance.
Marc considers the last phase as subjectively very peaceful when you don’t actively do anything and your body has to cope with this single inhale. Your pulse rate drops significantly below your resting pulse rate.
Interestingly, the psychological experiences are mainly dysphoric during the transition from the hyperventilation to the breath-hold and also when you feel the need to breathe at the end of your retention phase but are euphoric during the last phase when you hold your breath again for 20 seconds.
So, going from one extreme to the other, you can find your balance.
And what is totally striking is that – from a physiological perspective – you might need these phases of dysphoria and discomfort in order to experience euphoria later on much stronger because the stuff which is associated with dysphoria which is called dynorphin can increase the number and sensitivity of endorphin receptors. Endorphin’s principal function is to inhibit the transmission of pain signals; it may also produce a feeling of euphoria very similar to that produced by other opioids.
Can you publish the transcript of the episode?
Tanks
Dr Ciro Mastro
Sorry, at the moment we cannot provide transcripts.
Such a great episode!
Topics like white and brown fat cells and selfregulation were new to me.
There is an episode of “good life project” which also provides great insights into similar subjects. I love also the Episode with Wim Hof.
http://www.goodlifeproject.com/podcast/brown-fat-lose-weigth/
Thank you Matthias.
Hi,
I’m having Raynaud’s syndrome and doing the WHM for over a year now.
The cold hands (and feet) didn’t get any better nor any worse.
Some people (as Marc) don’t recommend to do cold showers or try to avoid the cold… Some say there’s even a potential danger when you’re suffering from Raynaud’s Syndrome and taking cold showers… Or do hand ice baths…
But some people proven they’ve beaten Raynaud doing WHM.
I don’t know anymore what to do?
I listened to the podcast, but Marc isn’t saying so much about.
Any good advice? I rather don’t stop doing the WHM, I love the breathing sessions and also the cold showers give me loads of good energy. And I guess there are more pros than cons doing the WHM.
Thanks a million!
Best, Richard.
We cannot and are not allowed to give medical advise here. But search in the WHM Facebook group.
Great episode – but one think makes me wonder.
I experience the breath hold phase a bit different – my heart rate really drops in the end of the retention, even when the urge to breath becomes stronger and it will first increase when I do the recovery breath.
Does that mean that I won’t get the full effect and no adrenaline is released?
Has there ever been tests that showed Wim had more brown fat cells than the ordinary person
He and his twin brother both have brown fat as yound adult men.
Look at https://www.wimhofmethod.com/science
Frequent Extreme Cold Exposure and Brown Fat andCold-Induced Thermogenesis: A Study in a MonozygoticTwin
https://www.wimhofmethod.com/uploads/kcfinder/files/WHM_BrownFat.PDF
I have read that the state of hypoxia actually stimulate tumor growth. See link here.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5045092/
Can you comment on that, please?