Abstract

Few studies have evaluated the effectiveness of the Wim Hof Method (WHM) on heart rate variability (HRV), psychological well-being using the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS), and the Positive and Negative Affect Scale (PANAS).

We investigated 8 healthy volunteers (3 women and 5 men; age 22 ± 4 years old) without evidence of serious medical conditions. Participants either performed the WHM or control (CG) breathing every day in the morning for 10 minutes for three months. Time and frequency domain HRV parameters such as standard deviation of NN intervals (SDNN), root mean squared of successive differences (RMSSD), high frequency (HF), low frequency (LF), and low frequency/high frequency ratio (LF/HF) were determined from 24-hour CamNtech Actiheart monitors. In addition, perceived stress was measured using the PSS and positive affect (PA) and negative affect (NA) were measured using the PANAS. These measures were taken prior to and after the intervention. No significant interaction differences were found between the WHM and CG for any measured variables; however, there were differences between the groups where a significant age difference was found (p = 0.03).Further investigation with appropriate subject participation and group randomization is needed to determine the true effectiveness of WHM. Further research should also investigate the cold exposure component of the WHM while performing it in person versus remote.

Details

Title
The Effects of Wim HOF Method Breathing on Heart Rate Variability and Affect States
Author
Viliunas, Kevin
Publication year
2022
Publisher
ProQuest Dissertations & Theses
ISBN
9798379400972
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2795114122
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.