Iceman says his treatment below zero can cure the disease

Wim Hof ​​is known as the Iceman. Wim believes that extreme cold exposure regularly causes changes in the body that can curb some of our most devastating diseases. And her growing legion of followers swears she's shivering to regain health.

We know that exposure to cold causes heat generation through the body by shaking and shaking, and increases blood flow around the organs. But this can also lead to hypothermia or even death.

"I started at 17 with cold water," Wim told Steve Pennells of Sunday Night. The cold has silenced me. From there, I knew it was what I was looking for, it was a great feeling. Then I felt pressed by these endorphins, serotonin, hormones, which are like natural drugs. "

Over the next 40 years, Wim experimented with his own body in places and places that defied belief: climbing Mount Kilimanjaro in shorts only and running a marathon in an African desert without drinking water. He broke 26 world records, including an incredible hour and 52 minutes in an ice bath.

In the forests of western Poland, Wim's students learn to resist the cold, a technique he has been perfecting for decades. They are excited by guttural singing and yoga. The workout ends with a snow fight, in a bathing suit, of course.

Wim's converts claim that the cold worked for them. None of them says it gets easier, but it's what they feel afterwards that drives them to continue.

For Henk van der Bergh, it's more than a feeling. He says his disabling rheumatoid arthritis has healed.

Doctors first told Henk that the state was not treatable. "It was so bad," Henk Syas. "I could barely move my hands, my knees, my shoulders, my elbows, my wrists."

Henk reluctantly went to see Wim. "At first I was skeptical because no one else had done it at that time.

Since then, Henk has experienced a remarkable change. Henk now uses his hands every day in his blacksmith job – a job he had almost abandoned. "I found my mental and physical power, I'm fit."

Wim says that it can bring anyone to be more comfortable with the cold – the key lies in breathing. However, he is convinced that the problem is not limited to the simple control of freezing temperatures.

"Depression, arthritis, Crohn's disease, name it, I even want to fight against all – [and] Cancer."

It may sound crazy, but these crazy ideas are taken seriously by scientists. At Radboud University Medical Center near Amsterdam, Wim's theories were put to the test – and he was their first guinea pig.

At Wim's insistence, they injected him with a toxin that should have given him a fever. He told them that his unique approach to health meant that he could control his immune system, which they thought hitherto was physically impossible.

Professor Peter Pickkers supervised the trial. "We took the samples and we did exactly as we always did.We compared his response to more than 100 healthy volunteers who participated in previous trials, and what we found. [was] his pro-inflammation was much less. It seemed that he was able, thanks to this technique, to suppress his immune system. "

"It is exciting that we have been able to show for the first time, in a very scientific and robust way, that it is possible to deliberately influence your immune system." It is really, really new. "