What Doesn't Kill Us: How Freezing Water, Extreme Altitude, and Environmental Conditioning Will Renew Our Lost Evolutionary Strength

by Scott Carney

In what might just be the most profoundly lucky occurrences of happenstance for a researcher investigating Hof’s method, it turns out that Hof has a genetically identical twin brother, André. Previous examinations of Wim Hof’s physiology had shown that the Iceman himself possesses much more BAT than other people his age. He has about the same amount that a typical 20-year-old does. While Wim Hof is incredibly active, his twin brother isn’t. As a truck driver who spends most of his time inside a heated cab, André lives a mostly sedentary lifestyle. Though they look the same, van Marken Lichtenbelt figured that Wim’s near-constant exposure to the cold would result in his having a much greater amount of BAT than his twin would.