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

by Scott Carney, Wim Hof (Foreword by)

Overview

What Doesn't Kill Us, a New York Times bestseller, traces our evolutionary journey back to a time when survival depended on how well we adapted to the environment around us. 

Our ancestors crossed deserts, mountains, and oceans without even a whisper of what anyone today might consider modern technology. Those feats of endurance now seem impossible in an age where we take comfort for granted. But what if we could regain some of our lost evolutionary strength by simulating the environmental conditions of our ancestors? 

Investigative journalist and anthropologist Scott Carney takes up the challenge to find out: Can we hack our bodies and use the environment to stimulate our inner biology? Helping him in his search for the answers is Dutch fitness guru Wim Hof, whose ability to control his body temperature in extreme cold has sparked a whirlwind of scientific study. Carney also enlists input from an Army scientist, a world-famous surfer, the founders of an obstacle course race movement, and ordinary people who have documented how they have cured autoimmune diseases, lost weight, and reversed diabetes. In the process, he chronicles his own transformational journey as he pushes his body and mind to the edge of endurance, a quest that culminates in a record-bending, 28-hour climb to the snowy peak of Mt. Kilimanjaro wearing nothing but a pair of running shorts and sneakers.

An ambitious blend of investigative reporting and participatory journalism, What Doesn’t Kill Us explores the true connection between the mind and the body and reveals the science that allows us to push past our perceived limitations.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781635652413
Publisher:	Harmony/Rodale
Publication date:	12/11/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	272
Sales rank:	279,080
Product dimensions:	5.10(w) x 7.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Scott Carney is an investigative journalist and anthropologist whose stories blend narrative non-fiction with ethnography. His reporting has taken him to some of the most dangerous and unlikely corners of the world. The New York Times says "Carney writes with considerable narrative verve, slamming home the misery of what he has witnessed with passion and visceral detail." He has been a contributing editor at Wired and his work also appears in Mother Jones, Foreign Policy, Playboy, Details, Discover, Outside, and Fast Company. He lives in Denver, CO.

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Introduction
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Excerpted from "What Doesn't Kill Us"
by .
Copyright © 2018 Scott Carney.
Excerpted by permission of Potter/Ten Speed/Harmony/Rodale.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Foreword Wim Hof xi

Preface: Burning Up xv

Introduction: An Ode to a Jellyfish xix

1 The Iceman Cometh 1

2 Raiding Evolution's Dustbin 21

3 Measuring the Impossible 43

4 The Wedge 49

5 Bib 2182 67

6 Art of the Crash 79

7 Swatting Mosquitoes with Hand Grenades 95

8 It's Raining Inside 109

9 Parkinson's, Broken Bones, Arthritis, and Crohn's 125

10 All-Weather Intervals 145

11 Cold War and the Vital Principle 157

12 Tough Guy 173

13 Kilimanjaro 189

Epilogue: Cold Comfort 212

Note on the Chronology 219

Acknowledgments 220

Works Referenced 223

About the Author 228

Index 229

Editorial Reviews

Fresh and exciting, this book has wide appeal for readers interested in health, sports, self-improvement, and extreme challenges.”—Booklist

“Engaging . . . This is part guide and part popular science book; readers will learn about how Neanderthals used the body’s 'brown fat' to keep warm and how exposure nearly reverses the symptoms of diabetes. The accomplishments Carney documents are unbelievable and fascinating; this isn’t a how-to for those looking to perform extraordinary feats, but it is an entertaining account that will appeal to the adventurous.”—Publishers Weekly

“Scott Carney is so curious about getting to the truth of things that he is willing to endure great pain and suffering to get there. While investigating the controversial methods of Wim Hof and others operating on the scientific fringe, Carney entered a skeptic yet emerged a true believer. In What Doesn't Kill Us, readers get to follow him along on his transformational journey, and the insights are truly fascinating. Informative, fun, and with a healthy degree of danger, this is a book for the adventurer in all of us.”—Gabrielle Reece, co-founder, XPT (Extreme Performance Training)

“The further we get from the harsh environmental conditions that once threatened our existence, the more we need them. I see this every weekend at a Spartan Race somewhere in the world. Millions of otherwise sane people line up to suffer and push themselves to their physical limits, and it feels good. What Doesn't Kill Us is a fascinating investigation into the innate urge that drives people like these, and reveals how some have managed to use environmental conditioning to accomplish truly extraordinary things." —Joe DeSena, founder, Spartan Race

“As a Navy SEAL, you live by the mantra, ‘what doesn’t kill us only makes us stronger.’ We would hear this phrase and repeat it, but we never had any proof that it was factual. Yet through comprehensive study, Scott Carney has brilliantly documented how engaging in environmental conditioning, breathing, meditation, and other techniques can actually make us physically and mentally stronger. What Doesn’t Kill Us is a fascinating book that will captivate all who read it and that will be of immense value to those in the military, those who are active in sports, and those who seek an alternate means of developing greater mental and physical strength.”—Don D. Mann, New York Times bestselling author, Inside SEAL Team SIX

“Damn fun and extremely well-researched, What Doesn’t Kill Us is a great addition to the canon of high performance literature!”— Steven Kotler, New York Times bestselling author of Abundance and The Rise of Superman

“When it's cold outside, do you turn the heating up? Do you always put a coat on before going out? Do you think your comfortable life is good for you? If so, you have to read Scott Carney's What Doesn't Kill Us. Through some great stories — which often involve Carney trudging through snow without much on — and some serious research, he shows us how to escape the bland, shuffling gait of our centrally-heated, fleece-jacketed, molly-coddled lives by diving head-first into the ice-cold, axe-sharp, scary experiences that made our ancestors’ hearts beat faster every day. If we do that, we can awaken from the dull slumber of modern life and open our eyes to a better, healthier dawn of crisp air, better circulation, and the ability to truly mean it when we say: I'm alive. Buy this book, and you'll emerge a stronger, healthier, more human human.”— James Wallman, author of Stuffocation

From the Publisher