In this article, we look at some of the possible benefits to be had from cryotherapy healing, as well as other facts a person may need to know before they consider it.
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Research on cryotherapy is as new as is the trend for the treatment. So doctors do not fully understand all the potential benefits and risks of the process.
People, including self-described “Iceman” Wim Hof, claim that extreme cold can improve mental and physical health and even prolong life. So what does the science say?
Cryotherapy involves treatments that use freezing or near-freezing temperatures. There are various potential physical and mental health benefits.
A person must never sleep during cryotherapy, and they should time each session to ensure it is not longer than the recommended timeframe.
Having a cryotherapy treatment for any longer than a few minutes can be fatal.
Pregnant women, children, people with severe high blood pressure , and people with heart conditions should not try cryotherapy.
It is generally safe , but it is important to talk to a doctor before trying cryotherapy.
Though unpleasant to begin with, cryotherapy tends to get better with each treatment, as the body adjusts to the low temperature.
Doctors, however, also use cryotherapy. For instance, very cold temperatures can be used to freeze off warts or cancerous cells.
This is non-medical treatment in a spa or similar setting.
Most people use the term cryotherapy to refer to whole-body cryotherapy.
Some people undergo cryotherapy facials, which apply cold to the face only. Others use a cryotherapy wand to target specific areas, such as a painful joint.
The most popular form of cryotherapy involves sitting in a cryotherapy booth for 3–5 minutes.
Research may eventually undermine other purported benefits of cryotherapy. However, preliminary studies suggest that cryotherapy may offer the following benefits:
Cryotherapy can help with muscle pain, as well as some joint and muscle disorders, such as arthritis. It may also promote faster healing of athletic injuries.
Doctors have long recommended using ice packs on injured and painful muscles. Doing so may increase blood circulation after the ice pack is removed, promoting healing and pain relief.
A study published in 2000 found that cryotherapy offered temporary relief from the pain of rheumatoid arthritis. The research found that cryotherapy with ice packs could reduce the damaging effects of intense exercise. People who used cryotherapy also reported less pain.
Another 2017 study also supports the benefits of cryotherapy for relieving muscle pain and speeding healing. However, the study found that cold water immersion was more effective than whole-body cryotherapy.
Not all studies support the role of cryotherapy in muscle healing. A 2015 Cochrane Review looked at four studies of cryotherapy for the relief of muscle pain and found no significant benefits.
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Cryotherapy providers have suggested it can help with weight loss, but studies may suggest otherwise.Cryotherapy alone will not cause weight loss, but it could support the process. In theory, being cold forces the body to work harder to stay warm.
Some cryotherapy providers claim that a few minutes of cold can increase metabolism all day. Eventually, they claim, people no longer feel cold because their metabolism has adjusted and increased in response to the cold temperature.
A small 2016 study found no significant changes in body composition after 10 sessions of cryotherapy.
Because cryotherapy helps with muscle pain, it could make it easier to get back to a fitness routine following an injury. This potential weight loss benefit is limited to people who cannot or will not exercise because of pain.
Inflammation is one way the immune system fights infection. Sometimes the immune system becomes overly reactive. The result is chronic inflammation, which is linked to health problems, such as cancer, diabetes, depression, dementia, and arthritis.
As such, reducing inflammation could also improve overall health and reduce the risk of numerous chronic ailments.
Some studies suggest that cryotherapy can reduce inflammation. However, most research has been done on rats, so to confirm the data, more research is needed on people.
If cryotherapy reduces inflammation, it could also reduce the risk of developing dementia.
A 2012 paper puts forward the possibility of cryotherapy being able to reduce the inflammation and oxidative stress associated with dementia, mild cognitive impairment, and other age-related forms of cognitive decline.
Because whole body cryotherapy might reduce inflammation, it is possible it could also lower the risk of developing cancer.
So far, there is no evidence that cryotherapy can treat cancer once the disease has developed. However, medical cryotherapy is a well-established treatment for certain forms of cancer.
A doctor might use cryotherapy to freeze off cancer cells on the skin or cervix and occasionally to remove other cancers.
Research findings that cryotherapy may reduce inflammation suggest that it could treat mental health conditions linked to inflammation. Some preliminary research on cryotherapy and mental health also supports this claim.
A small 2008 study found that in a third of people with depression or anxiety, cryotherapy reduced symptoms by at least 50 percent. This was a much greater reduction than in people who did not undergo cryotherapy.
The chronic inflammatory skin condition known as eczema can cause intensely itchy patches of dry skin. A small 2008 study of people with eczema had participants stop using eczema medications. They then tried cryotherapy. Many of them saw improvements in their eczema symptoms, though some complained of frostbite on small areas of the skin.
Targeted cryotherapy that focuses on the neck may help prevent migraine headaches. In a 2013 study, researchers applied cryotherapy to the necks of people who had migraines. The treatment reduced but did not eliminate their pain.
Cryotherapy, or cold therapy, cools the body using freezing or near-freezing temperatures to help reduce inflammation. Whole-body cryotherapy is a common form of cryotherapy that involves standing in a freezing, non-medical-grade chamber at a spa or wellness center. Cryotherapy also includes cold-water immersion, ice application, and cryosurgery.
Fans of whole-body cryotherapy boast it helps improve muscle recovery, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic pain, anxiety, and weight loss efforts. But despite cryotherapy chambers popping up across the country, there is limited evidence that non-medical cryotherapy offers legitimate health benefits. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has also not approved whole-body cryotherapy chambers as a safe or effective way to treat medical conditions or exercise recovery efforts.
Here's what to know about cryotherapy's uses, benefits, and risks.
How Cryotherapy Works
Cryotherapy—with the exception of cryosurgery—is used to reduce pain and swelling from an injury or inflammation. Since inflammation is often the root of many health issues, cryotherapy may help indirectly alleviate inflammation-related conditions. However, this idea is primarily theoretical.
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Cryotherapy generally helps reduce inflammation by reducing blood flow to particular areas. When exposed to cold temperatures, your body constricts your blood vessels (aka vasoconstriction). This allows blood to move to your organs and gain more oxygen. When your body starts to warm up and returns to its normal temperature, your blood vessels expand (aka vasodilation). That oxygen-rich blood then moves to your tissues and helps push out inflammation.
Proponents of whole-body cryotherapy believe cryogenic chambers help kick off the body's cold temperature response in a similar way. However, there isn't enough research to prove cryogenic chambers effectively reduce inflammation like other cold therapy treatments.
Types of Cryotherapy
When people hear cryotherapy, they often think of freezing chambers, but cryotherapy technically includes multiple cold therapies.
Whole-Body Cryotherapy
During a whole-body cryotherapy session, you'll enter a chamber that's cooled to negative -200 to -300 degrees Fahrenheit (-129 to -184 degrees Celsius) for two to four minutes. These chambers are cooled using liquid nitrogen vapors or cool air that circulates around your body. Typically, your head is outside the chamber, while the rest of your body is exposed to supercooling temperatures. Sometimes multiple people enter a fully-enclosed chamber. Either way, you'll enter a cryogenic chamber naked or nearly naked, with gloves, socks, or slippers to help protect your extremities. (Undergarments are optional for women but required for men).
Cold-Water Immersion
Cold-water immersion (aka cold water therapy) includes ice baths, cold water plunges, or cold showers. During cold-water immersion, you'll typically submerge your body below the neck in 50 to 59 degrees Fahrenheit (10 to 15 degrees Celsius) water for 5-15 minutes. This form of cryotherapy is typically used to help reduce soreness after exercise.
Ice Application
Applying ice packs is a first-line treatment for injuries like sprains, strains, and fractures. Icing is also used to help reduce pain after exercise. After an injury, ice can help reduce pain, swelling, and inflammation. It is typically combined with rest, compression, and elevation as part of the R-I-C-E to help speed healing.
Cryosurgery
Cryoblation, or cryosurgery, is a surgical procedure that uses extreme cold from liquid nitrogen or argon gas to freeze off or destroy abnormal tissue. Performed by a healthcare provider, cryosurgery can remove warts, skin tags, and pre-cancerous skin growths outside the body. In addition, cryosurgery is used externally to remove pre-cancerous skin growths and internally to destroy cancerous cells related to retinoblastoma, skin cancer, early-stage prostate cancer, liver cancer, and bone cancer.
Benefits of Cryotherapy
Cryotherapy is often hyped as a miracle treatment for mental health conditions, muscle recovery, chronic pain, and inflammation-related health conditions. But despite claims, there isn't enough evidence to prove that whole-body cryotherapy is effective. Here are some of the potential benefits of cryotherapy.
Muscle Recovery
Many athletes have popularized cryotherapy as a way to improve muscle recovery after exercise, but research is limited and mixed. A 2022 Chinese study of 12 runners found that whole-body cryotherapy reduced muscle damage and inflammation more effectively than cold-water immersion. Another small study had similar results and found that whole-body cryotherapy decreased muscle pain and inflammation. However, a 2014 review found that whole-body cryotherapy did not significantly reduce muscle soreness.
Chronic Pain Relief
Cryotherapies like ice application and cold-water immersion can temporarily numb the skin, which may reduce pain. However, there is not enough evidence to prove cryotherapy reduces inflammation-related chronic pain. In a 2020 review, researchers found that whole-body cryotherapy and ice application offered short-term pain relief for patients with rheumatoid arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis (inflammatory arthritis that affects the spine). However, the cryotherapy protocols varied, and the effect on long-term pain wasn't explored.
Skin Conditions and Cancer
Cryosurgery is an effective and safe way to destroy cancerous cells and remove skin lesions, moles, and warts. Some old research claims that non-medical cryotherapies may help treat itching and inflammation linked to eczema, but these findings are not well substantiated. Despite these findings, whole-body cryotherapy isn't an effective eczema treatment. The American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) also does not recommend whole-body cryotherapy since it can injure your skin.
Sleep
There is not enough evidence that cryotherapy improves your Zzz's. Still, some studies have found links between cryotherapy and sleep quality. Research on muscle recovery in runners found cryotherapy helped improve sleep quality. Whole-body cryotherapy specifically appeared to help runners sleep the best. Another 2019 study found men who did post-workout whole-body cryotherapy slept with less disturbed movement. They also reported better sleep than those who didn't have cryotherapy.
Risks of Cryotherapy
Spending too much time in any freezing condition can injure your skin. However, whole-body cryotherapy has more risks since it puts your body in below-freezing temperatures. In addition, the FDA has not approved any whole-body cryotherapy devices for safety and effectiveness.
Potential risks of whole-body cryotherapy include:
Keep in mind that you might feel a bit sore, numb, tingly, and may even experience some pain the first time you try cryotherapy. This is normal, and should go away within 24 hours. Cryotherapy can also worsen health conditions like nerve damage, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Pregnant people should also avoid cryotherapy. If you have any health conditions, talk with your healthcare provider before trying cryotherapy treatments, especially whole-body cryotherapy.
A Quick Review
Cryotherapy includes treatments that use freezing or nearly freezing temperatures to reduce inflammation. Cryosurgery is the only cryotherapy medical procedure proven to remove abnormal skin growths and treat cancer.
Limited research shows that whole-body cryotherapy may help muscle recovery, pain, and sleep. However, we need more evidence to prove it's an effective method for treating health conditions, chronic pain, sleep, and muscle soreness. In addition, the FDA has not approved any whole-body cryotherapy devices to treat these conditions.
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