How Cryotherapy Can Improve Your Health

Cryotherapy is the latest trend that can improve physical and mental health. It involves using freezing to near-freezing temperatures to help treat and prevent many ailments. The most popular form of cryotherapy is sitting in a booth for three to five minutes to target the joints or the entire body. Many individuals have cryotherapy facials to accelerate microcirculation, which encourages collagen production, supports better oxygenation of dermal cells, and helps detox and rejuvenate the skin. Cryotherapy is a non-medical treatment done at a salon, spa, or gym, though physicians do perform the procedure when necessary to freeze off cancerous cells or warts. Some find cryotherapy unpleasant at first. However, with each treatment, the individual's body will begin to adjust to the low temperature.

Studies show cryotherapy can provide many health benefits. Get to know some of them now.

Provides Pain Relief And Muscle Healing

Cryotherapy is an excellent treatment for muscle and joint disorders, muscle pain, and arthritis. Many sports athletes use it to heal quicker from athletic injuries. Before cryotherapy, doctors would recommend using ice packs to increase blood circulation after an injury. In 2000, a study found cryotherapy offered pain relief from rheumatoid arthritis. Research also showed evidence using cryotherapy provides pain relief in conjunction with ice pack treatment, reduced the effects of intense exercise, relieved muscle pain, and sped up the healing process.

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Promotes Weight Loss

Cryotherapy providers believe it can stimulate and support the weight loss process. Science suggests being cold forces the body to work harder to stay warm, and only a few minutes of freezing temperatures will increase the metabolism and keep it going throughout the day. After multiple treatments, the patient's body will adapt to the cold because their metabolism has adjusted to it. Reportedly, individuals can burn five to eight hundred calories per three minute cryotherapy session when the chamber is set at negative 306 degrees Fahrenheit. The chill tricks their body into thinking it's freezing, which puts it in preservation mode. The patient's brain signals the rest of their body to send blood to vital organs for protection. Since cryotherapy relieves muscle pain, individuals can get back into the gym faster following muscle soreness or injury, which promotes weight loss.

Keep reading to learn about how cryotherapy impacts inflammation next.

Reduces Inflammation

When the immune system becomes overly reactive, it will result in inflammation, and chronic inflammation causes health problems including dementia, arthritis, diabetes, cancer, and depression. Reducing inflammation in the body could reduce an individual's risk of chronic ailments and improve their overall health. NFL and NBA athletes have used cryotherapy for decades to decrease pain and inflammation, as it prompts anti-inflammatory norepinephrine release that reduces inflammation short-term. A cryotherapy treatment of just three minutes will strengthen an individual's immune system by increasing immune cells and white blood cells. A robust bodily system will fight off tumors, kill potential viruses, and possibly lower the risk of cancer.

Continue to discover the next benefit of cryotherapy on health.

Prevents And Treats Cancer

Since cryotherapy can reduce inflammation, it's possible it prevents and even treats cancer. For years, doctors used the treatment to freeze off moles and cancer cells on the skin to kill them. When performed in a physician's office, cryotherapy targets explicitly the treatment area and doesn't affect cells in other parts of the body. This technique was designed not to disrupt healthy tissue and reduce damage. Cryosurgery is less invasive compared to traditional surgery and limits the chance of bleeding, pain, and speeds up recovery time. For external tumors such as skin cancer, liquid nitrogen is applied to the cancerous cells directly.

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Prevents And Treats Other Conditions

Eczema is known as a chronic inflammatory skin disorder that causes the skin to become extremely itchy and dry. A study in 2008 asked individuals to cease using eczema medications and try cryotherapy instead.

Promising preliminary results suggest whole body cryotherapy significantly improved memory in older patients with cognitive impairment. Cryotherapy reduces inflammation as well as the risk of dementia. Oxidative stress and inflammation are closely related to dementia and other forms of age-related cognitive decline. Research has shown depression is linked with a chronic inflammatory response and an increase in oxidative stress. Inflammation causes many problems including pain, reduced appetite, and insomnia, which all can lead to depression. Inflammation produces the same cytokines depression does. Regular cryotherapy sessions will reduce inflammation and thus reduce depression symptoms. It is worth mentioning, however, more research is required to fully understand how cryotherapy can affect and treat conditions like depression, dementia, and eczema.