The Benefits of Cryotherapy

When you first think about it, sitting in a cold tank of freezing temperatures sound a bit terrible even if you do well in the cold. Well, this method is exactly what cryotherapy is. Cryotherapy is a ‘cold therapy’ where the body is immersed in extreme cold to freezing temperatures for several minutes.

Now, why would anyone ever want to willingly sit in a freezing tank? More specifically, a temperature between -100 C and -140 C. With as little as one session of cryotherapy, you can receive multiple benefits to your skin as well as internal health.

What will you experience?

There are multiple methods to cryotherapy including cryotherapy facials and cold applied to other specific target areas. However, the most popular form of cryotherapy is done by sitting in a chamber with freezing temperatures for 3-5 minutes. Expect an unpleasant experience your first treatment but it will get better each time as your body begins to adjust to the temperatures. When looking for a place that provides cryotherapy, ensure that they are putting you in the treatment for no longer than a few minutes as any extended time can be fatal.

What are the benefits of cold therapy?

Recovery after exercise

Applying ice has long been a way to relieve pain from injured or stressed muscles by increasing blood circulation. Cryotherapy is essentially this healing treatment in a bigger form. Athletes were one of the earliest avid users of cryotherapy. This treatment has been a recovery tool in sports medicine for a long time now. Spending a few minutes in the chamber after exercise can help with recovery. You experience faster relief from any exercise-related strain.

Pain relief

Not only is it beneficial to those who more routinely do intense exercise, but it also helps with muscle disorders such as arthritis or back pain. Studies have shown that patients who have gone through cryotherapy treatment have experienced an improvement in overall well-being, a significant reduction in pain, improved mobility making rehabilitation programs more effective, and less of a need in prescription medicine. Even a week after a session of cryotherapy, people with back pain have said to still feel the relief they got from the treatment.

Reduce migraines

I’m sure many of us have had headaches bad enough to lead us to use ice packs or a cold cloth on our foreheads to help ease the pain. Essentially this is cryotherapy as we’re using cold temperatures to treat the target pain area. Migraines can be treated by cooling and numbing the nerves in the neck area. Studies have shown that treatment greatly reduced their pain. Even if you can’t make it to get cryotherapy professionally, you can simply use ice packs on your neck area for a few minutes.

Reduce anxiety and depression

It’s proven that freezing temperatures in the cryotherapy chamber can reduce inflammation that could help in treating mental health conditions linked to inflammation. This will not cure depression or anxiety but can greatly reduce symptoms by 50 percent. Exposure to freezing temperatures can cause physiological hormonal responses including the release of ‘happy hormones’: adrenaline, noradrenaline, and endorphins. This can have a positive effect especially on those with anxiety and depression. After treatment patients should feel a sense of relaxation, elevated mood, memory enhancement, more energy, and improved sleep. These aren’t only immediate improvements but will last several weeks from just one session.

Help prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s

Since cryotherapy reduces inflammation, this could also reduce the risk of developing dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. However, this is just one theory that cryotherapy can help prevent as more research is needed to evaluate how effective this strategy could be. It’s thought that the effects of cryotherapy could help fight the inflammatory and oxidative stress responses that contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s. Again with Alzheimer’s and other types of dementia, it’s difficult to understand if alternatives like cryotherapy work as a treatment or preventative therapy.

Beneficial to the skin

Cryotherapy has numerous benefits to the skin. One way of targeting our face is cryotherapy facials that have increased in popularity. During these facials at Simple Healing Space, a cold wand is used to glide across the skin to reduce puffiness and appearances of bloating that we can experience from the food we eat, lack of sleep, consuming alcohol among many other activities.

These facials reduce redness caused by rosacea and acne, and lighten dark spots leaving your skin fresher and glowy after one session. Atopic dermatitis and other skin conditions can also be treated by cryotherapy. This is due to cold therapy improving antioxidant levels in the blood and reducing inflammation.

Request a Simply Healing Facial and add cryotherapy to your session, call or text (213) 465-0644.