What Exactly Is Cryotherapy—and Is It Safe?

We happen to think that entering a subzero degree chamber and literally freezing your ass off for a few minutes—in an effort to fight aging, inflammation, uneven skin tone, and more physical maladies—sounds a little cray. But there are plenty of people who disagree with us. Systemic (a.k.a. total body) cryotherapy claims many benefits, and A LOT of men and women have been buying into it lately.

 
But, as total-body cryotherapy gains popularity as a spa treatment and with star athletes, it’s also receiving a lot of heat from the medical community—especially after the death of a 24-year-old employee at a cryotherapy spa in Las Vegas last year. (According to the Washington Post, Chelsea Ake-Salvacion got locked inside the chamber for 10 hours after the spa she worked at closed for the night).


When you step into a cryotherapy chamber, the temp rapidly drops to Antarctic levels—anywhere between -166 and -319ºF —through the use of liquid nitrogen. Since the treatment only lasts for two or three minutes, the idea is that you’re only in there long enough for your surface temperature to drop without affecting your body’s core (internal) temp, which would be insanely dangerous (such as what happened to Chelsea).
While your surface temp is dropping, blood rushes to your heart and vital organs to keep your core temp up. “Your body doesn’t want to be cold, so it goes into the fight or flight mode,” says Shoshana Sevel, a chiropractic sports practitioner who has worked with both local and systemic cryotherapy. “Your body is pumping blood and oxygen through your system to try to warm itself up.”
So as soon as you step back into a normally heated room, all this super-oxygenated blood goes rushing back to your extremities, allegedly creating a sort of internal fountain of youth and healing.
But as we reported before, most of the evidence for these effects is anecdotal at best and shady at worst. Furthermore, there’s no proof that taking a trip to the cryotherapy spa is any better for inflammation and healing than a quick ice bath—a longtime favorite of athletes.

 
The dangers, on the other hand, are very real. “If you have systemic issues, especially diabetes, it can dangerously compromise blood flow in the extremities,” says Huffman. Other systemic issues that could cause a serious problem are heart conditions and even allergies or a cold.
“It really comes down to the individual doing the research and deciding if that’s something they want to do,” says Huffman. “A responsible physician is not going to recommend something that isn’t proven.”

By Macaela Mackenzie