Cold Therapy 101 – Cryotherapy Advantages And Options

Cold therapy, often referred to as cryotherapy, is simply another term for exposing your body to cold temperatures for therapeutic reasons.

Although it’s become popular of late, especially in the world of athletics and sports injuries, it actually dates back to several thousands years BCE, being used by the Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans.

Back then, it was sometimes called hydrotherapy – (cold) water therapy – but the principles were the same, as were the reasons they used it.

This article looks at the reported benefits of cold therapy, and options on how you can try it yourself.

Cold Therapy Benefits

Studies are pointing at numerous benefits from cryotherapy, including:

• Blood Circulation. Poor circulation can lead to all sorts of health issues, including heart disease, but the good news is that immersing yourself in cold water forces your heart to pump blood through your system in a more efficient manner, which provides vital oxygen and nutrients to your brain, muscles, and vital organs.
• Immune System. In the same way that cold therapy can improve blood circulation, it also increases the flow through your lymphatic system, which is essentially part of your body’s waste disposal system (e.g. it removes toxins from your cells). Without this waste being removed from your lymphatic system efficiently, those toxins can build up and cause health problems.
• Inflammation. Cold water lowers the temperature of any damaged tissue (e.g. after an intense work-out), thus constricting blood vessels, which helps to reduce any inflammation and swelling, and it can even provide immediate pain relief by numbing your nerve endings.
• Mental Strength. Let’s face it, most people don’t exactly jump at the chance to immerse themselves in icy water – so forcing yourself to do this, once or twice a day, say, builds mental strength and self-discipline.
• Metabolism. Studies have shown that regular cold therapy can boost your metabolism by as much as 16%. This is why some people use cold therapy as one part of their weight loss program.
• Migraines. Some people have found migraine relief by placing an ice pack (see below) on the carotid arteries on either side of the neck.
• Mood. Whole-body cold therapy has been shown to stimulate the release of several hormones, including adrenaline, noradrenaline, and endorphins, which can improve your mood (e.g. if you suffer from anxiety or depression).
• Recovery Times. Cryotherapy has been shown to reduce recovery times after accidents and injuries (e.g. sprains), as well as after some surgeries.
• Sleep. I have mentioned elsewhere that it’s important to keep your bedroom on the cool side (60 to 67 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 16 – 19 Celsius) if you want to get a good night’s sleep, and this is echoed here.
• Thermogenesis. Humans are warm-blooded mammals, which means they can generate their own heat. The problem is, these days, that we are not forced to do this as often as we used to, because we now have luxuries such as central heating – and that often means when we do need to generate our own heat, we are not as good at it as we should be. Cold therapy can help retrain your body to do that again – some people report that, after being in cold water for a short while, even though their skin may feel cold, they feel warm inside.
• Uric Acid. One study found that cold therapy can reduce uric acid levels in your body, which might otherwise cause issues such as gout or kidney stones.

How To Try Cold Therapy

Here are a few ways that cold therapy can be used:

• Cold Showers. Many people swear by a cold shower to make them feel invigorated. Some take a hot shower first, to get clean, and then switch to cold water to “wake them up” – or to prepare the body for sleep.
• Cold Therapy Machines. These are usually small and often portable devices that you can use at home (although some professionals use them too) that can provide cold therapy to specific parts of your body (e.g. knees), via pads connected to the machine.
• Cooling Blankets. If you’ve ever felt too warm in bed and you’ve turned your pillow over to the cooler side, then you already know how refreshing that can be. Some people like to take this a step further and use what’s called a cooling blanket on their bed, which is supposed to absorb your body heat, leaving you feeling cooler and therefore better able to sleep.
• Ice Bath. This can be a full bath of cold water, or you might want to start by placing your feet in a small bucket or tub to get used to the idea. (If space is an issue for you, you can always try using a portable bathtub.) Others like to dunk their head in a basin of icy water instead. Brad Kearns (co-author of Primal Endurance) has a short but interesting video where he demonstrates how he used a regular household chest freezer to do this cold therapy – first thing in the morning and last thing at night:

• Ice Packs. If you’ve ever gone to the emergency department at a hospital with some form of sprain or joint pain, you may have discovered already that a common recommendation is to place a bag of frozen peas on the joint and rest. It doesn’t sound very scientific, but it works – because it is using a form of cold therapy, (And, of course, it works with other frozen vegetables too. 🙂 ) However, if you would rather not use frozen food, you can, of course, buy reusable ice packs.
• RICE. Cold therapy is the second component of a protocol known as RICE (i.e. Rest, Ice, Compression, and Elevation), which is used in the home care of many injuries, especially soft tissue injuries and those resulting from playing sports or other similar activities. However, there is some disagreement regarding whether this protocol speeds up or slows down recovery, with some people saying it should only be used for first-aid treatment.
• Wim Hof Method. This is a three-part protocol for improved health that focuses on cold therapy, breathing, and commitment that was devised by Wim Hof, who is known as the Ice Man. You can find out more about his method, including a free mini-course, here.

Warnings

Before trying cold therapy yourself, please be aware of the following:

• Make sure you know exactly what you are doing before you start.
• For the first few times at least, you might want to make sure there is somebody else nearby who can assist you in case you experience any problems.
• Do not use this type of therapy for longer than recommended – as Brad Kearns says in the video above, the idea is not to stay in the cold water until you start shivering.
• If you experience numbness or tingling that does not go away within 24 hours, you need to visit your doctor.
• This therapy is not suitable for people with diabetes or conditions that affect their nerves, because it may make nerve damage worse.
• If you have any existing health conditions, and especially heart problems, please consult your doctor first!

Cold Therapy For Dogs

Note that this can work for dogs too, but again, be careful because your dog cannot easily tell you when they’ve had enough.

Also, make sure you do not put anything that’s frozen directly on your dog’s skin – always buffer it with a cloth or towel, for example.

Personal Experience

While I’ve not tried cold therapy per se, I have been in super-cold water on many occasions.

For example, when I was at school at Rossall, which is a public school on the Fylde Coast in the north west of England, the only swimming pool was an outdoor one that took its water from the sea, which was only a few feet away on the other side of the promenade.

Even in summer, which was the only time that pool was open, the water was icy cold.

At first, I used to go down the steps one at a time so I could acclimatize bit by bit, but all that did was mean you had to suffer several times over, so in the end, I resorted to jumping in and getting it all over with in one go.

Yes, it’s a shock to the system, but assuming you can manage that, it’s a better option, in my opinion.

Because once that shock is over with, which only takes a few seconds, you’re good to go – provided you keep moving about and swimming, of course.

I would probably take the same approach if I were to try cold therapy (e.g. if I were going to swim in the sea or even ice water) – because that’s what I did when I tried cold showers years ago. Rather than gradually reducing the temperature, I simply turned it all the way down at once.

But would I try cryotherapy?

Probably only if I had a specific need – I’m not sure I’ll be doing it on a daily basis. 🙂

Conclusion

Clearly, cold therapy is not for everybody (e.g. depending on your body, your mind, and your health), but it does have many benefits – provided you can manage being fully or partially immersed in cold or icy water.

Additional Resources

These are suggestions for those who wish to delve deeper into any of the above:

1. Cold Therapy Machine
2. Cooling Blanket
3. Ice Packs
4. Portable Bathtub
5. Primal Endurance