What is trending as a dramatic way to reduce inflammation and pain as well as to induce cosmetic benefits traces its roots back to antiquity.
“The benefits of cold have been appreciated for many years,” states the National Institutes of Health website. “The ancient Egyptians, and later Hippocrates, were aware of the analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties of cold.”
Pensacola is diving deep into the cryotherapy rage.
Sonya Dukett, owner of ChillOut Cryo Spa, explained the magic of cryotherapy.
“With the cold, as soon as it touches your skin, it pulls all the blood to the surface. It’s protecting your body, keeping you from going into hypothermia. What happens then is inflammation is being released in that moment because the blood is drawn forward,” explained Dukett.
Pensacola resident Amatul Bean injured her thigh playing kickball and also had lower back and sciatic pain. She decided to give cryotherapy a try.
Bean spent a few minutes in a chamber followed by a laser treatment for both areas.
“The next day, the pain in my thigh was completely gone and it’s been gone since. But the sciatic pain is a different pain. It didn’t work for that,” she noted. “But I’m just glad it worked on the leg because it hurt so bad I could barely walk on it.”
While cryotherapy often mitigates sciatic pain, if the pain stems from a structural issue, other treatments may be needed to alleviate it, Dukett said.
Pensacolian Carla Nolen’s high school-aged soccer-playing son found pain relief at Chill Crotherapy in Downtown Pensacola.
“He has gone many times for various injuries over the past few years and has had enormous success,” said Nolen.
While clients often walk away from one session pain-free, for extreme pain, as temperature returns to normal, sometimes partial pain returns. Depending on the severity, more than one treatment may be needed.
“But for the most part, every pain treatment you lose a percentage of how much pain you have to deal with every day,” explained Dukett.
COSMETIC AND PAIN RELIEF BENEFITS
In addition to pain relief, clients are seeking out slimming and toning cryotherapy methods as well as cryo facials.
“Ninety percent of women and 70% of men have body dysmorphia,” noted Dukett.
So cryotherapy slimming and toning methods may lift spirits as well as improve appearance. And they offer an alternative to treatments that may have detrimental side effects.
After Teresa Day retired from the Navy in 2017, she gained weight. Exercise and healthy eating prompted weight loss but didn’t touch “that little pooch that won’t go away after 50,” she said.
That’s where treatments meshing slimming fat cell-freezing cryotherapy with a system that stimulates abdominal muscle building came in.
“This just really helped me,” said Day, who approached treatments holistically. “It was paired with diet, exercise and hydration. It was a definite result and non-invasive.”
Dukett said that when fat cells are frozen, they’re released through the lymphatic system.
Other benefits of various cryotherapy treatments, according to Dukett: Cryotherapy applied in the facial tissue can improve skin tone, at times mitigate migraines and TMJ symptoms, and a cryo-endocrine flush can rid the body of toxins. An added benefit is that most patients enjoy an energy burst the following day. The list goes on for options for maximizing the power of chill!
In addition to the cosmetic and pain relief benefits, cryotherapy treatments induce a response that is almost always positive, Dukett said, likening it to the response of the heart to a shock.
“It’s like a shock to the system. Cryotherapy can be a big boost for somebody’s lymphatic system and their metabolism.”
