How Does Whole Body Cryotherapy Reduce Pain?

Acute and chronic pain is no joke. Nearly 700 billion dollars are spent every year to treat pain in the United States, but nothing seems to solve people’s everyday problem with pain! People are still experiencing pain with pharmaceutical drugs and other unnatural methods. Pain can turn chronic when not treated properly (acute inflammation can turn into acute pain, and thus, acute pain treated the wrong way can prolong symptoms, which will turn chronic).

What are acute injuries?

Acute injuries have a known mechanism of injury and usually result in immediate pain. These types of injuries include sprains, strains, subluxations, dislocations, contusions, and fractures. However, there are more subtle injuries that progress over time – such as lower back pain and neck pain.

How can one treat pain the right way?

Cryotherapy is useful in treating pain resulting from injury during exercise or sports. These injuries can be minor or major, and the threshold of pain from one individual to the next can vary. The cold temperatures will reduce inflammation and improve painful symptoms.

How does Cryotherapy reduce pain?

Cryotherapy uses dry, cold nitrogen gas to reduce pain by using three key factors – increasing microcirculation, reducing inflammation (precursor to illness and in this case, to warn the body of injury) and increasing nutrients and white blood cells in the blood. White blood cells help fight infection and reduce inflammation. Microcirculation helps improve circulation in our microvessels (our tiniest vessels). Improving our microcirculation promotes a healthy immune response to inflammation and painful symptoms. Increased nutrients in the bloodstream improve healing time of injury, and also existing injuries. Increased microcirculation improves healing time and makes the microvessels stronger.

Cryotherapy creates an optimal effect for reducing pain. Pain has been studied tirelessly – and researchers at the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain in early 2015 found the brain area that is responsible for pain. It is called the dorsal posterior insula and is the “ouch, it hurts” experience of pain. Cryotherapy acts as an analgesic (numbing agent) so that your pain threshold and the perception of pain decreases after your cryo session. This reduction of pain is maintained hours after your session.