Just as there are many different styles and approaches to cryotherapy, there are also numerous potential benefits. Cryotherapy can be used to treat a plethora of ailments, and as such, it has become increasingly popular for those on a quest toward optimal health. Proponents of the treatment swear by the benefits that extreme therapeutic cold provide, including both mental and physical effects.
Though fairly new, research has been conducted to study whether these claims are true. Here, we can examine some of these possible benefits, in addition to considering other facts that a person should know before considering this type of treatment.
This is the most common reason that individuals choose to undergo cryotherapy. The cold is meant to have a soothing effect on aching muscles, particularly in athletes who regularly exhaust them.
Professional and/or Olympic athletes, for example, perform strenuous exercises and engage in intense activities every day. It should come as no surprise that these overused muscles will become fatigued, or even injured, more quickly.
The therapeutic cold is thought to promote faster healing, allowing athletes to get back to their game more quickly— just think, doctors and trainers have long recommended applying an ice pack to sore muscles, as blood circulation to the area increases significantly once the cold is removed. Likewise, the treatment can be used to treat some muscle and joint disorders, such as rheumatoid arthritis.
Inflammation can occur in the body for a plethora of reasons. However, it is also the way in which the immune system fights against infection. Sometimes, though, the immune system becomes overly reactive, causing chronic inflammation and pain.
This is linked to many health problems, such as diabetes, depression, dementia, and even cancer. Reducing this inflammation using cold therapy could thus reduce the risk of many chronic ailments, as well as improving overall health.
We must be clear that cryotherapy alone will not cause weight loss. However, some research has shown that it can support the process. Being in a state of cold forces the body to work hard to stay warm, thus boosting the metabolism and burning calories and fat.
Even just a few minutes in the cold can increase the metabolism for the rest of the day- eventually, a person’s metabolism adjusts accordingly and increases in response to the temperature, resulting in the person no longer feeling the cold. Furthermore, cold therapy helps with muscle pain after an injury, meaning that a person is better able to get back into a fitness routine and exercise.
Recent innovation, research, and technology now allows for whole bodycryotherapy (WBC) in a specialized chamber (or sauna) that exposes the entire body (with exception for the head) and is the most advanced, tolerable, and time-efficient form of cryotherapy currently available. Whole body Cryotherapy(WBC) treatments are a revolutionary method of cryotherapy; exposing the body to subzero temperatures for a very short duration (less than 2-3 minutes). This will lower your skin temperature to 30-50 degrees Fahrenheit, while your core body temperature still remains around 98 degrees (its natural state).
WBC can also alleviate muscle and joint pain, sprains and strains, swelling, tendonitis, and bursitis. Many clients also report improvements in sleep quality, restfulness, anxiety, and depression. In athletes, it can accelerate recovery by minimizing post-training soreness and fatigue. It can also be used as part of a weight management program, as the average person will burn 500-800 calories the same day after a whole body cryotherapy session.
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Dense heat pads are soaked in an electric hydrocollator prior to usage, providing deep, penetrating heat to the patient. This helps reduce muscle stiffness, tension, and spasms, while increasing circulation to muscles, tendons, ligaments, cartilage, and discs. Gel packs are kept in a freezer prior to usage, and provide localized cryotherapy to the patient. This traditional therapy is great for reducing pain and inflammation in localized, targeted body parts.
A combination therapy that mixes heat and massage into a single modality. The therapies enhance each other when applied together. The patient lies onto a water-filled mattress with hydrotherapy jets inside that deliver powerful streams of water that impact the body, producing a kneading massage. The beneficial heat effects are sedative, antispasmodic and analgesic (pain relieving). The penetrating hydromassage helps reduce muscle spasms, increases lymphatic and vascular circulation, and increases soft tissue mobility.
Another combination therapy mixing vibration and spinal joint mobilization into a single modality. These therapies also enhance each other when applied together. The patient lies on a vibrating table (with the option to have no vibration) while powerful rollers mobilize the spine from top to bottom. Vibration is beneficial for mechanoreceptor stimulation and enhanced proprioception (increased postural awareness) and nociceptor inhibition (reduced pain). The powerful rollers help reduce vertebral joint restriction & immobility, increase circulation to intervertebral discs, increase joint mobility and range of motion, and improve spinal biomechanics.
The Normatec Pulse Recovery Systems are dynamic compression devices designed for recovery and rehab for both athletes and patients. They use compressed air to massage your limbs, mobilize fluid, enhance blood flow, and speed recovery with our patented NormaTec Pulse Massage Pattern.
When you use our systems, you will first experience a pre-inflate cycle, during which the recovery sleeves are molded to your exact body shape. The session will then begin by compressing your feet, legs, thighs, and hips. Similar to the kneading and stroking done during a massage, each segment of the attachment will first compress in a pulsing manner and then release. This will repeat for each segment of the attachment as the compression pattern works its way up your limbs. There will then be a brief rest period followed by enhanced blood flow back down to your feet. A typical session can last from 15 – 30 minutes.
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This unique and powerful therapy utilizes tungsten bulb incandescent light to produce a full-spectrum of full body healing and detox wavelengths (600-1000nm) resulting in therapeutic-grade red and near infrared mitochondrial stimulation! The benefits include: increased collagen production (anti-aging effects and vast improvement with many skin conditions), increased metabolism, improvements in memory and cognition, accelerated tissue healing and recovery, and boosted cellular detoxification and regeneration.
There is NO UV or blue light—100% safe and effective. There is NO flicker stress or EMF stress (unlike LED and other alternative forms of light therapy). The significance of tungsten bulb incandescent full-spectrum light therapy is that you get the spectrally natural form of red and near infrared light, and the synergy of photobiomodulation (PBM) and heat detoxification. It is the closest simulation of incandescent sunlight, of all man-made light technologies currently available. For more information, click here.
Whole Body Cryotherapy
Normatec Pulse Therapy
Thermotherapy
All Other Therapies – Hydrobed, Intersegmental Table, Moist Heat, Ice Pack
*each additional therapy after 3 is $5
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