Whole-body cryotherapy: empirical evidence and theoretical perspectives

Abstract

Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) involves short exposures to air temperatures below −100°C. WBC is increasingly accessible to athletes, and is purported to enhance recovery after exercise and facilitate rehabilitation postinjury. Our objective was to review the efficacy and effectiveness of WBC using empirical evidence from controlled trials. We found ten relevant reports; the majority were based on small numbers of active athletes aged less than 35 years. Although WBC produces a large temperature gradient for tissue cooling, the relatively poor thermal conductivity of air prevents significant subcutaneous and core body cooling. There is weak evidence from controlled studies that WBC enhances antioxidant capacity and parasympathetic reactivation, and alters inflammatory pathways relevant to sports recovery. A series of small randomized studies found WBC offers improvements in subjective recovery and muscle soreness following metabolic or mechanical overload, but little benefit towards functional recovery. There is evidence from one study only that WBC may assist rehabilitation for adhesive capsulitis of the shoulder. There were no adverse events associated with WBC; however, studies did not seem to undertake active surveillance of predefined adverse events. Until further research is available, athletes should remain cognizant that less expensive modes of cryotherapy, such as local ice-pack application or cold-water immersion, offer comparable physiological and clinical effects to WBC.

The Effectiveness of Whole Body Cryotherapy Compared to Cold Water Immersion: Implications for Sport and Exercise Recovery

“…The reported effects of WBC are similar to those of CWI including tissue temperature reduction and reduction in markers for muscle damage and inflammation. Bleakley et al (2014) recently reviewed the efficacy and effectiveness of these claims using 10 relevant controlled studies and found most of the claims appear to have some merit. However, comparisons were not made to data regarding CWI as being the current standard in cryotherapy.…”

Simulation of skin cryotherapy

“…Это иллюстрируется материалами научных исследований посвященных спор-тивному применению криотерапевтической технологии [7,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15].…”

“…Результаты математического моделирования про-цесса охлаждения поверхности кожи в криотерапевти-ческих комплексах и холодной воде согласуются с выво-дами зарубежных исследователей [9][10][11][12][13][14][15]. В отдельных случаях процедуры с использованием криогенных газо-вых сред обеспечивают крайне низкий лечебный резуль-тат.…”

“…Результаты математического моделирования про-цессов в многоместном КТК хорошо согласуются с дан-ными о температуре кожи пациента после процедур ОКВ, опубликованными в литературе [9][10][11][12][13]14] и представ-ленными в виде гистограммы на рис. 3.…”

“…В статьях [9][10][11]14] описаны результаты исследова-ний на КТК с компрессионной системой криостатирова-ния, которая поддерживает температуру не ниже -160 К [5]. Время пребывания пациентов в криогенной газовой среде в экспериментах, описанных в источнике [14], со-ставляло только 180 с, что объясняет высокое значение температуры кожи по завершению сеанса.…”