Cryotherapy: Hope For Arthritis Sufferers During National Arthritis Awareness Month
by icdev01 | May 16, 2018 | Athletes/Athletic Departments
Youve likely heard about the holistic benefits of cryotherapy reported by athletes, but what about for those suffering from arthritis? One out of every five US adults is currently dealing with the pain and discomfort associated with this chronic disease. In honor of May being National Arthritis Awareness Month, we want to explore how those suffering from this chronic disease use cold therapy to help with their pain management.
The Arthritic Origins of Cryotherapy
While the use of cold therapy for injury and inflammation can be dated back as far back as 2500 BCE, whole body cryotherapy as we know it today originated in Japan back in 1978. Discovered by Dr. Toshima Yamaguchi, the treatment was first used to ease the pain and discomfort associated with rheumatoid arthritis, a chronic inflammatory disorder that occurs when your immune system attacks its own tissue. Dr. Yamaguchi discovered that freezing therapy had the power to release endorphins in his patients and decrease their overall sensitivity to pain.
Arthritis By The Numbers
Despite significant improvements in therapy, a cure has yet to be discovered. As such, learning to manage arthritis pain is an essential part of living with and treating the disease. Sadly, many sufferers are not sure how to reduce their symptoms and relieve the pain.
Impact of Cold Therapy on Arthritis
Cryotherapy An Alternative Approach
The Future of Arthritis
Better Mood And A Better Nights Sleep
Cold exposure produces feel-good endorphins and increases production of norepinephrine. Norepinephrine is a hormone and neurotransmitter involved in your sleep-wake cycle and has profound effects on energy, focus, mood and sleep patterns. This may be because of norepinephrines role in neurogenesis the production of new neurons in the brain which links to improved mood and memory.
The rise in norepinephrine along with a decrease in cortisol supports a healthy sleep-wake cycle. Its also possible that the rush of endorphins and subsequent feeling of relaxation is why so many people claim that cryotherapy is their new sleeping drug of choice.
Cold water immersion at 57°F for 1 hour increased norepinephrine 530% and dopamine, another feel-good neurotransmitter, by 250% . You can get similar effects from whole-body cryotherapy sessions at -250°F 2-3 times a week.
You dont have to join a cryosauna or have a frozen lake nearby to get the benefits of cryotherapy. In many cases, lowering the temperature in your bedroom at night and cold bursts in the shower may help balance neurotransmitters and balance mood, while ice baths 1-hour post-exercise may help speed recovery and increase endurance. If youre just getting into cryotherapy, you can start slow with this simple protocol. Definitely worth a try!
Potential Ways Cryotherapy Can Benefit Patients
There are several different types of cryotherapy, from a whole-body therapy that immerses you in a cooling tank, to targeted injectable cold therapy that pinpoints nerves causing pain and freezes them, temporarily shutting down pain transmission. Here are eight ways cryotherapy can benefit patients.
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Little Evidence Supports Whole
Although athletes and celebrities have touted whole-body cryotherapy as helping their health and feelings of well-being, there’s little documentation of extreme cold having tangible effects, or whether there are side effects from use of this treatment long-term.
Many spas tout the ability of cryotherapy to help muscles recover from injury or overuse. But as scientists at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City noted in a review published in August 2021 in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, Cryotherapy-induced reductions in metabolism, inflammation, and tissue damage have been demonstrated in animal models of muscle injury however, comparable evidence in humans is lacking.
One study that looked at the effect of cryotherapy on people with rheumatoid arthritis didnt find it beneficial. Sixty people were randomized either to WBC at minus 166 degrees F, or minus 66 degrees, or cryotherapy in just one localized area. Each treatment was given three times a day for a week, with rheumatologists subsequently measuring antioxidant capacity in the blood. Those having the coldest treatment did receive a short-term boost in this capacity, but none of the other groups did, and the effects didnt last the week. The cold treatments did not cause a significant oxidative stress or adaptation during one week, the study authors conclude in the September 2017 issue of Rheumatology International.
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The Fda Hasnt Given Its Approval
The last time the U.S. Food and Drug Administration weighed in on cryotherapy was in 2016 when the agency issued a statement that although some spas suggest they have gotten the agencys nod, In fact, not a single WBC device has been cleared or approved by the agency in support of these claims.
The statement quoted an FDA official on the lack of strong science: Given a growing interest from consumers in whole body cryotherapy, the FDA has informally reviewed the medical literature available on this subject. We found very little evidence about its safety or effectiveness in treating the conditions for which it is being promoted.
When asked what happens physiologically to your heart, blood pressure, and other bodily functions when exposed to such extreme cold, an FDA scientific reviewer responded, We simply dont know.
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Cryotherapy As Arthritis Treatment
Cryotherapy is a highly effective treatment for muscle and joint pain. This makes it the perfect remedy for people suffering from arthritis. Rather than targeting one joint at a time, it offers whole-body relief.
Cryotherapy works by shocking your body into thinking its freezing. This stimulates a semi-hypothermic response. Your heart rate will drop, your breathing will slow down, and your body will redirect its energy toward keeping your core temperature up.
Along with this, it also increases the rate of blood flow. The combination of these effects speeds up your bodys natural healing mechanisms.
This process removes toxins stored in the joints and flushes them out into the bloodstream. Your liver and kidneys can then finish the job and filter them out of your body, reducing inflammation.
Cryotherapy For Pain Management
Cryotherapy has been shown to decrease pain for sufferers of many musculoskeletal conditions including lower back pain, knee and hip injuries, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. A study of rheumatoid arthritis patients reported the one variable that showed definite improvement with Cryotherapy was pain levels. Patients report less pain following cryotherapy this leads to improved function and quality of life.
A 2014 systematic review concluded that cryotherapy should be included in Rheumatoid Arthritis therapeutic strategies as an adjunct therapy. The results are potential corticosteroid and non steroidal anti-inflammatory drug dose reductions.
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Things To Keep In Mind For Cryotherapy For Arthritis
Thinking of getting therapy?
Here is a list of things to keep in mind.
- Consult a doctor
- Wear loosely fit clothes if you go for a whole-body therapy.
- Carry socks and gloves for frostbite protection.
- Move around as much as possible during the cryotherapy. It should keep your blood flowing.
- Have your meals as instructed by your doctor.
Rheumatoid Arthritis And Cryotherapy
In 1978 Rheumatoid Arthritis and cryotherapy connected when Dr. Toshiro Yamauchi invented the first process. Dr. Yamauchi began using freezing-cold temperatures to treat RA in small areas of the body , and the pain relief became well known. Fast forward 42 years later: patients can now use cryotherapy chambers for treating their entire body. RA is an autoimmune disease that causes inflammation when the body mistakes normal synovial fluid and tissue as a foreign invader.
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Is Cold Water Therapy Appropriate For Treating Rheumatoid Arthritis
Cold water therapy can be helpful when an RA flares up, causing inflamed and swollen joints. Cold therapy works by constraining blood flow to joints, helping to ease inflammation.
Cold therapy also helps reduce the accumulation of fluids in joints, limiting swelling. Finally, cold therapy helps slow down pain signals to the brain.
Combined, these benefits can provide significant relief for people with RA or fibromyalgia.
Theres Probably Little To No Downside Except That Wbc Treatment Is Not Cheap
Daniel Muller, MD, a rheumatologist at UCHealth in Fort Collins, Colorado, and a coauthor of the book Integrative Rheumatology, says its unlikely that severe negative effects would result in people with RA from the few minutes of exposure.
For most people, he says, the biggest risk is likely to your wallet, since most cryotherapy treatment centers recommend you go several times a week for an extended period of time, and the payments will add up fast.
People with severe Raynaud’s syndrome, a comorbid condition to rheumatoid arthritis, in which small blood vessels in the fingers or toes constrict when exposed to cold, should probably stay away, Dr. Muller advises.
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What Is Rheumatoid Arthritis
A chronic inflammatory disorder affecting many joints, including those in the hands and feet. In rheumatoid arthritis, the bodys immune system attacks its own tissue, including joints. In severe cases, it attacks internal organs. Rheumatoid arthritis affects joint linings, causing painful swelling. Over long periods of time, the inflammation associated with rheumatoid arthritis can cause bone erosion and joint deformity.
Is Cryotherapy Good For Autoimmune Diseases
While osteoarthritis is a result of bone and connective tissue degeneration, rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder. In this condition, the bodys cells attack joints and connective tissue as if they were pathogens.
Research shows that cryotherapy decreases the temperature inside your joints. This suppresses many of the factors that lead to joint destruction and inflammation.
These same factors, including cytokines and harmful enzymes, are responsible for damage in a lot of autoimmune conditions. As such, cryotherapy can also be beneficial for other chronic diseases that cause pain like fibromyalgia and multiple sclerosis.
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Nerve Transmission In Pain Fibers
Another proposed mechanism of cryotherapy is reducing nerve transmission velocity in pain fibers , which may be a way that cryotherapy induces an analgesic effect and pain relief. Previous literature concluded that cryotherapy significantly reduced both motor and sensory nerve conduction velocity . Algalfy and George found decreased nerve conduction velocity at the site of cryotherapy application, as well as increased pain threshold and tolerance. Of note, the effect on pain threshold and tolerance also extended distally to an area beyond the site of application, but supplied by the same nerve .
How Does It Help Ra
Studies have shown that cryotherapy reduces histamine levels a significant amount which helps lessen or prevent an inflammatory attack on the joints.
When you have an infection, certain white blood cells release chemicals that tell other cells to cause inflammation. Unfortunately, when you have an autoimmune condition such as Rheumatoid Arthritis, these signaling cells cause unnecessary levels of inflammation. WBC has even been shown to decrease TNF-alpha, which is a major player when it comes to inflammation.
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Does Whole Body Cryotherapy Actually Work
Good question! One website offering WBC services recommended that customers perform their own search of the medical literature. That doesnt exactly inspire confidence. Another provided links to dozens of studies that varied so much it was hard to know what to make of them. For example, the temperatures of the cold chambers varied, as did the duration and number of treatments across studies. Some assessed elite athletes or active adults who were generally young and fit, but still others enrolled people with chronic illnesses, such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis. And then theres the question of how to define success. Each study had its own way of assessing the response to treatment.
A recent review of the evidence found that WBC
- may lower skin or muscle temperatures to a similar degree as other forms of cryotherapy
- may reduce soreness in the short term and accelerate the perception of recovery after certain activities, though this did not consistently lead to improved function or performance
- could be helpful for adhesive capsulitis , a condition marked by severe loss of shoulder motion that may complicate certain injuries there are no long-term studies of WBC for this problem
- did not alter the amount of muscle damage after intense exercise.
It Supports Weight Loss
Cryotherapy has proven weight loss benefits, however cryotherapy doesnt directly cause you to lose weight. Disappointing, I know. Let me explain. Research suggests cryotherapy boosts your metabolism because cold temperatures can raise your metabolic rate as it works to return to a normal temperature.
When your body is exposed to extreme cold, the brown adipose tissue burns fat to create energy for your body. One study found that daily exposure to cold over a 6-week period reduced body fat by 2%.
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Reduced Inflammation And Rheumatoid Arthritis
Inflamed joints and rheumatoid arthritis patients often benefit from physical therapy treatments to keep joints moving and prevent stiffening. The chronic pain they feel is relieved by whole body cryotherapy in their hands, hips, knuckles, knees, and feet.
Whole body cryotherapy might be one of the most affordable, helpful, and long-lasting relief for arthritis and reducing arthritic pain. Medical facilities have been treating localized pain points with localized cryotherapy, cold treatment, and creams that stimulate extreme cold for years. Whole body cryotherapy does more in a fraction of the time.
Cryotherapy May Not Be Best For Ra Treatment
It’s important to note that in another study in rats with adjuvant-induced arthritis, ice treatments were better tolerated and delivered positive effects on arthritis score and joint swelling.
Comparatively, cold gas treatments were found to induce transient arthritis worsening, indicating cold plunge tub forfibromyalgia and rheumatoid arthritis may be a better alternative for treatment.
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Can Cryotherapy Help Nerve Pain
For many people with arthritis, peripheral neuropathy is a daily struggle. This condition leads to numbness, tingling, and pain in the extremities due to damaged and irritated nerve endings.
Using ice on these already sensitive areas can make the discomfort even worse. Cryotherapy for rheumatoid arthritis can help alleviate some of this discomfort without the pain of icing.
Muscle Soreness And Recovery
Chronic low-grade inflammation is bad, but the inflammatory response you experience after exercise is actually a good sign that your body is in tissue repair mode. As your muscles become engorged with blood and a pro-inflammatory response rushes the area, anti-inflammatory cytokines hit the scene to keep your immune system in check.
This process of inflammation, tissue repair, and anti-inflammatory mediators ensures that you recover optimally and that your muscles heal and grow. Which is why some studies suggest that icing too soon after exercise actually slows your recovery post-exercise. So what about all of those elite athletes who swear by cryotherapy? Turns out the benefits may vary depending on the timing of your cold therapy.
If you interrupt your bodys pro-inflammatory response with cold therapy immediately after exercise, you may actually reduce the benefits from exercise and inhibit performance. Instead of icing right away, waiting about an hour post-exercise may improve performance and recovery. In fact, WBC performed within 48 hours of an elite race increased recovery, speed, and power in athletes by 20%.
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Cryo For Pain Management
Cryotherapy has been shown to decrease pain for sufferers of many musculoskeletal conditions including lower back pain, knee and hip injuries, fibromyalgia, osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis. A study of rheumatoid arthritis patients reported the one variable that showed definite improvement with Cryotherapy was pain levels. Patients report less pain following cryotherapy this leads to improved function and quality of life.
A 2014 systematic review concluded that cryotherapy should be included in Rheumatoid Arthritis therapeutic strategies as an adjunct therapy. The results are potential corticosteroid and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug dose reductions.
How Does Cryotherapy Work
Quickly growing in popularity, cryotherapy is a wellness treatment used by some of the biggest celebrities and athletes in the world. Mark Wahlberg, Lebron James, and Rafael Nadal are just some of the mega-stars that use, and reportedly rave, about the therapys many virtues. It is said to reduce pain, burn fat, tighten skin, reduce cellulite, and promote better sleep. But does it work, and if so, how?
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The Claimed Benefit Of Whole Body Cryotherapy
According to websites promoting whole body cryotherapy, it may be recommended for anyone who wants to improve their health and appearance which by my estimation would be just about everyone as well as for
- recovering from a painful sports injury
- a chronically painful condition such as rheumatoid arthritis
- athletes who want to improve their performance
- weight loss
- improved mood or reduced anxiety.
And the list goes on. However, the escalating claims of benefit and rising popularity led the FDA to warn consumers recently that, If you decide to try WBC, know that the FDA has not cleared or approved any of these devices for medical treatment of any specific medical conditions.
Cryotherapy And Autoimmune Disease
If cryotherapy has positive effects on your immune system and can reduce inflammation, it makes sense that it can be used to treat autoimmune diseases. In fact, whole body cryotherapy was originally developed in 1978 in Japan by Toshima Yamauchi, a Japanese medical doctor who was seeking a treatment for rheumatoid arthritis.
One study confirmed his work and found cryotherapy reduced pain and inflammation in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. In fact, there are several studies that showed improvements in pain reduction and inflammation among patients with autoimmune disease.
Our bodys react to the cold by sending messages to the brain, which releases chemicals and hormones to stimulate blood flow, lymphatic system drainage, and an immune system response. Our immune system increases production of white blood cells, which reduces inflammation. Increased circulation allows blood to move oxygen to skin and muscles more efficiently, and your brain releases endorphins and adrenaline, which reduces cortisol.
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