In a session, customers wear minimal clothing and enter a compartment or device that chills the air to below 100 degrees, using liquid nitrogen or refrigerated air. Exposure is limited to two to four minutes, sufficient time to chill the muscles and skin. The patient's skin temperature decreases about 10 degrees by the exposure, although some studies have noticed skin temperatures twice that range.
The big chill reduces the blood flow, slows metabolism and slows nerve signals, according to the supporter claims, many of them with a vested interest in touting the service.
The procedure is generally safe, but one recent death raised concerns. In the high-profile death, a female employee of a cryotherapy center in Colorado entered a container for an after-hours session. The compartment was set to open at a pre-arranged time but apparently failed, leaving the woman trapped in the chamber. Her body froze to death from long-term exposure to freezing temperatures. While the incident seems like a tragic accident, it does point out some of the risks associated with the procedure.
Cryotherapy for Cancer?
However skeptical medical professionals are about general claims, cryotherapy is used in cancer treatment to kill rogue cells with extreme cold. That process is called cryoablation.
In the procedure, a wand-like, thin needle (called the cryoprobe) passes through the skin and into the cancerous tumor. At that point, gas is pumped in to freeze the tissue. The process is repeated in alternating patterns of freezing and thawing several times as a way to kill off cancer cells.