Cryogenic Chamber Therapy / Cold Adaptation

Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Shane said:
I think there's also a facility in Toronto, which seems to be the closest for people in the North East.

Toronto? Really? I've been searching all over for a facility in Toronto but have come up short. I'd love it if you could share anything you've found, Shane :)
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

It seems to me that this cryo-chamber therapy might become very "hot". It might be a good side-business to get into along with massage, nutritional counseling, EE, etc.
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

The physiological reaction to very cold temperatures is very interesting and intriguing indeed. We are very interested in testing cold adaptation as a potential treatment and between all of us, we have a good selection of conditions and body types to work with. We are trying to collect as much data as we can and we will be writing an article about it. So please, keep us updated if you tried or are trying this therapy. We had the opportunity to find a cheap off season place nearby a cryotherapy center that saved us the traveling money and we got a very good discount on the treatments since it is a relatively new center and we signed up as a group. As part of our ongoing experiment, I completed 11 sessions of cryotherapy.

First, we needed a medical certificate in order to do cryotherapy and it seems that if your Body Mass Index is below the lowest normal range, you can't do cryotherapy:

Below 18.5 Underweight
18.5 -24.9 Normal
25 - 29.9 Overweight
30 & Above Obese

BMI =
weight in kilograms
————————————
height in meters²

My BMI was 19.19 when I started and I did 2 sessions per day for almost 6 consecutive days. The first day I got in, the machine broke and it stayed at -60 degrees Celsius which made me shiver like crazy. Perhaps it was a blessing in disguise, the protocol I followed during the next few days didn't necessarily include an adjustment period of -60 prior to the -170/-180 degrees Celsius temperatures. The sessions lasted 2 and half minutes for the first and second sessions but 3 minutes for the rest of the sessions. Since the technicians were adjusting parameters and temperatures in the machine while I was inside, I was probably exposed to too much cold too early as well.

The chamber is shaped like an open cylinder where your head stays out. It was a cryotechno machine pretty much like this one:

CRYO_23.jpg


The lowest temperature is the temperature around your legs and the highest temperature is the one at your shoulder's level since the nitrogen falls to the lowest parts of the chamber. By the 10th session, the lowest temperature indicated -194 degrees, I don't know how accurate that is though. Still, it was pretty cold!!

Sometimes I felt like I didn't quite recovered from the last session when I was already going in for the next one. In the third or fourth session, the temperatures were at 175 degrees since the first few seconds and I had to step out at 2'40'' because my legs felt like they were catching on fire, literally! That day I slept pretty crappy and I had a red patch of skin on my ankle. I don't recall my skin surface temperature for that session, but the next one, it showed that I had -3 degrees on my legs which didn't made the physiotherapist happy. He kept asking me how my legs were doing in the next sessions, but amazingly enough, it seemed that my body started adjusting immediately after that and I was able to increase my leg temperature by 1 or 2 degrees per session until my final reading which was of 4 and 5 degrees on my legs. I also wore thick and almost knee length socks after the burning session experience since it made no sense to me to expose my legs to -180. But by the last two sessions, I wore small and thin socks without problems.

At the beginning, the fight and flight experience made me move around, marching, "dancing", even singing in order to endure the experience better. I practiced breathing exercises and felt more comfortable with deep breaths where I exhaled forcefully. After stepping out of the cryo chamber, I felt like a pressure was lifted off my chest and felt energized for an hour or two, only to feel extremely tired and sleepy for the rest of the day, especially at the beginning. Also, I felt pains that I never had before. That, plus the feeling of extreme sleepiness and tiredness made me doubt the effectiveness of the cryotherapy.

So the first 8 sessions were not necessarily something to look forward to. The feeling in your body is a combination of frozen dried air and stinging on your skin, especially on my legs and arms where I have the least fat. But it seems I reached a threshold of some sort and by the 10th I was looking forward to it and by the 11th I realized I was going to miss the experience. By the last sessions, I was doing -180 (the lowest temperature) for 3 minutes. I did the last two sessions spaced out by only one hour without any problem. This would have been completely impossible the first day. It is amazing how your body adapts so fast! I was taken cold showers without any problem by the last day.

Half way through, I started going down into the chamber so I can get cold in my face, neck and especially my shoulders where brown adipose tissue is supposed to be activated. I held my breath and closed my eyes in order to avoid the nitrogen. At some point, I stayed underneath so long that my ears felt numb and super cold and my forehead temperature read 22 degrees. During the last sessions, I stayed more still in order to get colder and tensed the muscles on my legs in order to relieve the stinging feeling.

I was also more hungry and had to eat much more in order to feel satisfied. I also woke up earlier and so famished that I had to eat right away otherwise I felt like my stomach was going to "autodigest" itself. I felt restful in between sessions and my mind felt sharper and very aware.

I noticed also that my skin was smoother and nice, and eating meats with spices didn't made me itch nor have allergies like I usually have. As a test, I ate the very spices I know will through me into a hay fever episode and nothing happened. During the last nights, I've been having vivid interesting dreams, the last one been of bright lights making viral-DNA patterns in a starry sky :P

I'm also going more regularly to the toilet, pretty much every time I eat and the consistency is perfect. I felt cramping in my muscles, but they eased with water. I was probably very dehydrated since I was very thirsty. By the end of my sessions, my muscles felt more toned/firm and pains that the cryotherapy brought initially were gone. I also have more energy and feel more present in my body.

After 11 sessions my BMI was of 18.81, but I definitely didn't lost muscle mass which I actually increased by perhaps 1 percent (they have a machine that can give you a rough estimate of your percentage of fat, water and lean muscle). Even though I "shrank", I was able to endure the cold without a problem and I'm still within a normal BMI range. Between water loss and possibly some fat loss, I think I can recover my weight and perhaps even increase it if I start lifting weights and make sure to drink enough water.

In the cryotherapy center we went, there was only two more people doing therapies. One elderly woman who had fibromyalgia who reported having benefits only after around the 15th session. Then another man in his 40s who was doing it for his rheumatoid arthritis. I think he did 20 sessions and reported seeing significant benefits only during the first week. Keep in mind that these people have an awful diet. Ailén spoke to some length to the woman about the diet and she was willing to give it a try. There was a report of someone doing it for his psoriasis problem and another person completing 30 sessions (if I recall correctly) which healed a cervical problem he had.

So that is the story. It is a very interesting physiological reaction indeed.

The following paper: http://www.uscryotherapy.com/assets/studies/knight.pdf
seems to suggest that iced water is as effective as cryotherapy and more of a shock to the body. But Dr. Kruse's protocol sounds safer because a few more minutes than the safe range and you are dead, same with cryotherapy. Careful monitoring of the body's temperature, including skin surface temperature has to be made, and also of the "cold medium". Also, someone has to be there with you in case something happens and you can't step out of the water. Say you faint from the shock or slip on the ice and knock your head... With cryotherapy you can step out at any moment you want with ease and quickly and your body starts warming up immediately. That is not the case with iced water where your body needs much more time to warm itself up (5 to 10' in the study, and they only immersed one part of the body) which makes it more difficult. Subjectively speaking, cryotherapy seems to be easier to do than cold iced water as well.

But if cryotherapy is not an option, knowing that water conducts cold much better, Dr. Kruse's protocol sounds like a very good option. Also, it makes more sense to do this as a long-term process or where you can have cold adaptation "reinforcements" depending on how you feel. So I guess we'll keep reporting and experimenting. Now that I know how cryotherapy feels, I'm interested in following Dr. Kruse's protocol and see how it goes. I'm also opened minded about iced water ONLY IF I can guarantee security measures and monitoring to make it safe.
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Laura said:
It seems to me that this cryo-chamber therapy might become very "hot". It might be a good side-business to get into along with massage, nutritional counseling, EE, etc.

I think you're absolutely right!

Wanted to add my experiences, so far. After working through all the Kruse material, I began my own version of his two week cold treatment protocol. Some needed background: I've been paleo for 5-6 months now (gradually sealing off "holes in the boat" like letting a seed oil or soy, etc slip by in moments of weakness), and am certain that I am already leptin sensitive to some degree at least. After changing my diet at the beginning of last year, I began losing a bit of weight (I was pretty small at that point already). After I went full paleo, though, I shredded something like 12 pounds and I am now a tiny tiny 113 pounds (I was even down to 111 at one point). I have a really small frame (I'm 5'5") to begin with, but I had to fight for this to not be a bit alarming (especially with all the people in my life saying I was "so skinny!!!" with a bit of a judgmental edge as they watch me pig out on bacon). But as time has gone on, my energy stores have been enormous, and my body feels more powerful than ever as I appear to be building muscle without added exercise outside of my normal activity. I don't look emaciated, but rather proportionate and healthy (for the first time in my life!). I no longer get hip and knee inflammation, and my sinuses are clear. So, I was mostly interested in the CT for increased immune support, better energy regulation, better sleep (most important), and the "sense of well being" Kruse talks about.

I have never been good about following the information about circadian biology, with proper eating times/sleeping times and lengths. Seemed too daunting with my lifestyle. But Kruse's blog finally jarred me awake on that one.

Every day for a week so far (today is day 7), I've been waking up around 8:00 for a big breakfast (I've rarely eaten breakfast, much less a big one), two tall glasses of ice water, and cold immersion. I've been zero carbs most days, and never exceeding 10. No snacking at all. No sugar at all (this has been one of my biggest blind "leaky boat" issues). Two meals only. Dinner as close to 8:00p.m. as possible and at least 4 hours to digest before sleep. Eye mask and a minimum of 6 hours of sleep. I play music almost every friday night, plus a heavier than usual work schedule, and this sleep schedule has been so hard to keep!

Day 1: face dip 3 times for the length of a held breath in cold ice water. Cold shower (3/4ths of the way to full cold) at night after my "pauper's dinner."
Day 2: Face dip same as before + cold shower in the morning and at night.
Day 3: Face dip, morning cold shower (nearly to full cold) for 10-12 minutes or so. Same at night at full cold.
Day 4: Longer morning shower (15 min), cold full body tub soak at night (3/4ths to coldest)
Day 5: same as 4, with a longer and colder soak at night.
Day 6: Morning and night showers at full cold.

Next I will increase cold soaks to 45 minutes and begin adding ice.

I can confirm what a lot have said here so far. This gets increasingly energizing as I go along. I find myself craving the nighttime soaks, especially after about day 4 when I started to feel warm a lot of the time in my normal environment. I have always slept with heavy blanket cover, and the blanket has come off at night. My sleep is definitely improving. I have been running nonstop this week, and I have been able to keep a calm about me that I don't often muster in such circumstances. Also in my daily interactions I have noticed a subtle clarity increase in which it is a bit easier to turn off my neurotic mind and just be in the moment, not something I am certain is connect to the cold treatment. Going outside in chill with less clothing has been easier and easier (never liked that one). My weight has stayed pretty consistent, but I am finding these last few nights that I seem to be burning off about 2.5 pounds at night and then putting it back on in my day. I wonder if this may be the beginning of proper autophagy (something I am pretty sure I don't hit properly after reading Kruse's material)?

Something I am still unclear about when it comes to "becoming cold adapted" is whether this is smart in the summer/spring time and how much cold immersion/exposure will be needed in order to sustain it through hot weather. Anybody have ideas about this?

Thanks to the continuing information coming in from everyone else. This has been a very interesting experiment so far. I am learning a lot!
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Laura said:
It seems to me that this cryo-chamber therapy might become very "hot". It might be a good side-business to get into along with massage, nutritional counseling, EE, etc.

I think so too and was kicking around the idea. Initially it may be good to try and set up at an existing Spa type place since many of these places have space that they rent out. The chambers seem to cost from $20,000-$50,000, but it looks like it is possible to lease too. If it's marketed well to sports and the health oriented, I think it could be a success. It's a pretty interesting and foreign concept, so it makes for great publicity and news stories as well. I saw on Kruse's facebook page that he'll be giving a TED talk in Nashville in a couple of days.

dugdeep said:
Toronto? Really? I've been searching all over for a facility in Toronto but have come up short. I'd love it if you could share anything you've found, Shane :)

Ah sorry! It was the one in B.C. that I was looking at. I had scanned an article written by the Toronto Resort & Spa Examiner and thinking that it was promoting a Toronto spa, but in fact it was talking about the one in B.C.: _http://www.examiner.com/resort-spa-in-toronto/cryotherapy-seeking-wellness-extreme-cold

The resort:

http://www.sparklinghill.com/treat-yourself/wellness-treatments/cold-spa-110-degrees-celcius

Looks pretty nice though and the prices look pretty good at $300 for 10 treatments. I think this was the place that has already been discussed.
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Thanks for the detailed update, Psyche - your experience sounds very similar to mine. One difference is that my chamber temperature never went lower than -130C and it was usually around -125C, so -180C is MUCH colder, which could be why you had some skin issues on your legs. At my last session, I realized that I was going to miss doing these sessions (and I only had 5), so after 11 sessions, I bet that feeling is even stronger.
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Thanks for that in-depth, detailed report, Psyche. It's really fascinating reading all these experiences and scientific studies/papers. Really exciting experiment this is turning out to be. Just everyone remember to experiment safely -- safety FIRST!

One more thing, it's really great that people are open to listen to the diet recommendations and even trying it (e.g. Ailen telling the elderly lady and anart had mentioned the cryogenic therapist). I just hope they are able to do the necessary research and reading and transition slowly and safely the way it should be done, especially for elderly and people with major health issues. For their own safety and health, as well as any possible attack on the crew with possible liability claims if they don't understand what they're doing and how to do it and why.... I know, I may be paranoid, but with everything that's happened, we can't be too paranoid, FWIW.
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

SethianSeth said:
I wonder if this may be the beginning of proper autophagy (something I am pretty sure I don't hit properly after reading Kruse's material)?

I think here is the post where he explained it the clearest:

http://jackkruse.com/the-quilthow-to-beat-agin/

Stem Cell depots. This one, I bet, will move up as I age. I think what we are learning now is nothing short of amazing. As autophagy and apoptosis take out cells as they age, get infected with vectors, eliminated by ROS, ALEs, AGEs, and many other things, they get replaced with new cells that are not differentiated as yet that are hiding in our stroma as “soldiers in waiting.” The real issue is we do not appear to have an unlimited supply of them. Science now is challenging that assertion and I hope they are right, because if they are, we all might start living a long time.

The key to this levee is time and context. My theory holds that if you deplete your depot too early in life, your lifespan is shortened tremendously. In fact, I will be less tactful: If you abuse your body from ages 0-40, I think it has greater effects than if you abuse your body from 40-80. The reason is simple: The less we need to replace early in life allows us to have many more as we age when the effects of time and cellular damage accumulate. This is why the major diseases in humans all get more common as we age. We no longer have the reserves we once had. If science proves that we can go back and create pluripotential cells and reengineer our stem cell depot then this risk certainly lessens. Right now this option does not exist. Damaging your depot includes poor dietary choices, trauma, cellular and emotional stress, and endurance exercise. We need to protect our stem cells at every age but we tend to lose most of them when we are young because we do not employ a levee strategy until we get to the back half of life.

Here is the concept of autophagy explained in a "non-Kruse" way :

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/01/120120184528.htm

ScienceDaily (Jan. 20, 2012) — The health benefits of exercise on blood sugar metabolism may come from the body's ability to devour itself, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers report in the journal Nature.

Autophagy is a process by which a cell responds to starvation and other stresses by degrading damaged or unneeded parts of itself to produce energy. It is sometimes called the cell's housekeeping pathway.

[...]

"Our finding that exercise fails to improve glucose metabolism in autophagy-deficient mice strongly suggests that autophagy is an important mechanism by which exercise protects against diabetes," said Dr. Levine. "It also raises the possibility that activation of autophagy may contribute to other health benefits of exercise, including protection against cancer, neurodegenerative diseases and aging.

Dr. Levine has made fundamental discoveries previously that are in large part credited for expanding the field of autophagy research. In 1999, she identified the first mammalian autophagy gene, beclin 1, and its link to the suppression of breast cancer, which marked the first discovery of an association between defects in an autophagy gene and a human disease.

She similarly is credited with demonstrating that autophagy functions in innate immunity -- protecting against lethal viral encephalitis -- as well as initially reporting that autophagy plays a role in lifespan extension, shown in a study of C. elegans worms.

Something I am still unclear about when it comes to "becoming cold adapted" is whether this is smart in the summer/spring time and how much cold immersion/exposure will be needed in order to sustain it through hot weather. Anybody have ideas about this?

I guess we'll find out. It seems to me that the point of doing cold adaptation is to restore and heal your body, which is increasingly more difficult in such a stressful and polluted environment.

Right now, I feel I can do iced water, but I just did 11 sessions of cryotherapy. I'm not sure 2 weeks down the road, especially if I didn't kept up with my cold showers...

A long-term protocol, at least with cold showers and cold immersion when there is time and one is more adapted, sounds interesting.

Thanks to the continuing information coming in from everyone else. This has been a very interesting experiment so far. I am learning a lot!

A very interesting experience indeed!
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

SeekinTruth said:
One more thing, it's really great that people are open to listen to the diet recommendations and even trying it (e.g. Ailen telling the elderly lady and anart had mentioned the cryogenic therapist). I just hope they are able to do the necessary research and reading and transition slowly and safely the way it should be done, especially for elderly and people with major health issues.

Me too!

It was very interesting to know that the elderly lady was looking forward to read the research. She spoke French and could read English, but even the modified Atkins diet that we discussed in Life Without Bread thread is available in French which has all the research by Volek and others who had published about it.

I think there is practically material in most main languages and we should all take advantage of it and get to know this research.

For their own safety and health, as well as any possible attack on the crew with possible liability claims if they don't understand what they're doing and how to do it and why.... I know, I may be paranoid, but with everything that's happened, we can't be too paranoid, FWIW.

Yeah, and the physiotherapist of the cryotherapy center told us that the cryotechno machine is only sold to doctors or "paramedics" and they asked to bring medical certificates stating that we were capable of undergoing cryotherapy.
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Shijing said:
My last post about starting cold showers was lost in the server crash
Sorry to react a little slow, Shijing, but some of the missing posts have been retrieved and yours may be among them.
Please have a look here: http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,27173.msg331130.html#msg331130 to possibly identify yours and maybe some of the others in passing (scroll down to reply #27 to see how SeekinTruth did just that for the beginning of the retrieved list).
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Psyche said:
SeekinTruth said:
One more thing, it's really great that people are open to listen to the diet recommendations and even trying it (e.g. Ailen telling the elderly lady and anart had mentioned the cryogenic therapist). I just hope they are able to do the necessary research and reading and transition slowly and safely the way it should be done, especially for elderly and people with major health issues.

Me too!

It was very interesting to know that the elderly lady was looking forward to read the research. She spoke French and could read English, but even the modified Atkins diet that we discussed in Life Without Bread thread is available in French which has all the research by Volek and others who had published about it.

I think there is practically material in most main languages and we should all take advantage of it and get to know this research.

For their own safety and health, as well as any possible attack on the crew with possible liability claims if they don't understand what they're doing and how to do it and why.... I know, I may be paranoid, but with everything that's happened, we can't be too paranoid, FWIW.

Yeah, and the physiotherapist of the cryotherapy center told us that the cryotechno machine is only sold to doctors or "paramedics" and they asked to bring medical certificates stating that we were capable of undergoing cryotherapy.

OK, that's great that especially the elderly lady with fibromyalgia will be reading the research. If she reads English, even better, but the Volek and Phinney books are very good for details of how to do the transition right, although I haven't read the New Atkins for a New You book, just the excerpts, but The Art and Science of Low Carb Living was really good to get the important aspects. Thanks for your additional info. :)
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Palinurus said:
Shijing said:
My last post about starting cold showers was lost in the server crash
Sorry to react a little slow, Shijing, but some of the missing posts have been retrieved and yours may be among them.
Please have a look here: http://cassiopaea.org/forum/index.php/topic,27173.msg331130.html#msg331130 to possibly identify yours and maybe some of the others in passing (scroll down to reply #27 to see how SeekinTruth did just that for the beginning of the retrieved list).

Thanks Pashalis -- I just took a look and didn't see it, but it was worth a try. No biggie -- it wasn't very long, and I pretty much remembered what I had said then and repeated it in my more recent post above.
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Shane said:
The resort:

http://www.sparklinghill.com/treat-yourself/wellness-treatments/cold-spa-110-degrees-celcius

Looks pretty nice though and the prices look pretty good at $300 for 10 treatments. I think this was the place that has already been discussed.

Here's another in Vancouver, although it's a little more expensive:

http://www.pinklimevc.com/cryotherapy_vancouver.html
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Laura said:
It seems to me that this cryo-chamber therapy might become very "hot". It might be a good side-business to get into along with massage, nutritional counseling, EE, etc.

Here's an article that talks about infrared saunas and cryotherapy being 'hot new trends for 2012' in the spa industry

_http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-12-19/news/30535931_1_spa-trends-spa-finder-spafinder

New spa trends to watch in 2012:

(...)

Hot/cold therapies - Infrared saunas, which direct radiant heat into the body without heating the air, are gaining traction at spas around the globe, as are more extreme cold and hot/cold-contrast treatments. Every ESPA spa in the world now offers ice rubdowns after saunas, while spa-goers at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas can experience falling snow in its Arctic Ice Room. A new Snow Shower from Thermarium will hit the market soon, and for hardcore cold devotees there is cryotherapy, where you spend a few minutes in a chamber cooled to -120°C (-184°F). To get a taste, head to Canada's Sparkling Hill Resort and California's US Cryotherapy Center.
 
Re: Cryogenic Chamber Therapy

Shijing said:
I just took a look and didn't see it,
Would this be the one? It's the third last in reply #23:
Just took my first cold shower. Sweet Jesus. But I felt really good once I got out. The most sensitive parts of my body were my head and my upper back, and it took some willpower to hold those under at first -- I also had to do the breathing that Mr. Scott mentioned, especially when I was rinsing my head and face for the first time before I started adjusting. I shivered mostly for the first few minutes afterward, and then it calmed down except for the occasional tremble. I'm looking forward to seeing what the difference will be when I try again tomorrow.
 
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