The Science of Whole Body Cryotherapy is Sarasota Florida

The Science of Whole Body Cryotherapy is Sarasota Florida

I don’t, and I never expect you to, accept any sort of claim without knowing the science behind it.  This helps you weed out what’s hype from what really helps, and save time and money in the process.

So let’s talk about exactly what happens to your body when subjected to intense, life threatening, cold.

Fight or Flight

Your brain will go into ‘fight or flight’ mode, and release adrenaline and endorphins into your system.

What Adrenaline Does

Adrenaline increases your heart rate, dilates your air passages and contracts your blood vessels. Your capillaries expand up to four times their size allowing your white blood cells to access injuries up to 50 times faster than the norm.

This helps aid the healing process and recovery of post workout muscle strain. Cryotherapy is catching on in the sports community with top athletes like Devin Harris of the Dallas Mavericks.

 

Devin Harris of the Dallas Mavericks does cryotherapy.

Adrenaline also detoxes your body by flushing out toxins, which strengthens your immune system, helping to reduce free radical damage (which is largely responsible for aging) and improve your skin and the growth of healthier hair.

What Endorphins Do

The release of Endorphins, basically our bodies natural morphine, do a whole load of yummy things for us like:

  • Block pain
  • Induce feelings of pleasure
  • Increase our libidos
  • Fight depression
  • Helps us deal with stress

The release of endorphins are why many mental health care practices utilize cryotherapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety disorders.

Stimulates the Production of Collagen

Cryotherapy isn’t the same as applying ice to your skin. If you do that for a while the cold will freeze your skin and damage it. In cryotherapy, the cold air penetrates your skin 1/2 millimeter deep so the outer skin endures no damage.

The deeper layers, on the other hand, experience what we call ‘controlled damage’ which has been proven to stimulate the production of collagen. Essentially what happens is that when our tissue is damaged the brain goes into survival mode, producing more collagen to protect the area.

Collagen is like the glue of our body, it keeps everything together and any possible breach puts our brain on alert, doing whatever it can to repair itself. And it sends more than we need.

Not to be simplistic but it’s kind of like on Game of Thrones, Daenerys Targaryen may have 100 guards protecting her perimeter at any time. But if they are attacked and lose 5, you better believe she’s going to send 50 to breach that gap and the whole area around it. Same thing.

Collagen, along with elastin, is what makes our skin tight. For example, the difference, visually, between an old person and a young person, is the lack of collagen.

Old Skin vs. Young Skin

Young Skin vs. Old Skin

Actually, collagen is what holds our body together. It’s in our muscles, bones, tendons and skin and as we age, we produce less of it. And eventually we stop producing it at all, and start losing it at about 1% per year!When our skin is tighter, we look younger, our cellulite is less visible and the world is a happier place.

Increases our Metabolic Rate

During the 2 to 4 minute treatment, your body works hard to stay at 98.6°F. So hard that your metabolism kicks up it’s pace. This effect lasts for 6 to 8 hours after the treatment and burns anywhere from 500 to 800 calories. Don’t get too excited though because it also tends to boost up your appetite.

 

I, for one, was very nervous. What if I panicked or hyperventilated or something? Angelo said this was normal and was really cool about explaining what would go down before it actually did.

The Cryopod fits one person at a time. As a woman I was able to go in with nothing on but socks, slippers and mittens. Men, on the other hand, have to protect their private parts with shorts. I guess I can understand why…

At first it felt like being in the snow without the right gear. After about 10 seconds shit got real. It’s such an odd sensation it’s hard to describe. To say that my skin was tingly is an understatement.

The pod gets cold with nitrogen, which if you breath you can pass out so every time I ducked my head down I had to hold my breath. One 100 seconds and  – 195°F in, you’d be amazed how difficult something like controlling your breathing can become.

195 below zero-compressed

112 seconds in and – 195°F (below zero!)

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