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posted by martyb on Monday November 23 2015, @12:57PM   Printer-friendly
from the Cool-It! dept.

"Detoxing" and kombucha are yesterday's news. Now the latest health fad, cryotherapy, is facing regulation in Nevada after a recent death:

After the death of a spa employee, Nevada has created health guidelines for cryotherapy, a treatment that experts say has been growing in popularity but is largely unregulated and whose benefits are not proven.

The guidelines from the state health department recommend that the machines, which subject users to subzero temperatures, not be used by those younger than 18, under five feet tall or with certain health conditions, said Dr. Tracey Green, the state's chief medical officer. The health conditions include a history of stroke, high blood pressure, seizures and infections, as well as pregnancy, a pacemaker or claustrophobia. Users should have only one session per day for no more than three minutes and have their blood pressure taken before and after.

[...] Chelsea Ake-Salvacion, 24, accidentally died of asphyxia caused by low oxygen levels while in a cryotherapy machine at the Rejuvenice spa in Henderson, where she worked, the Clark County coroner's office said. She was found dead on Oct. 20 after apparently using the treatment on herself the night before. Her death drew scrutiny to the treatment that has been used worldwide but is not quite mainstream.

Cryotherapy supporters claim it can ease pain and inflammation, aid blood flow and weight loss, improve skin and even ward off aging and depression. The treatment has been popularized by celebrities and sports stars who use it in lieu of a traditional ice bath. It can involve two- to four-minute exposures in a chamber the size of a telephone booth to temperatures ranging from minus 166 to minus 319 degrees F.

Cryotherapy has been used by athletes for muscle soreness and exercise recovery, although there is insufficient evidence to support its efficacy. It is not the same thing as cryonics or medically induced hypothermia.


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  • (Score: 1) by Cornwallis on Monday November 23 2015, @01:05PM

    by Cornwallis (359) on Monday November 23 2015, @01:05PM (#266966)

    ckoo...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2015, @05:11PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2015, @05:11PM (#267057)

      At first I read "cryptotherapy" and I felt a little cuckoo myself...

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by takyon on Monday November 23 2015, @01:43PM

    by takyon (881) <reversethis-{gro ... s} {ta} {noykat}> on Monday November 23 2015, @01:43PM (#266976) Journal

    The health conditions include a history of stroke, high blood pressure, seizures and infections, as well as pregnancy, a pacemaker or claustrophobia.

    I wonder how many pregnant women have ventured into the cryo chamber. Could be a cheap abortion method if you get a deal on Groupon.

    Does claustrophobia really need to be included?

    --
    [SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
    • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday November 23 2015, @02:09PM

      by Thexalon (636) on Monday November 23 2015, @02:09PM (#266987)

      Given that Planned Parenthood and similar organizations perform abortions at low cost to those who can't otherwise afford them, and cryo treatments are definitely not cheap, I doubt that would be a cheap abortion method.

      --
      The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
  • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2015, @02:02PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2015, @02:02PM (#266984)

    No laws necessary, just let nature take its course.

  • (Score: -1, Spam) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2015, @02:05PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 23 2015, @02:05PM (#266985)

    You know, I always thought that it would be an excruciating experience moving away from my beloved Samsung Galaxy Android smartphone to a Windows Phone. But after getting hacked, due to Android's notorious poor security model, and Samsung's poor update policy, I decided enough was enough. Windows Phone, with its trusted security model that it brings from the Desktop version of Windows, seemed like a leap of faith, but I took it.

    When I purchased my Microsoft Lumia 950 phone, I was skeptical, as I had only ever used popular iPhones made by Apple and Android Phones made by Samsung. I was worried that perhaps there would not be enough applications for my productive workflow. But I was won over by the incredible build quality, to include the brilliant AMOLED screen. I was floored by the speed of the user interface -- no lag, unlike all of the buggy Android phones that I had used. And while the "live tiles" took some getting used to, I found that they were much more informative and helpful than antiquated icons found on the competition.

    As for the application gap -- well, honestly, there isn't one. I am a professional, and I've found that all of the productive applications that I need, including Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Skydrive, are available on my Lumia 950. Indeed, this is a seemless experience that blends in with the beautiful Windows Phone interface. I have also found that most programs for which an application does not exist, will work perfectly using the new Edge browser, the newest mobile browser on the block. Such is the case with my bank, which works faster in Edge than any mobile application on Android.

    To sum it up: It's been a few weeks now, and I'm thoroughly impressed. I bought the Microsoft Lumia 950XL (the larger version) for my spouse, and now all of my friends want to transition to the Microsoft ecosystem as well. It's no longer about "application count" but about productivity and workflow. I've found that Microsoft allows me to remain productive in ways that Android and the iPhone could not. Businesses all over the world have relied on Microsoft for their critical infrastructure for years ... now it's time for business professionals to trust in Microsoft for their mobile needs. Give it a try -- you just might be impressed!

    • (Score: 4, Interesting) by VLM on Monday November 23 2015, @02:31PM

      by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 23 2015, @02:31PM (#266992)

      The spam is actually on topic, five minutes with a MS phone feels like five minutes at negative 319 F.

      Also the -319F looked weirdly familiar, I converted it from f(ake) degrees to Celsius and thats -195 C which is even more familiar, thats the boiling pt of liq nitrogen. Between that and the story of the anoxic dead chick that kind of settles how it works, sit in a box, someone dumps some liq N2 in the box. Given external air supply I bet you can survive quite a long time in liq N2 due to surface film boiling effect.

      Whats interesting about "mainstream" is its very maker-movement like where there exists decades of experience WRT how not to die around liq or pressurized N2 and how not to die in what OSHA calls confined spaces, but new movements will get so high on their own supply they'll think nothing that ever happened in the past matters, ignore it, and basically fail in ways that the old timers get to laugh at.

      A long time ago I used to work at a place that used dewars full of N2 to very slowly over the course of weeks boil away and very gently pressurize RF waveguides with perfectly dry "air". The safety briefing boiled (lol) down to don't F with the dewars. So naturally people always Fed with the dewars, although nobody ever got hurt, at least never officially. Centralized monitoring of waveguide pressure cut down on Fing around with the dewars. Anyway water vapor has an annoying resonance around K band satellite freqs, and the cheapest long term way to get 0% humidity in a waveguide is boiling off liq N2. I've heard regular terrestrial broadcasters sometimes pressurize their feedlines with N2 although for corrosion prevention reasons.

      • (Score: 2) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Monday November 23 2015, @03:49PM

        by GreatAuntAnesthesia (3275) on Monday November 23 2015, @03:49PM (#267025) Journal

        > The spam is actually on topic, five minutes with a MS phone feels like five minutes at negative 319 F.

        I've never used one, but if the only way they can sell them is with sub-par off-topic astroturfing efforts like GP, then it must be really awful. I will make a note never to buy the product mentioned above. Well done MS/ Nokia and AC on your crappy counter-productive advertising campaign. You must be so proud.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by LoRdTAW on Monday November 23 2015, @04:48PM

        by LoRdTAW (3755) on Monday November 23 2015, @04:48PM (#267045) Journal

        At work we have both LN2 and Ar dewars. I walk into the bay one day and notice the liquid valve is leaking liquid. So dumb-dumb me grabs the valve with my bare hand to shut it. Got a few cryo burns on my fingers and palm. Nothing bad but they hurt more than a heat burn and to me, felt like they took longer to heal. Thankfully there was no frost bite or deep tissue damage as I only held it for a few seconds. Lesson I learned. Another interesting thing about cryoburns is you don't feel them until 5-10 min after you receive them from being instantly numbed.

        Dewars leak at liquid valve because it is also the fill port. They hook it to a bulk storage tank, open the vent valve and fill the dewar on a scale until you reach the full weight. When the liquid valve is closed, the globe that seals in the valve seat shrinks from the cold. So when it warms up the valve globe expands and pushes itself back a bit but stays tight. Once you start drawing a large volume of gas, the liquid starts flowing but this time through the expansion coils that wrap around the jacket of the tank. This once again cools the liquid plumbing and the liquid valve globe shrinks and begins to leak.

        I also gave myself a small cryoburn when I was letting the liquid roll off my hand as a demonstration of the surface film boiling effect. As I pulled my hand away I cupped it and a small droplet sat in once place long enough to give me a small cryoburn.

        Bottom line. Always wear protective gear.

  • (Score: 2) by DutchUncle on Monday November 23 2015, @04:34PM

    by DutchUncle (5370) on Monday November 23 2015, @04:34PM (#267040)

    I mean, isn't this sort of a Nordic tradition that goes back forever? Without asphyxiation?

  • (Score: 2) by Gravis on Monday November 23 2015, @06:06PM

    by Gravis (4596) on Monday November 23 2015, @06:06PM (#267087)

    Cryotherapy is the local or general use of low temperatures in medical therapy. Cryotherapy is used to treat a variety of benign and malignant tissue damage, medically called lesions.[1] The term "cryotherapy" comes from the Greek cryo (κρύο) meaning cold, and therapy (θεραπεία) meaning cure. Cryotherapy has been used as early as the seventeenth century.

    Its goal is to decrease cell growth and reproduction (cellular metabolism), increase cellular survival, decrease inflammation, decrease pain and spasm, promote the constriction of blood vessels (vasoconstriction), and when using extreme temperatures, to destroy cells by crystallizing the cytosol, which is the liquid found inside cells, also known as intracellular fluid (ICF). The most prominent use of the term refers to the surgical treatment, specifically known as cryosurgery. Other therapies that use the term are whole-body cryotherapy[2] and ice pack therapy.

    -wikipedia

  • (Score: 2) by turgid on Monday November 23 2015, @09:13PM

    by turgid (4318) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 23 2015, @09:13PM (#267173) Journal

    Why oh why oh why must summaries contain American units of temperature?

    For the benefit of those of us on the other side of the Pond, "minus 166 to minus 319 degrees F" corresponds to -14.46 to -16.76 on the New Linearised Gas Mark [wikipedia.org] scale, which is derived from the Gas Mark scale but linearised for scientific and engineering use by extending the linearity below Gas Mark 1 through 0 and downwards in increments of 25F, discarding the discontinuity in the culinary version of the scale.

    Bonus marks for the interested reader who can perform the conversion from New Linearised Gas Mark into electron volts.