Anyone who has stood outside in the depths of winter knows how the cold makes you feel.
Now, imagine you were going to stand with minimal clothing on inside a chamber at -85 or -110 degrees Celsius. Not only that, but you’ll also stay there for three minutes.
Understandably you’d have your concerns about the safety of the activity! It sounds incredibly dangerous.
Worry not though, whole body cryotherapy is perfectly safe. We’ll explain how and why you can safely stand in incredibly low temperatures for three minutes, without any illness or injury concerns afterwards.
The Mecotec system doesn’t rely on liquid nitrogen to work, instead using electricity to cool the air to the required temperature. This means the most extreme low temperatures are avoided. Although the Mecotec whole body cryotherapy chamber is still very cold, it’s far more manageable than the nitrogen-fuelled chambers.
For a more practical explanation as to how we know whole body cryotherapy is safe, read the points below…
The reason the body isn’t damaged, even at temperatures as low as -110 degrees Celsius, is explained in research by Bleakley et al from 2014. They said…
'Although whole body cryotherapy produces a large temperature gradient for tissue cooling, the relatively poor thermal conductivity of air prevents significant subcutaneous and core body cooling.’
It means we have the air to thank. It’s insulating properties prevent the skin from being exposed to the worst of the cold.
Of course, long term exposure to cold is potentially dangerous (think hypothermia), but the average whole body cryotherapy session only lasts around 3 minutes.
With such a short-term exposure to the coldest temperatures, we can be sure that the participant is feeling well and is in no danger throughout the session.
Thanks to the low temperatures, it’s very important that your skin is completely dry before you go into the whole-body cryotherapy chamber. At such a low temperature, any water on your skin or clothes would freeze almost instantly.
To prevent this, dry socks, slippers, gloves under garments or bathing suites should be worn before you enter the chamber. This serves two purposes…
Ensures you are dry and not as risk of freezing.
Protects your extremities where blood flow might not be optimal.
A seemingly small point, with a large impact.
When you enter a WBC (whole-body cryotherapy) chamber, you are in contact with the person leading the session. It means if you are beginning to feel uncomfortable, you can bring the session to a halt immediately.
This is an extra layer of peace of mind for the participant and prevents an unexpected yet avoidable incident.
Having been used extensively for over 40 years, we have a large enough data set to confidently say that whole-body cryotherapy is safe when correct guidelines are followed, which they always should be.
RP-X are the leading providers of Mecotec electric whole-body cryotherapy units in the UK. We have nearly two decades in the space and offer a wide range of turnkey solutions for facilities looking to invest in this technology.
For more information on cryotherapy chambers, pricing, and the right model for you, contact us on info@rp-x.com or 01234 981913.