- Obesity patients who used cryotherapy saw reduced blood sugar and cholesterol, per a new study.
- Cryotherapy, or subjecting the body to sub-200-degree temperatures, is popular among athletes.
- An earlier study suggests cryotherapy might improve mechanisms that aid in weight loss, but doesn't cut fat on its own.
People with obesity might benefit from cryotherapy, or exposure to extreme cold, when it's paired with other treatments, a new study suggests.
Subjecting the body to sub-200-degree temperatures is already a popular wellness fad and sports recovery tool. Many wellness-minded celebrities are fans of cryotherapy, and professional athletes use it to help with muscle soreness.
The practice might also help with weight loss, per the new findings. People with obesity who had regular exposure to extreme cold saw lower levels of blood sugar and cholesterol compared to a control group, in a small study of 29 people with obesity, conducted by researchers in Italy.
All of the study's participants received care in the form of a diet plan, exercise training, and psychological support. Then, researchers divided them into two groups: one that spent two minutes in a negative 230-degree Fahrenheit cryochamber and another that went into a negative 131-degree cryochamber for the same amount of time. Participants went into the cryochambers 10 times over two weeks.
Total cholesterol dropped by 20% for participants who went into the colder cryochamber, but just 9% for those who went in the 131-degree chamber. Blood glucose levels decreased by 10% for the participants who went into sub-200-degree chambers (compared to 3% in the control group) and waist circumference shrunk by 6% (compared to 1% in the control group.)
Though cryotherapy likely does not directly burn fat, according to Healthline, it could support mechanisms in the body that indirectly contribute to shedding fat.
A small 2015 study of obese men found some subjects had gained higher levels of irisin, a protein that helps convert regular fat into brown fat, after daily cryotherapy sessions over 10 days. Brown fat breaks down blood sugar and regular fat, which is essential for improving metabolism. Too much regular fat, meanwhile, contributes to obesity.
"Our results indicate that whole body cryostimulation is beneficial in the treatment of obesity," Dr Jacopo Fontana, a researcher at Istituto Auxologico Piancavallo IRCCS, where the study was conducted, said in a release. "The improvements in blood fats and glucose were particularly striking but larger studies of a longer duration are needed to confirm these preliminary results."