Cryotherapy, cold water bathing

[Spartacus]

Immersion in cold water has sometimes been mentioned as a possible treatment for many things and specifically ME/CFS in social media. There are also the traditions of Scandinavian countries and others of alternating sauna with cold water dips.

I thought it would be useful to look at the evidence and hear about any personal experiences with this.

No idea what it would do for someone with ME. However my nephew has rapid cycling Bipolar 2. He does seem to find that a swim in the sea helps. I think Bipolar 2 is basically just brain chemistry gone haywire, so maybe cold water swimming would help any neurological condition?
Personally I can't actually physically get to the beach, and I can't tolerate sunlight. Might be able to do it if we could go back to the old Victorian bath huts on wheels!

 

[Cinders66]

There was loads of hype about this around 1990s. I was mild-moderate then. I took regular increasingly cold baths. Zilch benefit.

 

[Arnie Pye]

Cold water immersion sounds like torture to me. I could never do it.

I'm curious if anyone who does this keeps records of their body temperature before going in cold water and immediately after getting out.

 

[Mij]

Immersion in cold water has sometimes been mentioned as a possible treatment for many things and specifically ME/CFS in social media. There are also the traditions of Scandinavian countries and others of alternating sauna with cold water dips.

Contrast foot bathing has been shown to be helpful for improving circulation. We advised this to our patients when I worked for a podidatrist.

I was doing FAR infra red saunas years ago, but I would never dip in a cold shower afterwards! I was too exhausted. Perhaps on alternate days, sauna one day and cool shower the next, but ever one extreme to another.

 

[Kitty]

(Don't try this at home, folks!)

Luckily most of us don't have cryotherapy chambers in our houses anyway, or access to one through friends networks. We could try immersion in cold water, but it isn't the same thing; if you're not feeling good, it's also deeply unpleasant.

I've done open water swimming during better phases with ME/CFS, and I can't honestly say it improved my function. I enjoyed it—once you start generating heat from moving, the cold's not too bad—but that's all.

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

I don't think cryotherapy would work if you are enjoying it. I think it would need to be really horrid.

 

[Sasha]

I don't think cryotherapy would work if you are enjoying it. I think it would need to be really horrid.

Certainly my cold baths were.

 

[nafione]

When I visit my parents during winter, I dip in the pool (under 5c) and alternate with the hot tub. After a few days, my pain is always lessened, but there are confounding factors: increased family and pet time plus they take care of everything so i can rest

My best function in the last year was during a summer heat wave where i managed 8 days in a row hiking into a river canyon (about 4000 steps) for a cold dip. Nature and social time being confounding factors.

I do enjoy it but I’ve spent my life braving cold water. That said, when I’m feeling particularly down I don’t have the ability to manage it.

 

[Felis Catus]

I don't know that we even have many anecdotes to go off about PwME doing well after cold-water therapy, let alone papers on cold-therapy generally.

It's been often recommended for LC, including ME/CFS triggered by COVID. Even a couple of doctors with no special interest in LC/ME recommended it to me.

Some pwLC or recovered from LC swear by it.

 

[Concentric_Spiral]

So cold water baths indoors may help? (I can't swim because I have almost no range of motion in my feet from built up fibrotic tissue from eosinophilic fasciitis.) I could try increasingly cold baths - how long of an immersion is required?