November 2005
Chill Out
The latest therapy is so cool it doesn't hurt
A group of little old ladies is jigging up and down, waving their arms around and bending and stretching from side to side. They are dressed in swimming costumes, with woolly hats perched on their heads, set off by gloves, socks and mouth and ear masks. Steam circles around them, making it look like a disco or pop concert. The elderly women are dancing to music from an album called “Summer Hits.” But the temperature here is far from summery. It is freezing. Make that colder than freezing, colder even than Antarctica.
The surreal scene isn’t taken from a bizarre over-60 party. What I’m watching is a cryotherapy session at Krankenhaus Neuwittelsbach, in Nymphenburg/Neuhausen, Munich. The patients are moving around in a cryotherapy chamber, or
Kältekammer, where the temperature is minus 110ºC. Patients spend a maximum of three minutes in the chamber, after first acclimatizing for 20 to 30 seconds in another chamber, where the temperature is a mere minus 60°C.
After a couple of minutes, the first lot of patients exits the chamber, looking surprisingly cheerful and chattering merrily. Enter three more patients, including a younger man, who stays in the chamber until the bitter end, namely three minutes. A veteran of cryotherapy, he seems very relaxed about the whole procedure. I, meanwhile, am frantically watching the seconds hand on the clock, desperate for him to leave the chamber and feeling increasingly claustrophobic for him. I needn’t worry, the nurse tells me. There is a window in the chamber so that an operator outside can always observe the patients. There is also a two-way intercom and an emergency button inside the chamber to release the door. And the patients are free to leave the chamber whenever they want.
Cryotherapy is not a way of torturing Munich’s elderly citizens. It is actually good for their health. The procedure helps patients suffering from rheumatism, arthritis, fibromyalgia and skin complaints, such as psoriasis, explains Gernot Fuchs, sports physiotherapist at the hospital. A single session costs € 80.
Patients start to feel better just 30 seconds after leaving the chamber and the effect lasts as long as six hours. On average, people need to take a series of 20 treatments, ideally twice a day, and will then feel the benefits for as long as three months, says Fuchs.
The extreme cold used in cryotherapy blocks central pain receptors, boosts the nervous and circulatory systems and releases mood-enhancing hormones, namely endorphins. Scientists are not even completely sure how it works. One thing is certain, however: people definitely find it easier to move, and they feel happier and full of energy following treatment. Indeed, patients have to take care not to overdo it, as they feel so good. “People feel as if they could dance or run around after a session, but they need to remember to take it easy as the treatment does not heal their complaint, just stops the pain and makes them feel better,” says Fuchs.
After a treatment, patients are advised to drink a hot cup of tea to warm up. It is an ideal time then for patients to take part in physiotherapy.
Cryotherapy isn’t only for people who are ill. Athletes also use it, including some of Germany’s leading sportsmen and women. “If an ice hockey player is hit during a game, then he will hardly notice the pain after cryotherapy,” says Fuchs. “Of course, athletes need to avoid overexerting themselves and simply ignoring an injury.”
Cryotherapy is also beneficial for people suffering from depression, as long as they don’t suffer from claustrophobia, says Fuchs. In Japan, top-level managers use cryotherapy to improve their performance at work and to counter stress. But not everyone can take part in the therapy here in Munich. A doctor needs to refer a patient before he or she can start a course of treatment. And people who suffer from blood circulatory problems—including Raynauds—heart problems or epilepsy can’t take part.
Krankenhaus Neuwittelsbach is the only place in Munich offering cryotherapy. Elsewhere in Bavaria, there is a cryotherapy chamber at the Rheumaklinik Bad Aibling, near Rosenheim, and one at the Rheumaklinik Bad Füssing, near Passau. Just don’t forget your gloves!
