History of WBC
Research into extreme cold therapy began in 1978 by Dr. T. Yamauchi, a rheumatogist in Japan. He started using freezing treatments of short duration on his rheumatoid arthritis patients’ skin surface for pain management purposes. He concluded that rapid short-term freezing of the skin’s surface led to immediate release of endorphins and is more effective than gradual cooling in an ice bath. Further research conducted over the last two decades in Europe has established WBC as a powerful treatment for inflammatory disorders and injuries.
More Resources on the History and Development of Whole Body Cryotherapy
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. The term “cryotherapy” comes from the Greek cryo meaning cold, and therapy meaning cure. Cryotherapy has been used as early as the seventeenth century. Read more from wikipedia.org
Cryotherapy, is a pain treatment procedure that uses a method of localized freezing temperatures to deaden an irritated nerve. Cryotherapy can be used to treat nerve irritation between the ribs (intercostal neuralgia), cluneal nerve entrapment, ilioinguinal neuroma, hypogastric neuromas, lateral femoral cutaneous nerve entrapment, and interdigital neuromas, nerve entrapment (pinched nerves), and neuromas. Read more from medicinenet.com
Cryosurgery has been used to treat skin lesions for approximately 100 years. The first cryogens were liquid air and compressed carbon dioxide snow. Liquid nitrogen became available in the 1940s and currently is the most widely used cryogen. Read more from aafp.org
Cryotherapy may sound like something out of a science-fiction novel, but the procedure–little-known in the U.S., though popular in Europe–has been slowly making inroads among body-conscious consumers throughout southern California and, more recently, New York City. For relief from minor aches and pains to physical trauma, so-called “whole body cryotherapy” is the practice of chilling the skin to just above freezing for approximately three minutes. It’s essentially an ice bath on steroids, in which the cold decreases inflammation in joints and muscles. It can also help encourage the growth of healthy skin cells, and improve the dexterity of existing cells. Therein lies the opportunity of cryotherapy, a procedure whose origins date back several decades. Read more from inc.com
