Views: 1 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2022-08-19 Origin: Site
Cryoliposis is done by exposing your body to extreme cold for medical benefits.
The popular whole-body cryoliposis method has you stand in a chamber that covers all parts of your body except your head. The air in the chamber goes down to temperatures as low as negative 200°F to 300°F for up to 5 minutes.
Cryoliposis has become popular because of its ability to treat painful and chronic conditions like migraine and rheumatoid arthritis. And it’s also been thought to be a possible weight loss treatment.
But does cryoliposis for weight loss really have any science behind it? The short answer is probably not.
Purported benefits of cryoliposis for weight loss
The theory behind cryoliposis is that it freezes fat cells throughout the body and kills them off. This causes them to be filtered out of the body by your liver and permanently removed from areas of fat tissue.
A 2013 study in the Journal of Clinical Investigation found that daily exposure to cold temperatures (62.5°F or 17°C) for 2 hours a day over 6 weeks reduced total body fat by about 2 percent.
This is because a substance in your body called brown adipose tissue (BAT) burns fat to help make energy when your body is exposed to extreme cold.
This suggests that the body may have mechanisms for reducing fat due to cold temperatures.
A 2014 studyTrusted Source in Diabetes exposed participants to increasingly cold temperatures and then increasingly warmer temperatures every night for 4 months. The study started at 75°F (23.9°C) down to 66.2°F (19°C) and back up to 81°F (27.2°C) by the end of the 4-month period.
The researchers found that exposure to progressively cooler then warmer temperature can make your BAT more responsive to these temperature changes and help your body become better at processing glucose.
This isn’t necessarily linked to weight loss. But increased sugar metabolism can help you lose weight over time by helping your body better digest sugars that can otherwise turn into body fat.
Other research also supports the idea that cryoliposis works best when it’s combined with other strategies for weight loss — like exercise.
A 2014 study in Oxidative Medicine and Cellular Longevity followed 16 kayakers on the Polish National Team who did whole-body cryoliposis at −184°F (−120°C) down to −229°F (−145°C) for about 3 minutes a day for 10 days.
Researchers found that cryoliposis helped the body recover more quickly from exercise and reduce the effects of reactive oxygen species (ROS) that can cause inflammation and weight gain over time.
This means that cryoliposis can allow you to exercise more often due to a faster recovery time and experience fewer negative effects of stress and weight gain.
And here are some other recent highlights from research on cryoliposis for weight loss:
· A 2016 study in the British Journal of Sports Medicine found that 3 minutes of exposure to temperatures of −166°F (−110°C) 10 times in a 5-day period had no statistically significant effect on weight loss in men.
· A 2018 study in the Journal of Obesity found that long-term cryoliposis activates a process in the body called cold-induced thermogenesis. This led to an overall loss of body mass particularly around the waist by an average of 3 percent.
Cryoliposis for weight loss side effects
Cryoliposis has been found to have some side effects that you may want to consider before you attempt to try it for weight loss.
Extreme cold on the skin can lead to a number of nerve-related side effects, including:
· numbness
· tingling sensation
· redness
· skin irritation
These are typically temporary, lasting only a few hours after the procedure. See a doctor if they haven’t gone away after more than 24 hours.
Don’t do cryoliposis longer than recommended by a doctor, as long-term cold exposure can cause permanent nerve damage or the death of skin tissue (necrosis).
Whole-body cryoliposis done at below-freezing temperatures should never be done for more than 5 minutes at a time, and should be supervised by a trained provider.
If you’re trying cryoliposis at home with an ice pack or a tub filled with ice, cover the ice pack with a towel to avoid freezer burns. And don’t do an ice bath for longer than 20 minutes.
