These days, ice therapy or cryotherapy is too widely used. You might have seen athletes with ice packs wrapped around their shoulders or knees after a game or celebrities jumping into an ice bath or going into an ice chamber.
People apply it for everything these days – injuries, soreness, pain, weight loss, and a ton of other reasons. That has generated a need to understand the science behind it.
In this article, we’ll debunk some commonly believed myths about cryotherapy and show you why those aren’t true.
Quick Intro to Ice Therapy
Ice therapy is nothing new. People have been using it for a long time but the medical community adopted it in the 1970s.
Today, physiotherapy clinics around the world use it for their patients, team physicians use it for athletes, and most people use it at home for various purposes.
Ice therapy involves placing an ice-cold object on your body to numb the area and bring down its temperature.
There are a few different types of cryotherapy:
- Topical cooling
- Immersion ice baths
- Whole-body cryotherapy
You can use crushed ice for it, a completely frozen packet of peas, a gel pack, ice-cold water, sprays such as truFreeze, or a chamber with close to -200°F temperatures.
Busting Myths About Cryotherapy
There’s a lot of misinformation about ice therapy. Because of this, people believe in many myths as well. Let’s set the record straight about some of them:
1. Myth: Ice Heals Damaged Tissues Faster
There’s a common myth about cryotherapy that it can heal tissues. That stems from the fact that people mostly apply ice on an area after it’s injured or when it’s sore.
To understand why ice doesn’t help the healing process, let’s look at the science of healing. (Reference)
After a vigorous workout (that causes micro-tears in your muscles) or an injury, your body sends extra blood to the area.
The blood carries with it white blood cells and macrophages which, in simple words, clean out the damaged dead cells and debris and start the healing process.
Ice reduces the blood flow to an area. It stops the arrival of macrophages and delays the healing process. So it does the exact opposite of helping the body heal faster.
All cryotherapy does is temporarily reduce pain. (Reference)
Athletes use ice therapy after workouts so they can train harder, faster, and perform at their best day after day.
But if back-to-back performances aren’t an issue for you, then avoid using ice after workouts and let your body heal at its natural pace.
2. Myth: Cryotherapy Is Good for Muscle Injuries
Applying ice to a muscular injury isn’t the healthiest thing for the muscle.
A 2020 study found that putting ice on an injury too soon can make it difficult for your body to return to homeostasis and send the necessary macrophages even after removing the ice.
Homeostasis is a state of balance or equilibrium between the different systems of your body. In this case, it would be the balance between the macrophages that will clean the injured site and the level of cell damage.
Ice gives you short-term relief by reducing inflammation (temporarily) and numbing the area. But it can negatively affect your recovery after a workout and the long-term muscle adaptations that you expect from strength training sessions.
So it’s not suitable to regularly apply ice for muscle injuries.
3. Myth: Cryotherapy Stops Inflammation
Applying ice only pauses the swelling in the area for a while by decreasing the flow of inflammation-causing agents to the area.
But as soon as the blood supply is restored to its normal levels, macrophages return to clean up the area. When that happens, the inflammation also returns.
Swelling goes away for good only after the repair process is complete. Interfering with this can negatively affect muscle regeneration.
The sooner you allow your muscles to heal, the sooner the inflammation will go down.
Inflammation or swelling isn’t always a bad thing. Our body has natural systems to tackle it. Once the repair is done, the macrophages that were once the cause of inflammation then become anti-inflammatory and reduce swelling in the area.
4. Myth: Cryotherapy With Rest Helps You Recover Faster
Rest, ice, compression, and elevation (RICE) protocol is commonly used in athletic injuries.
But the current research from The Sport Journal suggests that active rest alone is enough and you don’t need to apply ice with it.
The studies that supported the use of ice with rest are outdated.
In fact, the physician, Gabe Mirkin, who originally introduced cryotherapy and RICE protocol for athletes in 1978 recanted his support for it in 2015 in light of new research showing that it wasn’t as useful as once believed.
Active rest is a very light activity that doesn’t increase your heart rate too much. Usually, these activities make you feel the same as you do at rest.
5. Myth: Positive Effects of Cryotherapy Are Supported by Research
Although some older studies have concluded that ice therapy helps decrease pain in certain situations such as after surgery, there’s a lack of quality evidence to show its effect on acute injuries, swelling, and increasing performance. (Reference)
So its positive effects haven’t been proven for most conditions and for most populations.
The studies that have been done on this subject vary a lot.
The main differences are in the temperature of the gel pack or the cold chamber (for whole body cryotherapy), the duration of application, and the number of treatments you need to see substantial results.
6. Myth: Ice Therapy Generally Has No Side Effects
Cryotherapy is safe for most people. But it may be dangerous for those who have poor circulation, allergies that are triggered by cold, and neuropathies in the leg.
Neuropathy is a problem with the nerves that causes numbness, tingling, muscle weakness and sometimes pain in the area supplied by the nerve. It usually affects the arms and legs.
Since ice doesn’t help with anything other than temporarily reducing pain, it’s best to not apply it at home or any other place where you can’t get immediate medical assistance if you have any of the conditions mentioned above.
Cryotherapy Isn’t All Bad. Here’s the Positive Side of Ice Therapy
Applying ice to your skin or muscles can be helpful in certain cases.
Research has shown its positive effects on reducing pain in arthritis patients, acute injuries with excessive pain, chronic pain syndromes, and athletes who must have peak performance during back-to-back games.
But still, there’s not enough body of literature to support that it helps most patients that fall in these categories.
Also, there’s a strong psychological component in cryotherapy. Multiple studies have proven that ice therapy, in most cases, is nothing more than a placebo. (Reference)
If you think Ice is helping you and you don’t have any of the contraindications then, by all means, feel free to use it to manage your pain.
But if you’re a healthy person, then avoid using ice therapy after every workout or at the end of a long day because you’re sore. Give your body time to heal on its own via its natural process.
Undisputed Facts About Cryotherapy
Here are some true statements about ice therapy:
- It lowers the local body temperature
- Numbs the area by reducing the nerve conduction velocity. This makes you feel less sore after a vigorous workout. (Reference)
- Reduces pain
- Constricts (narrows) the arteries so that the blood supply to the area decreases and the inflammation-causing agents (macrophages) can’t get there.
- Ice baths or whole body cryotherapy make most people feel refreshed.
The Takeaway
This article isn’t meant to discourage you from applying ice therapy. Its only purpose is to help you understand why and when you should be using it to get maximum benefits.
Cryotherapy isn’t suitable for speeding up the recovery after an acute athletic injury or for reducing inflammation. It may do these things but the fact of the matter is that there’s limited evidence to support these claims.
Some of the more widely known studies that are often cited by pro-ice therapy folks are decades old and outdated.
The current research that’s coming out is showing that ice therapy isn’t as helpful as previously believed.
Disclaimer: This article is for informative purposes only. We provide well-researched and authentic information. Do not consider this personalized health advice. Please contact a licensed healthcare professional for medical issues and health concerns.