More and more modern, high-end day spas are offering cryotherapy to all of their clientele, from injured athletes to stressed-out wedding parties dropping in for facials and the latest in relaxation techniques. For example, American Spa1 reports that KryoLife, a day spa in New York City that opened in 2012, offers whole-body cryotherapy sessions and that the CEO Joanna Fryben recommends a minimum of 10 sessions to see cumulative benefits. You can see how all of this can add up.
So What Is Cryotherapy? And Why Is It on the Day Spa Menu?
“Cryo” comes from the Greek krýos, meaning “ice cold” or “frost.” At its most basic, cryotherapy is the therapeutic use of cold. According to the Cleveland Clinic2, in a medical context, “Cryotherapy is the use of extreme cold to freeze and remove abnormal tissue. Doctors use it to treat many skin conditions (including warts and skin tags) and some cancers.” (This treatment can also be called cryoablation.) The treatment is known as whole-body cryotherapy (WBC), which is used in high-end day spas today, was developed in 1978 in Japan to treat rheumatoid arthritis. This treatment involves entering a chamber of liquid nitrogen. This makes the body think that it is in a state of hypothermia. But why do this? What can a person expect in a day spa cryotherapy treatment, and why would your customers want to pay top dollar for such a service?
Organic Spa Magazine3 explains that individuals who have paid for WBC in day spas can expect to enter into specially designed chambers in order to be carefully exposed to “cold, dry air (below -148°), using nitrogen, a non-toxic natural gas. Specialty gloves, undergarments, and socks are typically provided.” Cryotherapy in a day spa is not about treating serious illnesses or removing annoying warts; instead, we’re selling muscle improvement, weight loss, decreased anxiety, and more.
Much of the research for this treatment comes from Europe and Japan. In research cited in American Spa4, there are selling points for bringing whole-body cryotherapy to your day spa. For example, in Poland, a 2008 study showed decreased anxiety and depressive symptoms in patients who were exposed to daily cryotherapy for 15 sessions. And in Finland, a 2006 study showed decreased pain in rheumatoid arthritis patients who were exposed to two to three daily cryotherapy sessions at -110° C (-166° F) for one week.
So, as more and more spas begin to offer services from cryofacials to whole-body cryotherapy, more and more customers will reap the rewards of this nitrogen-based modern therapy. This is truly a new frontier.
To learn more about CalOx’s liquid nitrogen for day spas, contact us today.