Cryotherapy Health Benefits: What the Evidence Actually Supports

Updated October 2026: reviewed each claimed benefit against current research, kept the ones with supporting evidence, removed or softened unsupported claims (weight loss, skin, detox), added safety context and replaced consumer calls to action.

The History of Cold Water and Cold Air Therapies

Although cryotherapy is enjoying a revival, cold treatments and their relatives have a long history in medicine. The Greek physician Hippocrates, born around 460 BC, wrote about the therapeutic use of water, and over the centuries since, cold and hot water therapies have been used for healing, athletic recovery and general wellness.

Cold Water Submersion (Cold Plunge) vs. Cryotherapy

Cold therapies, whether in an air chamber or a submersion tank, expose the body to intense cold for a short time. Cold water immersion (or cold plunge) means sitting in cold water; in research studies, water temperatures typically range from about 45 to 59°F (7 to 15°C), with exposures from 30 seconds to considerably longer (Cain et al., 2025). Whole-body cryotherapy (WBC) means standing in a chamber or cabin of extremely cold, dry air, below about -148°F (-100°C), for two to four minutes (Cochrane, 2015).

So What's the Science?

Research on cold therapies (wet and dry) has grown, but the quality of the evidence varies a lot by outcome. The best-studied areas are post-exercise muscle soreness and pain, while many popular claims have little or no supporting data.

In a nutshell, here's what's happening: sudden cold triggers a strong response from the sympathetic nervous system. In one classic study of young men, an hour of head-out immersion in 57°F (14°C) water raised plasma norepinephrine by 530% and dopamine by 250%, increased metabolic rate by 350% and raised heart rate and blood pressure (Šrámek et al., 2000). Norepinephrine is a hormone and neurotransmitter that raises alertness and constricts blood vessels, which shifts blood flow from the skin and extremities toward the core.

The Health Benefits of Cryotherapy: What the Evidence Supports

Here's an honest look at the outcomes your clients may ask about, grouped by how strong the evidence is.

1. Muscle soreness and recovery after exercise. This is the best-studied benefit, with an important caveat about training gains.

• A Cochrane review found some evidence that cold water immersion reduces delayed onset muscle soreness after exercise compared with rest, though the trials were varied and most did not actively monitor adverse events (Cochrane, 2012).
• For whole-body cryotherapy, a separate Cochrane review found only four small trials and rated the evidence for reduced soreness and improved recovery as very low quality (Cochrane, 2015).
• Regular cold water immersion right after strength training may blunt gains. In a 12-week trial, men who used 10 minutes of cold water immersion after each session gained less strength and muscle mass than those who did an active recovery (Roberts et al., 2015).

2. Pain in some musculoskeletal and rheumatic conditions. The evidence is promising, but the studies are small.

• A systematic review pooling six studies of 257 people with rheumatoid arthritis found reduced pain scores and disease activity after repeated cryotherapy, and suggested it as an adjunct therapy while calling for stronger randomized trials (Guillot et al., 2014).
• A 2024 review of whole-body cryotherapy in orthopedics described promise for osteoarthritis and fibromyalgia, but less robust evidence for other chronic pain conditions, and noted risks including frostbite (2024 review).

3. Stress, sleep and wellbeing. Early evidence, mostly for cold water immersion.

• A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of cold water immersion in healthy adults found reduced stress 12 hours after exposure and reported improvements in sleep quality and quality of life, but no clear effect on mood. Cold showers were linked to a 29% reduction in sickness absence in one trial (Cain et al., 2025).
• The same review found that inflammation markers rose immediately and one hour after immersion, an acute response rather than an anti-inflammatory effect, and the authors noted the evidence base is limited by few randomized trials and small samples (Cain et al., 2025).

What the evidence does not support (yet)

Earlier versions of this article listed benefits such as accelerated weight loss, increased collagen production, firmer skin, reduced cellulite and varicose veins, stronger hair and nails, "detoxifying" the blood, and relief of multiple sclerosis, psoriasis and dermatitis. We could not find good-quality clinical evidence for these claims, so we have removed them. The US Food and Drug Administration has not cleared or approved any whole-body cryotherapy device to treat any medical condition (JAAD Case Reports, 2018).

Who Should NOT Use Cryotherapy?

Anyone who's pregnant or has a heart condition should not use cold water submersion or cryotherapy without medical clearance, since cold exposure raises heart rate and blood pressure (Šrámek et al., 2000). Reported harms of whole-body cryotherapy include frostbite and cold-related skin injury (2024 review) (JAAD Case Reports, 2018). If a client is unsure whether it's right for them, they should check with their medical practitioner first.

How to Find the Right Cryotherapy Center

No, it's not just a simple Google search with your zip code. If you refer clients to a cryotherapy center, it's worth a deeper look. Here are some questions to ask:

What kind of equipment do you have?
Tip: ask whether the facility offers whole-body chambers or partial-body cabins, and how sessions are supervised.

Does your team measure skin temperature?
Tip: look for facilities that measure skin temperature before and after a session.

Is the cryo chamber located in a private area?
Tip: clients will be stripping down almost completely, so the chamber should be in a private area of the facility.

Is It Working? Track It and See.

There is no standard protocol for how often to use cold therapy, and responses vary from person to person. That makes tracking especially useful: log each session and watch whether the outcomes you care about actually change.

Heads Up unifies wearables, labs, medical devices and EHR data in one longitudinal patient record, so you can view a client's cold therapy sessions alongside metrics such as:

• Heart rate variability and sleep from devices like Oura
• Blood pressure
• Inflammation markers such as hs-CRP from lab results
• ….and many more

You can build cold exposure into a program or protocol with adherence tracking, and clients follow their programs in the companion app for iOS and Android. For related reading, see our articles on the benefits of cold plunge and the benefits of saunas.

See how Heads Up tracks cold therapy for your clients: request a demo.

Still want more info? Check out these useful resources.

Knowledge is power, so here are a few more helpful resources to check out before you take the 'plunge' into the world of cryotherapy and cold water submersion:

• Health Benefits for Cold Water Immersion and Cryotherapy (https://youtu.be/3OFjEaEGL8w)
• Effects of cold-water immersion on health and wellbeing: a systematic review and meta-analysis (PLoS One, 2025)
• Cold-water immersion for preventing and treating muscle soreness after exercise (Cochrane review)