Chronic Inflammation and Cryotherapy Treatments

What Is Inflammation?

There are two main types of inflammation. They are acute inflammation, which often occurs after a sprain, cut, or an injury. Acute inflammation lasts a few weeks as the body heals acute inflammation slowly goes away.

Chronic inflammation, however, can last for several months or even many years. This article will concentrate on chronic inflammation.

Inflammation is the natural process the body’s immune system uses to heal itself from trauma, infection, or toxins. Inflammation is essential as it allows wounds and infections to heal.

Inflammation will draw white blood cells to the affected part of the body to help the healing process. This process usually results in the damaged part of the body becoming swollen and inflamed. If the swelling doesn’t stop, it probably means your immune system is losing the fight against healing.

The inflammation process will destroy the affected part of the body by using pro-inflammatory compounds and then repair the body using anti-inflammatory compounds. Sometimes the inflammatory process goes wrong, and the immune system keeps releasing pro-inflammatory compounds instead of shutting them down.

Inflammation can also have a biological effect on the natural aging process. Middle-aged people suffering from chronic inflammation can develop memory and thinking problems such as Alzheimer’s as they get older.

Do You Have Chronic Inflammation?

Sometimes inflammation can appear as swelling at the injury site. It can also occur internally, such as in the intestinal tract, People with inflammation in the intestinal tract often suffer from constipation, diarrhea, bloating, and gas caused by an imbalance of chemicals and your immune system. There is no test to detect this type of inflammation, but people with poor diets and lifestyles are much more likely to have higher levels of chronic inflammation than healthy people. People with intestinal tract inflammation usually don’t know they are suffering from it.

Does Chronic Inflammation Cause Autoimmune Diseases?

What Diseases Can Be Caused by Chronic Inflammation?

Chronic inflammation can trigger many diseases, including:

• Allergies
• Alzheimer’s
• Arthritis
• Asthma
• Atherosclerosis
• Cancer
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Diabetes
• Fibromyalgia
• Gastrointestinal inflammation
• Heart disease
• Hypertension
• Lupus
• Obesity
• Rheumatoid arthritis

Approximately a third of U.S. adults are obese and have chronic inflammation.

What Are the Symptoms of Chronic Inflammation?

Some of the symptoms of chronic inflammation are:

• Abdominal pain
• Chest pains
• Fatigue
• Fever
• Joint pain or swelling
• Rash
• Redness
• Sores in your mouth
• Soreness
• Swelling
• Warmth

Most of these symptoms can be slowed down and improved by the use of our spa services.

Natural Inflammation Treatments

Following a healthy diet and living a healthy lifestyle can help reduce harmful chronic inflammation in your body.

You should consider:

• Eating an anti-inflammatory diet
• Taking probiotic drinks or supplements
• Eating less
• Exercising more
• Getting more sleep
• Taking anti-inflammatory supplements
• Cutting down or eliminating all antibiotics

While any one of these natural treatments will help reduce chronic inflammation, a combination of several of them combined with one or more of our wellness spa treatments (see below) will give you the best results.

Disclaimer: always seek the advice of your doctor before going on any diet, starting an exercise regime, or taking supplements.

Inflammatory Foods to Avoid

Many foods can cause chronic inflammation.

When you eat highly processed foods, they can damage your body and are a precursor to many chronic inflammatory diseases as well as cancer. Cancers are often caused by environmental factors, with about 35 percent linked directly to diet and lifestyle.

The following foods are mainly made from refined ingredients and typically include artificial additives, colors, and preservatives as well as refined carbohydrates.

• Hot dogs, salami, bacon, sausage, and all delicatessen meats are full of unhealthy fats.
• Meat and dairy products contain animal protein that is difficult for the body to metabolize. This causes a large burden on your kidneys as they have to work overtime to eliminate the waste products.
• Fried foods are often cooked in the cheaper, hydrogenated oils. These oils turn into trans fats that higher your bad cholesterol levels (LDL) and reduce your good cholesterol levels (HDL).
• There are two types of omega fatty acids, omega-6 fatty acids, and omega -3 fatty acids, Omega-6 fatty acids increase inflammation while omega-3 fatty acids, actually reduce inflammation. Most ready packaged, and cheaper foods, usually contain high levels of omega-6 fatty acids.
• Refined carbohydrates which are found in many breads, bagels, pizza crusts, packaged cereals, cakes, and cookies, etc. can actually cause inflammation. Most natural and processed, foods contain high levels of sugar.

Our Treatments That Help With Acute and Chronic Inflammation

Whole Body and Local Cryotherapy

Cryotherapy is an alternative treatment that is known to help reduce inflammation and chronic pain. Commonly, chronic pain is often treated with anti-inflammatories (and opioids such as oxycodone, hydrocodone, and methadone) to stop any swelling but opioids are addictive. Almost 218,000 people in the United States died from prescription opioid overdoses from 1999 to 2017.

Cryotherapy can help to relieve pain, so people no longer need opioid prescriptions. Hopefully, increased use of cryotherapy will significantly reduce the numbers of people depending on opioids.

Cold therapy has been used to speed up healing for many years. If you apply ice to any swelling, the cold will reduce blood flow by constricting your blood vessels so the pain and swelling decrease. An older type of cryotherapy is to soak an inflamed area (arm or leg, etc.) or even the whole body in cold water.

Modern cryotherapy is an ongoing treatment that should be done regularly. The patient enters our state of the art cryotherapy chamber where the temperature is set between −100° C, and −140° C (−148° F to −220° F) and the treatment will normally last for three or four minutes.

Cryotherapy is especially useful to disabled people who are unable to exercise or not very mobile due to health reasons. The cold reduces blood flow by constricting your blood vessels to reduce the pain, swelling, and inflammation.

Cryotherapy can also help you lose weight because the cold increases the body’s metabolism and makes the body work harder to stay warm. The metabolism remains higher for several hours after the treatment so continuing to burn calories.

Cryotherapy is not (at the time of writing) covered by most insurance as it is considered an alternative treatment. However, the cost of cryotherapy treatment is very affordable. You can, however, check out some of our monthly pass options so you can regularly do cryotherapy sessions at Mind and Body Cryotherapy and save some money.

BOA Max Compression Treatment

BOA compression treatment gives a pulsating pressure massage via an inflated compression sleeve. It emulates a basic manual body massage as given by professional massagers. The pressure sleeves are adjustable to take almost any body size, and the pressure can be much higher than a manual massage.

A BOA compression massage helps remove excess liquid and relieve pressure in your limbs. Compression therapy helps move lymphatic fluids out of your muscles, sending blood flow back into the area to remove waste products and reduce inflammation, which can be helpful for those that suffer from Chronic inflammation.

Infrared Sauna Treatments

Infrared saunas are used to treat many health problems, including chronic inflammation. They use infrared light to raise your body’s core temperature by passing through your body’s skin. The infrared waves can also help improve your blood circulation, which will relax sore muscles, relieve sports injuries, and ease stiff joints as well as carry away metabolic waste products.

Our high-end infrared saunas work on three different wavelengths, each with their own healing capabilities. Near-infrared (NIR) helps fight aging and repairs wounds on the surface layers of the skin. Mid-infrared (MIR) goes deeper and can reduce chronic pain and inflammation. Far-infrared (FIR) goes further into the body and will sweat the toxins out through the skin.

Using Our Spa Treatments in Conjunction with a Healthy Lifestyle

For more information check out this informative video about 7 Strategies to Heal Chronic Inflammatory Conditions.