My cryotherapy project
Donation protected
Please help me to fund my n=1 experiment with cryotherapy. The aim is to see if it might be a useful strategy for cancer prevention and to ensure improved general health as well as to achieve a consistent state of improved well being.
What is the theory behind this?
There are many suggested benefits for general health, exercise recovery, and disease management. The rationale behind cryotherapy treatments for some types of cancer has been well established and is even recognised by Cancer Research UK (1).
My goal is to see if patients with central nervous system cancers could potentially benefit from this treatment, with an additional aim of inducing a state that will keep inflammatory markers consistently low (relatively speaking) whilst enhancing immunity for prevention purposes. Additionally, it is understood that there are favourable body composition adaptations associated with cold induced thermogenesis, notably the reduction of Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT), contributing to whole body energy expenditure (EE) (2).
This underlies the basic premise of endothermic thermoregulation- the body’s ability to generate heat by increasing metabolism in response to cold ambient temperatures to maintain a stable core body temperature.
The plan:
I will use a cryotherapy chamber, filled with liquid nitrogen mist, for 3 minutes per session. This doesn’t seem like much, but it is significant as the temperature will drop to -140ºC for the duration of each session. That’s pretty cold as you can imagine.
I strongly believe that the best time to implement these protocols is when there is no detectable sign of disease (complete remission) to derive the greatest benefit. I am hopeful that my experiments can yield interesting results that could potentially provide useful data for others, so that they may ask themselves if they could benefit from these therapies, even for active disease.
If there is no significant benefit directly for the cancer, there are of course clear quality of life benefits with whole body cryotherapy (WBC) for those who present with headaches, migraines, and/or depressive symptoms (3). This in itself is pretty interesting. As I have a history of depression I like to keep on top of these things and allow for no conditions that could trigger a relapse.
So why should you care about all this and what’s in it for you?
Well, I will meticulously document all of my findings, interview leading experts in the field and write extensively about my experiences as a whole. I do so in the hope that it may help others who are curious about thes application of thesee treatments for a variety of conditions, mental health disorders, general well-being, and even exercise recovery.
I plan to have 1-2 sessions per day for 1 month. I realise I will likely have to build up to this. I will monitor how I adjust to this stimulus and adjust treatment frequency accordingly, with the support of medical professionals. I will continue to carry on with my normal morning exercise routines and get out in the sun as much as possible during this period. Could these behaviours act as confounding variables? Quite possibly, however I believe they would at least provide me with an additive effect, ENHANCING the proposed benefits of this course of treatments.
To test some of my theories related to this, I will have a number of physiological tests at appropriate intervals, including but not restricted to:
- Highly sensitive C reactive protein (when suitable- will consult)
- Saliva Cortisol (24 hour testing)
- Hair Cortisol (only one test, before course of treatments and on completion)
- Heart rate variability (daily)
- Sleep quality
- Body composition
- Well-being measures
- Blood ketone and blood glucose readings
I am open to suggestions for other tests and will consult as many medical professionals as I can providing I am able to raise enough funds to begin. I will also consider use of a thermogenic camera to assess body temperate but if it is not necessary I will abandon the idea. It is possible that I will consider thyroid function tests but the timings may not be suitable to gather any meaningful data and the test may be pointless as this is a short term experiment.
Many people follow my story, and I get frustrated with how slow my university experiments take to come to fruition, so I thought I would do some of my own experiments on myself in the meantime. I promise to film it, write about it, and explain some of the complex science behind the theories of these therapies and their practical applications first hand.
It is an area of research that excites me because at this present time I only understand the basics and I would like to know more. I understand it will be challenging, of course it will, but I want to learn and I want to share my findings and experiences with others, good or bad.
References:
1. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/other/cryotherapy
2. http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/310/10/R999
3. http://www.livecryo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Depression.pdf
What is the theory behind this?
There are many suggested benefits for general health, exercise recovery, and disease management. The rationale behind cryotherapy treatments for some types of cancer has been well established and is even recognised by Cancer Research UK (1).
My goal is to see if patients with central nervous system cancers could potentially benefit from this treatment, with an additional aim of inducing a state that will keep inflammatory markers consistently low (relatively speaking) whilst enhancing immunity for prevention purposes. Additionally, it is understood that there are favourable body composition adaptations associated with cold induced thermogenesis, notably the reduction of Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT), contributing to whole body energy expenditure (EE) (2).
This underlies the basic premise of endothermic thermoregulation- the body’s ability to generate heat by increasing metabolism in response to cold ambient temperatures to maintain a stable core body temperature.
The plan:
I will use a cryotherapy chamber, filled with liquid nitrogen mist, for 3 minutes per session. This doesn’t seem like much, but it is significant as the temperature will drop to -140ºC for the duration of each session. That’s pretty cold as you can imagine.
I strongly believe that the best time to implement these protocols is when there is no detectable sign of disease (complete remission) to derive the greatest benefit. I am hopeful that my experiments can yield interesting results that could potentially provide useful data for others, so that they may ask themselves if they could benefit from these therapies, even for active disease.
If there is no significant benefit directly for the cancer, there are of course clear quality of life benefits with whole body cryotherapy (WBC) for those who present with headaches, migraines, and/or depressive symptoms (3). This in itself is pretty interesting. As I have a history of depression I like to keep on top of these things and allow for no conditions that could trigger a relapse.
So why should you care about all this and what’s in it for you?
Well, I will meticulously document all of my findings, interview leading experts in the field and write extensively about my experiences as a whole. I do so in the hope that it may help others who are curious about thes application of thesee treatments for a variety of conditions, mental health disorders, general well-being, and even exercise recovery.
I plan to have 1-2 sessions per day for 1 month. I realise I will likely have to build up to this. I will monitor how I adjust to this stimulus and adjust treatment frequency accordingly, with the support of medical professionals. I will continue to carry on with my normal morning exercise routines and get out in the sun as much as possible during this period. Could these behaviours act as confounding variables? Quite possibly, however I believe they would at least provide me with an additive effect, ENHANCING the proposed benefits of this course of treatments.
To test some of my theories related to this, I will have a number of physiological tests at appropriate intervals, including but not restricted to:
- Highly sensitive C reactive protein (when suitable- will consult)
- Saliva Cortisol (24 hour testing)
- Hair Cortisol (only one test, before course of treatments and on completion)
- Heart rate variability (daily)
- Sleep quality
- Body composition
- Well-being measures
- Blood ketone and blood glucose readings
I am open to suggestions for other tests and will consult as many medical professionals as I can providing I am able to raise enough funds to begin. I will also consider use of a thermogenic camera to assess body temperate but if it is not necessary I will abandon the idea. It is possible that I will consider thyroid function tests but the timings may not be suitable to gather any meaningful data and the test may be pointless as this is a short term experiment.
Many people follow my story, and I get frustrated with how slow my university experiments take to come to fruition, so I thought I would do some of my own experiments on myself in the meantime. I promise to film it, write about it, and explain some of the complex science behind the theories of these therapies and their practical applications first hand.
It is an area of research that excites me because at this present time I only understand the basics and I would like to know more. I understand it will be challenging, of course it will, but I want to learn and I want to share my findings and experiences with others, good or bad.
References:
1. http://www.cancerresearchuk.org/about-cancer/cancer-in-general/treatment/other/cryotherapy
2. http://ajpregu.physiology.org/content/310/10/R999
3. http://www.livecryo.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Depression.pdf
Organizer
Andrew Scarborough
Organizer