Cryotherapy and Arthritis

Whether you are dancing in a barn full of hay on the floor, which sounds quite hectic, or you are in the best prepared auditorium with a wonderful surface made of proper dance floor tiles, you still won’t like having sore joints in your hands and legs, and that is what arthritis does to you. Arthritis is simply the inflammation of the joints. Even though it is common in adults over the age of 65, it still can develop in all the other age groups, from children to their parents. Overweight people also have an increased risk of developing arthritis. There are more than a hundred types of these, but this article mainly focuses on Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA).

Different types of Arthritis are defined by how they develop in a human’s body. With RA, it is commonly known as an autoimmune disease because it develops when the body’s immune system mistakenly attacks the joints. This is despite the fact that the immune system’s job is to protect the body. When the immune system attacks the joints, it results in inflammation that in turn causes the tissue that lines the inside of joints to thicken. When this happens, the affected person develops swelling and feels pain in and around the joints. The joints that are mainly affected are those of the hands and feet, mainly wrists, elbows, knees and ankles. More so, when for example, the left elbow is affected, the right one maybe be affected too, and this is true for the wrists and knees.

When you develop RA, you feel the pain when doing your everyday activities. Imagine trying to cook a romantic breakfast for your loved one but feeling a constant pain in your wrists and knees? Or, trying to catch up with your homework late in the night but still having to deal with constant pain in your wrist joints? This happens with Arthritis and RA can affect other systems of the body, like the cardiovascular or respiratory systems. The cardiovascular system is vital for the flow of your blood, thereby carrying vital nutrients around the body. The respiratory system is vital for your breathing.

Remedies for RA are mainly for reducing inflammation, pain, and prevent more joints and organ damage. To treat RA, Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs can be used and are accessible over the counter. However, for severe cases of RA, surgery may be carried out to replace damaged parts with small metals or plastics. The process is however painful.

Besides using the above measures, RA patients have the pleasure of making use of Cryotherapy as treatment. Cryotherapy involves exposing the body to extremely low temperatures (in a small chamber that fits an individual, or in a room with a number of people). This treatment is believed to be the most effective form of cold therapy, according to a study by The National Center for Biotechnology Information, which involved 6 studies including 257 RA patients. The study revealed a significant decrease in pain visual analogical scale (mm) and 28-joint disease activity score after chronic cryotherapy in RA patients.

Learn more about the benefits of cryotherapy and go through the many cryotherapy clinical studies.