Fox News—March 10, 2015
Like most East Coasters, Ben Famiglietti has not enjoyed the chilly weather this winter. But that's not stopping the 43- year-old New Yorker from trying a "cool" health trend to help treat a sports injury.
"It’s terrifically cold. It's like walking into an Arctic cloud. You go into this chamber that has no moisture and no pressure, so it's really cold," Famiglietti told FoxNews.com.
The cooling treatment, known as cryotherapy, requires spending time in a "cryosauna" that's cooled to -264 degrees. The method is not new, but it is said to reduce inflammation, improve athletic performance and even slow signs of aging.
"The whole idea of hot and cold is removing the toxins and allowing blood that doesn't have those toxins or those inflammatory components into that area." Dr. Jennifer Solomon, a sports medicine physiatrist at Hospital for Special Surgery in New York, told FoxNews.com. "So their claim of having health benefits or skin benefits to that is the washing away of the bad [blood] and renewing it with good, vital blood."
Although many European studies have been conducted on the effects of cryotherapy, not all doctors are convinced.
"The studies have shown that it has not been harmful in high level athletes who are healthy-- there's been no studies looking at this in an average person or anybody with any diseases or illnesses," Solomon said. "In my opinion, if somebody has risks for heart disease or cardiac disease or a family history of stroke, I still think that this could cause a huge stress on the body, which can lead to potential dangerous issues."
This story originally appeared at foxnews.com.
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