A 24-year-old woman who was quoted praising cryotherapy in a recent article died in Nevada while undergoing the treatment. Police said Chelsea Ake-Salvacion died because of “operator error” while alone in the cryotherapy chamber in the salon where she worked. Cryotherapy is increasingly popular among beauty seekers and athletes like LeBron James (see below), despite claims of its health benefits not yet having FDA approval. The death of Ake-Salvacion has brought new attention to the procedure.
LeBron stays cool with a cryotherapy chamber. What, you don’t have one at home? http://t.co/hdgdrWqg9h pic.twitter.com/o8NBN0jVjB
— SB Nation NBA (@SBNationNBA) May 6, 2015
Cryotherapy comes from the Greek for cryo meaning “cold” and therapy meaning “cure.” It has long been used in medical environments for various treatments, including to freeze off warts and to target diseased tissue like cancer cells in minimally invasive, highly targeted procedures performed by doctors. The salon version is different. Cryotherapy chambers in a salon environment can expose the entire body to temperatures of -240 degrees F — and can even be a social experience, with some chambers allowing three people to enter at once. Businesses who sell cryotherapy services in these non-medical environments are careful to disclaim it as a treatment for anything. US Cryotherapy, for example, uses this sentence in its disclaimer: “US Cryotherapy does not recommend cold therapy as a form of treatment for any illness or disease without direction from your healthcare professional.”
LeBron stays cool with a cryotherapy chamber. What, you don’t have one at home? http://t.co/hdgdrWqg9h pic.twitter.com/o8NBN0jVjB
— SB Nation NBA (@SBNationNBA) May 6, 2015
