Influence of whole body cryotherapy on depressive symptoms - preliminary report.

Background: Cryotherapy has a long tradition in somatic medicine. Yet we know very little about its impact on psyche and mood disturbances in particular. Therefore there is a real need for scientific investigations into this problem.

[The influence of whole body cryotherapy on mental health].

The paper presents a little known issue about the influence of wholebody cryotherapy on mental health. Observations of patients' behaviour after passing the cryogenic chamber leads to an interesting hypothesis. Short exposition to extreme cold has doubtless a profitable influence on man's frame of mind.

[Hormonal and hemodynamic changes caused by whole body cooling in patients with rheumatoid arthritis].

A limited number of experiments have shown that treatment of rheumatoid arthritis by means of cooling the entire body in cryogenic chamber reduces the pain in joints affected by inflammatory process and increases their mobility. The aim of the present thesis was to try explain the mechanisms responsible for the observed improvement of the patients' condition, and an investigation of the treatment's effect on selected hemodynamic indices. Tests were carried out on 63 patients with rheumatoid arthritis mainly in the 3rd and 4th stage of illness, all of whom had been treated for 14 days, once daily, by cooling the body for two-minute periods in cryogenic chamber with temperatures ranging from -110 degrees C to -160 degrees C, followed by kinesitherapy.