This content originally appeared on diaTribe. Republished with permission.

By Patrick Sullivan

Researchers are exploring the advantages of cryotherapy, an alternate therapy where the body is exposed to freezing or near-freezing temperatures like an ice bath or cold plunge. Though evidence is scarce, cold therapy is recommended to be one other solution to burn calories and lower blood sugar faster in individuals with diabetes.

You already understand how necessary exercise is for increasing insulin sensitivity and lowering blood glucose. But what for those who could have the identical fat-burning, A1C-lowering effects without the exercise?

If that sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Nonetheless, researchers are exploring cold exposure therapy as a brand new solution to burn more calories and lower blood sugar faster in individuals with diabetes. To your body, cold exposure can mimic the consequences of exercise, instigating short-term changes like turning up the warmth in your fat cells and burning off excess calories.

But before you book the subsequent flight to Alaska or plop into an ice water bath, there’s loads we don’t find out about real-world applications of cryotherapy or cold exposure – especially for individuals with diabetes. Here’s what you should know.

What’s cold exposure therapy?

Cold exposure therapy involves subjecting yourself to cold temperatures for brief periods of time. At home, you should use cold water or air. Within the lab, researchers apply cryotherapy, using a vest or a suit that circulates near freezing to freezing water.

Cold therapy, especially water immersion resembling winter swimming and ice baths, has been claimed to enhance:

• Circulation
• Depression and stress
• Inflammation

Nonetheless, the scientific evidence for lots of these claims is shaky, hampered by small sample sizes, poor study design, and lack of funding to conduct larger studies, in keeping with researchers.

Potential advantages of cryotherapy

Typically, there must be more research before scientists can reach a conclusion regarding cold therapy and diabetes. One small study had participants with type 2 diabetes sit in a chilly room at 57-59 degrees Fahrenheit for up to a few hours for 10 days straight. On day 11, researchers found insulin sensitivity increased by a mean of 43%, which was higher than improvements normally seen with long-term exercise.

Exercise is useful for individuals with diabetes since it helps maintain a healthy weight. Cold therapy could also be viewed as corresponding to low-intensity exercise as shivering induces muscles to contract as they might during physical activity. This shivering or muscle contraction effect also appears to be helpful in lowering blood glucose.

With cold exposure, some normal fat cells could also be induced to show brown or beige, said Dr. Phillip Kern, an associate professor of endocrinology on the University of Kentucky College of Medicine. Brown fat is loaded with mitochondria, the powerhouses inside cells that provide them with energy. Not only does this provides cell a brownish or beige appearance, however the mitochondria turns cells into energy-burning, heat-generating machines.

Barriers to cold exposure therapy

One downfall of cold exposure therapy is the consequences are temporary. That, and you have got to be able to brave the cold.

“People don’t prefer to be cold,” said Kern. “The query is, how are you going to deliver enough cold to make a difference without it being too uncomfortable?”

There are also problems with safety. Cold water is essentially the most accessible method outside a clinical setting, but it could possibly be dangerous. Once you jump into frigid water, there’s a chilly shock response that ends in gasping and hyperventilation.

As for whole-body cryotherapy chambers, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) notes that no device in the marketplace is FDA-approved, and to treat any suggested advantages with caution.

“There are every kind of claims of improving diseases, however it’s all totally anecdotal,” said Kern. The American Academy of Dermatology also recommends against cryotherapy chambers because they may be harmful to your skin. Cryotherapy chambers are sometimes by athletes to help with recovery and typically uses liquid nitrogen for cooling. Another option is an ice water bath.

With all these strikes against it, cryotherapy might not be ready for prime time. However the mechanism behind cold therapy is what may make it much more exciting than the treatment itself.

“Should you could determine the right way to turn white fat into brown fat in a novel way, resembling a drug activating your sympathetic nervous system [to stimulate adrenaline], that is likely to be an interesting solution to go,” said Kern.

In reality, Kern said, there’s already a drug in the marketplace that he and others are studying for this purpose. It’s called Myrbetriq (mirabegron) and is used to treat overactive bladder. “This drug stimulates adrenaline receptors, however it doesn’t stimulate the adrenaline receptors which can be in the center – only in fat and the graceful muscle of the bladder,” said Kern.

For now, cold therapy for diabetes will likely remain an unproven novelty until more studies are done and it’s more accessible. As researchers ask and answer more questions, it’s possible that cold therapy may eventually emerge as a complementary a part of a diabetes management plan.