Future Perspectives

This chapter aims to provide a summary, though not exhaustive, of some topics that have been only marginally, if not at all, covered in published whole-body cryostimulation (WBC) studies, but hold some rationale for its application. Local cold application has been shown to induce prolonged inhibitory effects on spasticity in patients with upper motor neuron involvement. Recent studies on animals seem to suggest that topical application of cold could be a novel and simple-to-use therapeutic strategy for stroke patients. Cold-induced analgesia is achieved by lowering the skin temperature, but research must clarify what the optimal tissue temperature reduction should be and the subsequent effect on treatment outcome. Chronic cold exposure or treatments mimicking the chronic cold exposure, through WAT-BAT transdifferentiation and BAT activation, could represent the prospective therapies for obesity and type 2 diabetes, but larger studies are needed to confirm preliminary evidence. WBC shows a large influence on parasympathetic reactivation, an indicator of systemic recovery and could have beneficial effects on joint range of motion, decrease of neural activation of the muscle and local analgesia, which in turn facilitates joint mobilisation. WBC treatments could also be possibly used as: a method for healthy ageing because of their anti-inflammatory/antioxidant capacity, a therapeutic adjuvant for sleep apnoea, a means to temporarily increase resting energy expenditure and change microbiota composition with potential therapeutic effects. While the benefits of WBC in recovery in sports and exercise are widely acknowledged, the research on its clinical effects remains limited. This chapter aims to provide a summary, although not exhaustive, of some conditions that might benefit from the prescription of WBC but that have not been, or only preliminarily, investigated so far.