Latest news with #cryotherapy
Yahoo
4 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'The sun is lethal - it caused my face tumour'
Growing up in Africa, Nicola Smart enjoyed countless hours surfboarding and lifeguarding under the intense sunshine. Unfortunately, the exposure to the sun would later lead her to a skin cancer diagnosis. While it was a non-life-threatening type, Mrs Smart, now 54, and living in Copdock near Ipswich, has undergone years of cryotherapy treatment, biopsies and body maps to ensure the cancer does not spread. In recent months, doctors found a tumour just above her lip after she noticed a dry sore, and it was removed. Mrs Smart is encouraging everyone to be careful in the sun for May's skin cancer awareness month. "Living the African life, I was a lifeguard, I was a surfer, I was a boogieboarder, I did the whole lot," Mrs Smart explained. "I got burnt loads." Mrs Smart was diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer - a common type of cancer that starts in the top layer of skin. The main types of this cancer are basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, both of which Mrs Smart has had. "I have been having cryotherapy on my hands, arms and face for the last 10 to 15 years," she continued. "Being then put under dermatology in the last four years, I've had to have more biopsies. "So I've been cut left, right and centre on my arms and hands, and the most recent one has been my face, which is the one that really got me." A few months ago, Mrs Smart noticed "a little sore" between her nose and top lip, which she thought was dry skin. However, a biopsy was done and a tumour was found. Mrs Smart said she was "devastated" by the news and underwent surgery to remove the tumour as well as plastic surgery. "I'm not a proud person or pretty-faced and bothered, but it's my face, and my face is my job as well - I'm a companion for the elderly," she added. "It really worried me that I'm going to be disfigured." Mrs Smart was last week given the all clear, which she said was a huge relief. "I want everybody out there, [to use] factor 50, cover yourself, wear a hat and don't care what you look like, take care of your skin," she said. "The sun is lethal. You don't need to be tanned to be beautiful either, so what if you're pale?" Andrew Lines, 70, from Beccles, Suffolk, was similarly diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer. It all stemmed when he was born with kidney problems, and at the age of 24, he had a transplant from his brother. He was warned by doctors he could have skin problems later down the line, as those who receive transplants are often at higher risk of developing skin cancer due to immunosuppressant medication they take to ensure their body does not reject the new organ. "I was also told after I had the transplant to go out and do all the things I hadn't been able to, and playing cricket was something I really wanted to have a go at," he explained. "I played 15 summers of cricket with not all that great sun protection. "I was told that I should [wear protection], but because I didn't have any issues, I didn't." As he got older, Mr Lines said he noticed his skin becoming thinner while lesions developed. The problem gradually worsened, and then a small lump was found on his head, which was found to be skin cancer. "It's kind of accelerated in the last three years to the point that I've had four issues this year already," he added. Mr Lines has had both basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma and is currently waiting for the results of a biopsy recently done on his nose. Sun protection is now hugely important for him, and he always ensures he is wearing sun cream as well as hats. "More than anything, it's hit my confidence," he continued. "I love watching cricket, and when the weather is good, I have to think twice about whether I really need to go out because the sun does cause issues with skin cancer." Mr Lines was keen to stress the importance of getting any skin changes checked by a doctor. Cancer Support Suffolk, which attended this week's Suffolk Show offering free skin checks, said there was "a huge, unprecedented" amount of skin cancer in the county. "Statistic wise, the referral rates for suspected skin cancer is going up year-on-year; we're seeing more and more patients each year," a spokesperson said. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X. 'I regret always reaching for the tanning oil' How to spot melanoma AI used for skin cancer checks at London hospital 'A mole smaller than my little fingernail was cancer' NHS - Non-melanoma skin cancer
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Suffolk woman's warning after skin cancer causes face tumour
Growing up in Africa, Nicola Smart enjoyed countless hours surfboarding and lifeguarding under the intense sunshine. Unfortunately, the exposure to the sun would later lead her to a skin cancer it was a non-life-threatening type, Mrs Smart, now 54, and living in Copdock near Ipswich, has undergone years of cryotherapy treatment, biopsies and body maps to ensure the cancer does not recent months, doctors found a tumour just above her lip after she noticed a dry sore, and it was Smart is encouraging everyone to be careful in the sun for May's skin cancer awareness month. "Living the African life, I was a lifeguard, I was a surfer, I was a boogieboarder, I did the whole lot," Mrs Smart explained. "I got burnt loads."Mrs Smart was diagnosed with non-melanoma skin cancer - a common type of cancer that starts in the top layer of main types of this cancer are basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma, both of which Mrs Smart has had."I have been having cryotherapy on my hands, arms and face for the last 10 to 15 years," she continued."Being then put under dermatology in the last four years, I've had to have more biopsies. "So I've been cut left, right and centre on my arms and hands, and the most recent one has been my face, which is the one that really got me." A few months ago, Mrs Smart noticed "a little sore" between her nose and top lip, which she thought was dry a biopsy was done and a tumour was Smart said she was "devastated" by the news and underwent surgery to remove the tumour as well as plastic surgery."I'm not a proud person or pretty-faced and bothered, but it's my face, and my face is my job as well - I'm a companion for the elderly," she added."It really worried me that I'm going to be disfigured." Mrs Smart was last week given the all clear, which she said was a huge relief."I want everybody out there, [to use] factor 50, cover yourself, wear a hat and don't care what you look like, take care of your skin," she said."The sun is lethal. You don't need to be tanned to be beautiful either, so what if you're pale?" Andrew Lines, 70, from Beccles, Suffolk, was similarly diagnosed with non-melanoma skin all stemmed when he was born with kidney problems, and at the age of 24, he had a transplant from his brother. He was warned by doctors he could have skin problems later down the line, as those who receive transplants are often at higher risk of developing skin cancer due to immunosuppressant medication they take to ensure their body does not reject the new organ."I was also told after I had the transplant to go out and do all the things I hadn't been able to, and playing cricket was something I really wanted to have a go at," he explained."I played 15 summers of cricket with not all that great sun protection. "I was told that I should [wear protection], but because I didn't have any issues, I didn't." 'Accelerated' As he got older, Mr Lines said he noticed his skin becoming thinner while lesions problem gradually worsened, and then a small lump was found on his head, which was found to be skin cancer."It's kind of accelerated in the last three years to the point that I've had four issues this year already," he added. Mr Lines has had both basal cell carcinoma and squamous cell carcinoma and is currently waiting for the results of a biopsy recently done on his protection is now hugely important for him, and he always ensures he is wearing sun cream as well as hats."More than anything, it's hit my confidence," he continued."I love watching cricket, and when the weather is good, I have to think twice about whether I really need to go out because the sun does cause issues with skin cancer."Mr Lines was keen to stress the importance of getting any skin changes checked by a doctor. 'Unprecedented' Cancer Support Suffolk, which attended this week's Suffolk Show offering free skin checks, said there was "a huge, unprecedented" amount of skin cancer in the county."Statistic wise, the referral rates for suspected skin cancer is going up year-on-year; we're seeing more and more patients each year," a spokesperson said. Follow Suffolk news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Health
- Yahoo
Are ice baths good for you? The benefits and risks of a cold plunge.
Soothing sore muscles. Improving mood and sleep. Accelerating weight loss. Vagus nerve stimulation. Wellness enthusiasts, athletes, and maybe even your gym buddy are regularly praising ice baths for a wide range of benefits. And today's fans of cryotherapy—the use of cold for therapeutic purposes—aren't on to anything new. Ancient Egyptians and Hippocrates all have touted the healing benefits of cold water. 'This has been around for a really long time,' says Dr. Georgine Nanos, a board-certified family physician and owner of Kind Health Group, in an interview with Popular Science. But was Hippocrates onto something? Research shows that the effectiveness of ice baths depends on their intended purpose. An ice bath or cold plunge typically involves immersing yourself in frigid water—either in a tub filled with ice or a naturally cold body of water. Even a cold shower can offer similar effects. Especially for beginners, moderation is key, Nanos says. She recommends starting with water around 55 degrees to 60 degrees Fahrenheit, staying in for just 30 seconds, and then gradually increasing the duration to one to two minutes. Over a few weeks, and depending on how you feel, you can work up to three to five minutes. Benefits tend to plateau beyond five to six minutes, she points out. Getting colder is possible, but extra caution is required. Nanos advises that anyone immersing themselves in water colder than 45 degrees should be supervised. Cold plunges, she notes, aren't for everyone, especially those with heart conditions, high blood pressure, or a history of arrhythmias or heart attacks. An ice bath 'can worsen an arrhythmia, because when you're in the cold, it can increase oxidative stress and suppress short-term immune responses, and that can cause gasping and hyperventilation and acute cardiac strain,' Nanos explains. From a scientific standpoint, cold water exposure triggers a series of internal changes in our body. It activates the sympathetic nervous system and releases a cascade of hormones called catecholamines, such as norepinephrine and dopamine, according to Nanos. 'Those are like our feel-good hormones,' she says, and their release can improve your mood and alertness. When you plunge into cold water, your blood vessels also narrow—a process called vasoconstriction—to preserve heat, she says. When you come out, your vessels widen again—vasodilation—to bring your body temperature back to normal. Those changes could improve circulation, Nanos says. What's more, cold exposure causes shivering, which is your body trying to generate heat. The theory is that shivering could temporarily raise your metabolism, which some believe could help with losing weight, she says. 'That's the scientific idea, but the evidence for that is not that great,' Nanos explains. So, how do those physiological changes actually help us? Healthcare providers and experts have mostly relied on small clinical studies or observational data to support the potential health benefits of cold-water immersion, Nanos says. But systematic reviews of the research are beginning to shed light on the popular therapy, though everybody notes more study of the impacts is required.. A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of cold-water immersion, for example, examined the effects of cold-water immersion across 11 studies involving 3,177 participants. The interventions used either baths or showers with water between 45 degrees to 59 degrees Fahrenheit, lasting anywhere between 30 seconds and two hours. The review found no immediate reduction in stress following cold-water immersion, but participants did report relief 12 hours later. In addition, there were improvements in sleep quality and overall quality of life, although no significant changes in mood were observed. A separate 2023 meta-analysis of 20 studies homed in on how well ice baths help athletes reduce muscle soreness, fatigue, and damage after intense exercise. Researchers found that an ice plunge can help reduce muscle soreness and fatigue immediately after exercise. But they also found that time in frigid water could reduce so-called explosive performance—such as the ability to jump high—immediately after getting out of cold water. And, cautions Nanos, timing seems to matter when it comes to a post-workout ice bath. A 2024 review of eight studies found that cold-water bathing after resistance training could actually reduce muscle growth—a big downside for those seeking to bulk up. 'If you do it too soon, you're blunting muscle protein synthesis,' Nanos says. It's recommended to wait four to six hours after strength training to do a cold plunge—or even only stepping into frigid water on rest or cardio days, she said. So, bottom line, if you enjoy an ice bath and experience benefits, go for it. 'And if it makes you miserable, stop,' Nanos advises . 'Some people just really have a strong aversion to being that cold and their bodies don't adapt, and they don't feel good or they panic. If you find that your body can't regulate, even after starting slowly, it's just not for you.' However, if the cold water calls to you, dive in. This story is part of Popular Science's Ask Us Anything series, where we answer your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the ordinary to the off-the-wall. Have something you've always wanted to know? Ask us.
Telegraph
07-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Telegraph
‘Like lying in a space-coffin bombarded with intense heat': My visit to a luxury Dubai wellness centre
Now I know how a Viennetta feels. Left a little too long in the freezer compartment – sorry, Art of Cryo's 'Vaultz V1 Lux' cryotherapy chamber – I have been removed and popped on the table. I look a lot less appealing than in the adverts. It's partly that I'm wearing only slippers, gloves, ear muffs and flimsy disposable spa pants to protect my, ahem, extremities; it's also because all my body-hair has frosted ice-cream-white, like grass on a February morning. According to the treatments menu (and the well-muscled, frost-free man on the front), my nine minutes at -110C should have left me all 'boosted endorphins' and 'immune system activated'. In fact, I'm shivering on the massage table and begging for more of the 'far infra-red' heat therapy I'd had earlier, which was more microwave-meal than frozen dessert. (Or maybe more dilapidated nuclear plant, since I look strangely like Homer Simpson in the goggles they made me wear for this bit.) This is life at SIRO One Za'abeel, the first in a new global empire of 'fitness + recovery hotels', where rooms come equipped with stretching bars instead of minibars, there's biohacking instead of a buffet restaurant, and boxing classes instead of a beach club. A second SIRO opens in Montenegro this May, with others upcoming in Tokyo, Riyadh and Mexico's Los Cabos – but this first one opened last year in, of course, Dubai. The location makes a lot of sense: Dubai is where footballers go to get fat once the season's finished, and fit before it starts again three months later. And since everything makes you sweat here, you might as well make it count. Much in need of a mid-season – ok, middle-age – fitness reboot myself, I trotted excitedly out of the lift (give me a break, Bellingham; the hotel's on floors 30 to 36 of a shiny new tower block) and into quite the most intrusive hotel check-in I've ever experienced. After using a medical-grade Body Composition Analyzer machine to measure my 'skeletal muscle mass', 'fat mass percentage' and 'phase angle' (I don't know either, but 5.6 degrees apparently – much floppier than I would have liked), the in-house nutritionist scurried off to create a personalised meal plan based on my 'individual anthropometrics'. Had I been staying longer, apparently, I could have asked chefs to prepare dishes from it; instead, I brought it home with me as suggested, though I have somehow yet to make myself a bowlful of golden mango turmeric overnight oats for my Monday morning breakfast. I was glad of the excuse to go off-plan, anyway. SIRO is connected – by the world's longest cantilever, a giant 'bridge' sticking out into the thin desert air with nothing visibly holding it up – to its sister hotel, One&Only One Za'abeel, and 11 excellent restaurants. SIRO has a futuristic-looking meal vending machine in Reception, but its 'gluten-free penne pomodoro', though no doubt nutritionally balanced, doesn't sound so tempting when you know you could be having, say, BBQ-smoked chicken in 48-hour stock with foie gras, shiitake, fermented chili paste and black truffle, from three-Michelin-starred chef Dabiz Muñoz's StreetXO restaurant next door. Then again, next-door doesn't have a fitness complex that takes up an entire floor. SIRO's Pilates Studio, Cycle Studio, Yoga Studio, Experience Box and small-city-sized gym wrap around the glass exterior walls of the building so that every sit-up is incentivised with a view across Dubai's sci-fi skyline, shimmering like a mirage in the heat-haze by day, desert-rose peachy-pink by sunrise or dusk. Excellent instruction from the resident Master Trainers renders even the most medieval-torture-instrument-looking machines benignant. My trainer, Runet, makes burpees borderline-fun when she pits me in competition with my girlfriend (though I don't enjoy finding the latter is fitter than me in every sense. No gratuity for Runet today). The sexiest thing here, though, is the room. A gorgeous-to-look-at, calming-to-live-in combination of slightly Scandi light woods and faintly Japanese clean lines, rooms here have floor-to-ceiling windows, serenely shushhh -ing electronic blackout blinds, delectably temperature-controlled beds, futuristic projectors and flat screen TVs pre-loaded with join-along workout and yoga coaching videos – and a cupboard full of what I'm assured is fitness equipment. The spa – sorry, Recovery Lab – is a little enigmatic too, with its Vibroacoustic, Intravenous and Dry Needling therapies (the latter, I thought, was what I'd been doing to the girlfriend since her win at the gym). I have a massage (very nice) followed by a 'Triple Detox by MLX i 3 Dome' (very strange – like lying in a tubular white space-coffin while being bombarded with funny lights and intense 'far infra-red' (FIR) heat. Then it's the cryotherapy, which really does feel exactly like standing in a freezer. I emerge so bone-deep cold that it takes me five hours to get properly warm afterwards, though that's probably my own fault for trying to 'beat' the two or three minutes most people spend inside. I'm not sure I feel much better for it, but I certainly check out of SIRO feeling infinitely healthier than every other time I've visited Dubai and sampled its bottomless-brunch menus. That's worth a little light frostbite, no? Essentials Ed Grenby was a guest of SIRO One Za'abeel (00 971 4 666 1717), which offers doubles from £200 per night including breakfast, and British Airways, which has return flights from Heathrow from £496 per person.
