Hot Spot: Cryotherapy at the Thermes Marins-Monte Carlo Spa
Lindsay Lohan exits a Cryotherapy chamber. (Photo: Instagram)
Could you handle spending a few minutes in minus 166 degrees Fahrenheit? Lindsay Lohan did. The bikini-clad star shared photos on Instagram on Monday showing her coming out of the super cool chambers with her friend Brittany Byrd. Lohan isn’t alone in her love for chilling out — LeBron James has been using cryotherapy to recover in-between NBA playoff games. This type of therapy comes with a lot of benefits, from stress relief to anti-aging. I visited the Thermes Marins-Monte Carlo spa in Monaco, which offers the state-of-the-art treatment. Here's the scoop on the new beauty and health treatment:
The treatment: Cryotherapy at the Thermes Marins-Monte Carlo spa in Monaco.
The lowdown: This is the first and only spa in Europe to offer cryotherapy. Essentially, you spend a few (rather painful) minutes in a very cold room, and come out feeling insanely rejuvenated.
The scoop: You enter the cryotherapy chamber wearing nothing but your your swimwear (warning: no metal pieces allowed on your suit), and the accessories the spa therapist gives you (socks, gloves, a facemask, and a headband). Spend 10 seconds in the first chamber, set at a cool minus 76 degrees, just to get acclimated. Then you move to the second chamber, which is minus 166 degrees, in which you can spend a max of three minutes in and a minimum of two minutes. You’re encouraged to move around while inside to stimulate blood circulation. After exiting the ice-cold room, it takes about a half-hour to recover your skin temperature, and then you start to feel the treatment’s effects.
“The shocklike extreme cold stimulus, and the severe reduction in skin surface temperature over minutes, brings about a cryogenic influencing of the functions of neural structures as well as induction of neuroreflexive process that exert effects on various regulatory pathways,” explains the spa’s manual and high-tech therapy manager, Christophe Fautrier. “There are treatments with similar effects on blood circulation, but whole-body cryotherapy gives you more benefits, and provides the best oxygenation of the blood, an increase of serotonin level. There is no three-minute treatment that can give you more.”
The results: It definitely takes a little time to recover from the shock of the dry, cold air treatment, but it well worth it. Cryotherapy has been proven to be loaded with benefits, especially when it comes to improving sleep disorders, reducing stress, helping athletes recover, and anti-aging. I was feeling exhausted after a long, overnight flight, and found it to be the perfect jet-lag cure. Just a few hours later, I felt completely refreshed and full of renewed energy. Maybe it was just that fresh salt air, or it was the treatment, but I also felt my complexion suddenly looked dewy and vibrant (a far cry from the way it looked when I got off the plane). I hear it also happens to be an excellent hangover cure for those late, Monte Carlo party nights.
Details: Allow 15 minutes for the treatment from start to finish. Fautrier warns people with the following conditions against the treatment: pregnancy, severe hypertension (blood pressure > 180/100), acute or recent myocardial infarction, unstable angina pectoris, arrhythmia, symptomatic cardiovascular disease, cardiac pacemaker, peripheral arterial occlusive disease, venous thrombosis, acute or recent cerebrovascular accident, uncontrolled seizures, Raynaud’s Syndrome, fever, tumor disease, symptomatic lung disorders, bleeding disorders, severe anemia, infection, claustrophobia, cold allergy, and acute kidney and urinary tract diseases.
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