Chronic Pain
Origins
According to Chronic Pain: Where the Body Meets the Brain, chronic pain was first described as “psychogenic rheumatism” in one of the earliest case studies recorded by Nobel Laureate Philip S. Hench and Edward W. Boland in 1946. In their report, they described psychogenic rheumatism as "the musculo-skeletal expression of functional disorders, tension states, or psychoneurosis" and attributed it to causing generalized or localized aches and pains in muscles and/or joints for both civilians and military personnel. This described characteristics of US army veterans returning from war, and it was a more common diagnosis for 20% of patients in specialized rheumatic disease centers. Now a days, chronic regional pain is present for 20-25% of the population, with chronic widespread pain accounting for 10% of the population. The most significant contribution appears to be perceived stress and stress response systems. However, central pain amplification associated with genetic, physiologic, and psychological factors are also beginning to be understood (Crofford L.J., 2015).
Mechanisms
In Chronic Pain, the condition is defined as persisting discomfort lasting beyond 3 to 6 months, and it can have several originating factors including injury, disease or other unknown causes. Often times, people with chronic pain will experience several types of pain simultaneously, such as neuropathic, nociceptive, musculoskeletal, inflammatory, psychogenic & mechanical. There have also been reports of overlaps between chronic pain & major depressive or generalized anxiety disorder, with 67% of affected people experiencing another comorbid psychiatric disorder (Dydyk A. M., 2024).
Symptoms
As mentioned in Chronic Pain: Where the Body Meets the Brain, "chronic pain is a complex sensory and emotional experience that varies widely between people depending on the context and meaning of the pain and the psychological state of the person". Due to the multi-faceted nature of this condition, symptoms will often group together as they manifest and can vary between chronic headaches, temporomandibular disorder, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), interstitial cystitis/irritable bladder, pelvic pain, and others (Crofford L.J., 2015).
Chronic pain treatment has been found to be inadequate and at times even worsening the prevalence of the condition. Unfortunately, there has been a shift in treatment focus from management of chronic pain to elimination, resulting in an increase in pharmaceutical treatment such as antidepressants, analgesics and opioids. However, both analgesics and opioids are often deemed as ineffective, and opioids especially are known to be problematic due to varying societal and clinical issues (Crofford L.J., 2015). Without the widespread knowledge of alternative therapies, such as cold plunge therapy, this limits most treatment options for chronic pain to pharmaceuticals.
In instances of chronic pain, ice baths can help alleviate symptoms in a myriad ways, but it is most potent in the way that cold can be analgesic and anti-inflammatory in its effects. This explanation is found in Re-ordering Autoimmune Disorders where Professor Thomas Seager breaks down the mechanism of cold therapy and its activation of the immune system. The boost in immune system function and vitamin D has shown improved mitochondrial function, resulting in the reduction of symptoms for various disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, and neuralgia.
In Cold for Chronic Pain, deliberate cold exposure positively effected three people suffering from chronic pain and drastically reduced the need for medication.
Johanna Nordblad, featured in the Netflix mini-documentary Hold Your Breath: The Ice Dive (2022), is best known for breaking the record of swimming under ice with one breath at the age of 45. However, despite her profound accomplishment, she suffered from chronic pain after an emergency surgery damaged the nerves in her leg. While living with ongoing excruciating pain, her doctor eventually prescribed cold therapy for her foot after conventional methods failed to provide relief. Although there was resistance at first, after two minutes of being submerged in the cold, Nordblad's pain would disappear.
In another case, a 74-year-old Italian woman living with multiple diagnoses including PMR, osteoporosis and psoriasis failed to improve after trying several medications. Initially, she tried prednisone, then methotrexate, and then pregabalin, as well as Vitamin D supplements. Eventually, her physicians decided to replace her medication schedule with whole-body cryotherapy (WBC). She underwent 10 sessions at -110°C for two minutes , at 9AM and again at 12 noon, and after five days straight, she began to get better. She was able to reduce her daily drug intake by 67%, as well as experiencing reduced pain, improved energy, better sleep, and increased capacity for physical activity.
Another instance of ice baths aiding in the modification of chronic pain symptoms actually dealt with a Morozko customer of 3 years. When his gasket filter was damaged, he reached out in frustration for service, which ended up being a testament to the benefits of cold therapy practice as well. This customer said, "I have titanium rods that go from my tailbone to my neck. Due to my daily constant struggle with my back pain, it puts me in a negative space almost all the time. Well, after three back surgeries, the ice bath is a testament to my pain relief. I won't take pharmaceuticals. The only thing that has helped me remedy this and get sleep at night is the Morozko ice bath." For this customer, and many others, ice baths have been miraculous in their efforts of treating chronic pain.
In another article Cold Plunge for Chronic Medical Conditions, Professor Thomas Seager shares the story of Erin Miller, a a registered nurse working in California as a medication safety specialist. Despite eating healthy and exercising regularly, Miller suffers from rheumatoid arthritis pain that would at times interfere with her medical duties. Thankfully, her prior knowledge in medication safety informed her of the adverse long term side-effects of steroids and pain medications, and she resisted taking them. After discovering cold plunge therapy, her symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis disappeared after only 2-3 minutes. Miller shared with us later, "for the first time in 4-5 years, I woke up and didn't have any pain in my hands." Ice baths gave Miller hope again for living a life without such extreme pain- and without pharmaceuticals.
To learn more on the effects of cold therapy & the mechanisms of ice baths against chronic pain, please click here to purchase a copy of Uncommon Cold.
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