Kujawski, Sławomir, Słomko, Joanna, Godlewska, Beata R et al. · Journal of translational medicine · 2022 · DOI
This study tested whether combining cold therapy (whole body cryotherapy) with stretching exercises could help people with ME/CFS. Over 2 weeks, 32 people with ME/CFS and 18 healthy people did 10 sessions of stretching and cold exposure. People with ME/CFS experienced less fatigue and some improvements in thinking speed after the treatment, and the cold therapy was well-tolerated with no serious safety concerns.
ME/CFS currently lacks proven effective treatments, making any potentially tolerable intervention with documented benefit worthy of investigation. This study provides preliminary evidence that cold exposure may modulate autonomic dysfunction—a key physiological feature in ME/CFS—while being safe and acceptable to patients.
This study does not prove cryotherapy causes fatigue reduction, as there was no control or sham group to account for placebo effects or natural variation. The small sample size, short 2-week duration, and lack of longer-term follow-up prevent conclusions about sustained efficacy or optimal dosing. The observational design limits causal inference.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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