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 →
The first block is for the primary paper and is the citation you should use in research work. The atlas-snapshot line only applies if you are specifically referring to this atlas’s reading of the paper on the date shown.
Primary citation
Kujawski, Sławomir, Słomko, Joanna, Godlewska, Beata R, Cudnoch-Jędrzejewska, Agnieszka, Murovska, Modra, Newton, Julia L, et al. (2022). Combination of whole body cryotherapy with static stretching exercises reduces fatigue and improves functioning of the autonomic nervous system in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.. Journal of translational medicine. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-022-03460-1
BibTeX
@article{mecfsatlas-kujawski-2022-combination-whole,
author = {Kujawski, Sławomir and Słomko, Joanna and Godlewska, Beata R and Cudnoch-Jędrzejewska, Agnieszka and Murovska, Modra and Newton, Julia L and Sokołowski, Łukasz and Zalewski, Paweł},
title = {Combination of whole body cryotherapy with static stretching exercises reduces fatigue and improves functioning of the autonomic nervous system in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.},
journal = {Journal of translational medicine},
year = {2022},
doi = {10.1186/s12967-022-03460-1},
note = {PubMed: 35715857},
url = {https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kujawski-2022-combination-whole},
}Atlas snapshot reference
ME/CFS Atlas. Generator v1 / Scanner v1.4 / policy v0.1. Accessed 2026-05-28. https://www.mecfsatlas.com/evidence/kujawski-2022-combination-whole
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