Kujawski, Sławomir, Zalewski, Paweł, Godlewska, Beata R et al. · Cryobiology · 2023 · DOI
This small study looked at whether a treatment combining cold therapy (whole-body cryotherapy) and stretching could help ME/CFS patients feel better for at least a month. Researchers found that 17 out of 22 patients reported improvements in fatigue, and brain function tests also improved. However, the study was small and had some dropouts, so the results should be viewed with caution.
ME/CFS patients struggle with persistent fatigue and cognitive dysfunction with few proven treatments. This study suggests a combined physical therapy approach may provide lasting symptomatic relief, which could offer patients a potential therapeutic option. Additionally, the findings regarding autonomic nervous system improvements align with growing evidence that ME/CFS involves dysautonomia.
This study does not prove that cryotherapy plus stretching is an effective ME/CFS treatment—it was observational with no control group, making it impossible to separate real treatment effects from placebo response or natural variation. The high dropout rate (10 patients) and small sample size limit generalizability. The study cannot establish whether improvements would persist beyond one month.
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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