As the popularity of cryotherapy has increased over the years, clinicians, practitioners, and athletes alike have pursued easy-to-use, rapid-to-deploy, and portable cryotherapy alternatives. But does this make the future of cryotherapy any brighter?
An article published earlier this year in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, while giving an example of the growth of the procedures, points out that the development of cryopneumatic devices (e.g., Polar Care, Breg, Inc.; Game Ready, CoolSystems, Inc., etc.) became popular after receiving patents in the 1990s and early 2000s. It added: “Recent expert views suggest cryotherapies that aim to benefit or improve health, injury, or recovery should be implemented in an individualised and periodised manner that takes into account the athlete, training and competition schedule, session aims, proximity of future exercise, and environmental conditions.”
Dr. Khalid Shukri, the Physician in Functional Medicine and Anti-Aging Medicine at Wellth in Jumeirah, also opined that the future of cryotherapy in wellness is promising.
“It has a very bright future with steady progress for the last 10 years globally and the past five years in the UAE. The recent pandemic has made people concerned about their health and wellness much more than medical fitness. We have learned over the last few years that clients want to take care of themselves quickly with non-invasive treatment and that is even more prevalent now. Their first choice of treatment has shifted from invasive options like prescription medicine, surgery, and IV therapy to natural innovative wellness technologies like saunas, red light therapy, hyperbaric therapy, and cryotherapy,” he explained.
Cryotherapy remains most effective in the field of wellness. “If we talk about wellness and holistic treatment, then it is an anti-ageing medicine that has various benefits like boosting energy, improving immunity, anti-ageing effect, pain relief, skin rejuvenation, mental clarity, reducing inflammation, and weight reduction. If we talk about this in the medical field, it has been used for some types of cancer and skin conditions,” said Dr. Shukri, adding, “The most exciting things about cryotherapy are yet to come.”
In 2021, the global cryotherapy market was valued at US$292 million.
“While that already may seem high, as we approach 2027, IMARC Group, a research and consulting group, expects this market will reach US$421.9 million which indicates that the expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) will be 6.25 per cent between 2022 and 2027.”
Key players in this cryotherapy market that are helping drive this growth besides the United States are China, Germany, Japan, South Korea, and the UAE.
