Transcript of Episode 185: Cryotherapy: Freeze Your Way to Health
With Dr. Daniel Pompa, Meredith Dykstra and Kevin Kramer
Meredith:
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Cellular Healing TV. I'm your host, Meredith Dykstra, and this is Episode Number 185. We have our resident cellular healing specialist, Dr. Dan Pompa, on the line, of course, and today we welcome special guest Kevin Kramer, who is an expert in something called cryotherapy, which we have not discussed on Cellular Healing TV before. It's a cutting-edge therapy that a lot of different people are using getting incredible results. I'm really excited to learn more.
Before we start our conversation with Kevin, let me tell you a little bit about him. Kevin Kramer is CEO of US Cryotherapy, which launched the cryotherapy industry in the United States in Roseville, California in 2011. The lack of national education and understanding of US Cryotherapy true, whole, body systems value service model and physiology with desired benefits remains a major obstacle due to the infusion of knockoff competitors using liquid nitrogen open-faced tank systems. However, in over 650,000 treatments without an adverse incident, with 99% approval rating and quality of life testimonies of recoveries, US Cryotherapy is well-positioned as the leader in the market with a long-term projection of hundreds of treatment centers treating millions of Americans to enhanced recoveries and living younger.
Recently, which is in July 2017, US Cryotherapy announced a national partnership with the NFL Alumni Association to treat its members at their centers nationwide. Also in mid-2017, the company increased placements of chambers and cold air devices within professional sports to over 20 team clients. Kevin Kramer previously spent 20-plus years across multiple segments in the pharmaceuticals industry and left the pharma industry in early 2013 to run US Cryotherapy full-time as the CEO.
The company is entirely family-owned and organically grown. All US centers in operation utilize the US manufactured products and national service network launched in late 2015. Kevin is a '91 graduate of the University of Notre Dame, and he lives in his hometown of Vacaville—is that how you say it? I don't know—California with his wife, Megan, and daughter, Grace, and their two sons, Kyle and Shay, are now in college. So welcome, Kevin, to Cellular Healing TV. We're so excited to have you and talk about cryotherapy.
Kevin Kramer:
Great, thank you for having me.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Well, I have to say, I'm a believer. As a matter of fact, I'm leaving for a cryotherapy session at one of your units down in Salt Lake after I do this show. That's the truth. My son and I—
Kevin Kramer:
That's great.
Dr. Pompa:
—really hard leg workout today, and cryotherapy, man, it's a part of that recovery Y'all know that I'm a believer and I've done a Facebook Live on it, too, with Tom, the owner of one of your clinics here in Salt Lake. First of all, I guarantee you people don't even know what the heck we're talking about. Let's talk about what the heck is cryotherapy. I wish—maybe I could pull my picture up. You might have a picture there to show. I think a picture's worth a thousand words, but if I look for a picture of me, start telling them what cryotherapy is.
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, well, I'll tell you what, Dr. Dan. I been living with this for six years. It's certainly getting a lot better now. If you can flash back six years ago, it was really a complicated story. Whole body cryotherapy, to simplify it, really is just cold shock, exposing the body to an extremely cold temperature. As the skin temperature drops during a short duration, that activates the central nervous system. With the central nervous system kicking in, that helps stimulate the production of endorphins or release of endorphins and the production of norepinephrine. So to narrow it down to the clinical application, norepinephrine is the body's most powerful anti-inflammatory. As that's released throughout the body, that helps with the anti-inflammation, the range of motion, and so the relief that people are getting coupled with the endorphins that are basically flooding throughout the body, so that helps with mood elevation and energy. People are walking away from these centers feeling great because pain reception signals are upset and broken. Then you're getting that anti-inflammation and range of motion improvement. The recovery continues, and you feel really good after.
In addition to that, there are all kinds of ancillary benefits, so as the body starts to circulate better, the immune system function improves, and so do things like sleep patterns. All of them relate to recovery and helping the body holistically treat itself. What we're finding more and more frequently, certainly at the US Cryotherapy centers across the country, that the outcomes are phenomenal. People are recovering faster and feeling better naturally. It's continuing to spread.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I don't know if y'all can see this, but that is one of the units. I'm going to pull this away. Hang on one second. I got something that popped up here on purpose, but I'm trying to do all this at the same time. Cancel that, okay. Let me cancel that, okay. Can y'all see this?
Meredith:
Dr. Pompa, if you can, just describe for our listeners, too, what you're showing, which picture.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, okay, so this is—let me get rid of this, too, because I can't see my own darn thing. Why can't I see that? Okay, there.
Kevin Kramer:
Want me to explain it for you?
Dr. Pompa:
You can explain it, go ahead. Explain it because it's not showing up on the screen because I have this pulled up. Go ahead.
Kevin Kramer:
Oh, okay, well, that's a picture of Dr. Pompa with Tom Taylor, who's the owner of our Salt Lake City franchise, in front of our C1, our single-room chamber. He had an opportunity, most likely—I wasn't there—to go in and experience the single-room system. They both deliver the same outcome. It's a whole-body walk-in electric, refrigerated room, essentially, that drops the skin temperature. That's one of our smaller franchise locations.
Then we complement that with other things like localized cold therapy where you do spot treatments. Then many of our centers also will offer things like NormaTec compression, hydro-massage bed treatments, and other modalities. Tell us a little bit about the treatment, though. I'm sure your experience was—talk about that.
Dr. Pompa:
The first time I did it, Kevin, I was in California, actually, and I'd been wanting to try it. I was reading studies on how it raises growth hormone. Matter of fact, in the wintertime I do what I call Nordic plunge. I go from my sauna to cold. No doubt, there's a growth hormone spike; there's a more—you get more sensitive to your hormones There's a hormone optimization component to it.
Then I've been reading why these units are even better than doing a Nordic plunge. I'll tell you one thing: it's a whole hell of a lot easier because I hate cold water. Even in my house, I'll go from my sauna to cold—i hate it. I anticipated a very bad experience, especially when I asked them the temperature. I'm thinking my God, I hate the cold water. This is going to be the worst. I was like, I could do that. For me, it was so much easier, even though it was so much colder. I have to say, the first 15, 30 seconds is the worth. Then you get so numb, I guess. I don't know. You tell me, but it gets easier. You're only in for three minutes. They keep me in for three and a half. Each time, I seem like it even gets easier.
So my experience was amazing, honestly. I, at that time, had an injury in my arm, and I did the cryotherapy. Then I was like oh my—it was completely different. I went and rode some waves at the beach on a boogie board with my son, re-injure it. Went back that afternoon and fixed it again. My first experience was amazing because of that. Then I ran into a girl; she's the number one endurance athlete, marathoner, in her age. She said, “I couldn't—” She goes in every day. She said, “I couldn't train the miles that I did if I didn't do this.” Here's this young girl, teenager. I think she was 17, maybe 19 at the oldest, and she wouldn't be able to train the miles because of the inflammation. It allowed her to train.
I got hooked. Then when I came back to Park City, Utah, immediately I found one of these. Listen to this: now my wife goes religiously. My son was in a car accident with a concussion. I mean, took him out of it very quickly. Then my other son broke his arm. This all happened within weeks, I swear. Just remarkable. We're doing another therapy called a BEMER therapy, too, but we saw remarkable healing in both of them doing it, so yeah.
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, some interesting points on those things. Due to the systemic anti-inflammation and the availability of the US Cryotherapy centers nationwide, we just signed a partnership agreement with the NFL Alumni Association, and so we're treating their members nationwide. Some of the results we started to see at many of our centers would be results in the areas of chronic traumatic encephalophy, so you're hearing a lot more about that Of course, traumatic brain injury is such a hot topic. There's so little in terms of treatment modalities in terms of being able to help with some of the symptomatic responses. Having worked in neurology for 20-plus years, my belief from the very beginning was that norepinephrine, which is released in the brain and has the ability as a cold shock protein to cross the blood-brain barrier has some very positive impact in the area of neural regeneration.
I'm really excited by the prospect of treating all the NFL alumni members and starting to see some great recoveries in those areas but also moving this in the area of some of the research that's necessary to prove it as a medical modality. With anything, the validation comes with all the right clinical research. We haven't moved the needle to that point yet, but my background is all in that area. We're certainly lining things up, so we're preparing for our pre-submission, and we'll get there at some point very shortly.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no doubt. I mean, when I go into your clinic, I see people that are injured there, and I see all these amazing fit athletes for recovery. That's why I do it. I do it for the health benefits. I want to share something with you that maybe you don't even know. I shared this with Tom. I pulled up this study here. It was released in Cell, which is one of the most reputable scientific journals. In the study, they actually looked at mice who couldn't lose weight They can turn on those genes, the Agouti genes, etc. When they expose them to these temperature changes, put them from normal or hot to cold, what happened is they lost weight.
Now in the study, at first they weren't exactly certain. It was titled, “Cold Temperatures May Help Shed Pounds.” In the study, here's the unique thing. Now you would say—because there's people there that say hey, it helps my metabolism. I'm able to lose weight by doing this, but this is an interesting study because here's what they found in the study. Notably, a microbiome called—and I won't even butcher it with dyslexia, but it's acromancia, I think that's the pronunciation, which is associated with obesity and diabetes, virtually disappear. What the study showed was the cold—going into extreme cold changed what we call the microbiome. What we've learned in science in the last 10, 15 years is the microbiome, on our skin and our gut, affect our immune system, our metabolism, how our brain works.
We know that adaptation—so the cold, they said in the study, forced adaptation. The microbiome, your bacteria that we know do all these amazing things in communication with our body and our cells—that adaptation occurred via the microbiome, so they noted this massive microbiome shift where these particular bacteria actually associated with obesity actually disappear, so pretty cool. That's a study proving that cryotherapy actually changes your microbiome.
I was just teaching a seminar to a group of doctors, and one of the doctors was say, “Hey, listen, I want to thank you. Some of the things you spoke about, we're doing cryotherapy with my daughter, and her microbome—she has a really severe gut disorder. It's changing rapidly.” Cryotherapy changes your gut, heals your gut, changes the bacteria, so pretty incredible research on the heels of an amazing new science, and that's the science of the microbiome. So a lot here, Kevin.
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, well, it's interesting. I hear a lot about brown fat cell activation as well in the metabolic process, which is pretty strong Of course, we don't claim weight loss because I think that thing we're really focused on is the wellness aspect of it. We get people back and more active and when you're doing that, naturally you're going to lose weight, and you're going to feel better. I'd love to see the research continue in a lot of those areas.
The one thing that you touched on, which is really important—I worked a lot in auto-inflammatory diseases, as well—is that everything is about systemic information, everything. All the auto-inflammatory diseases are all related to that. I always try to correlate when I'm explaining to people the “cryotherapy process” and where we are today as a society. You think about Crohn's disease, and celiac, and Lupus, and all these diseases are so much more prevalent For one, in really cold climates. They're not nearly as prevalent per capita. That's because they're exposed to a lot more basically skin shocker cold temperature. We're still thermoregulated. We live in 75 degrees all the time, and we don't want to expose our skin to many changes that our bodies don't circulate the way they really were designed to.
That's really the genesis of what we're doing here is just stimulating through the activation of the central nervous system and cold shock, got better circulation, which helps with systemic inflammation. That improves immune function, and I do believe we can help impact the disease rate in auto-inflammatory areas in brown fat cell metabolism, and obesity, and other areas. It's no different than exercise and many of the other Eastern medicine practices that have migrated here that really have taken hold. This is exposure to cold shock that helps the body circulate better, and you can live healthier.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, yeah, I mean, it's not new science. The way to do it is new. It's a heck of a lot easier getting in something that's 150 degrees below zero—and that's one of the questions I have for you—than it is jumping in some ice pool that honestly is far more painful. Yeah, I mean, so now knowing that it affects the microbiome, you can look. There's a study here that's showing that it's changing the microbiome, which I think we'll find out because of the microbiome adaptation that it changes even more the metabolism. Yeah, this is exciting new research.
When you look at ancient cultures, which is something I love to study, and I've written articles on something I call diet variation, that it's important to switch our diets. Seasonally we know changes the microbiome. From summer to winter, our set of bacteria change, thereby changing the foods that we actually should be eating. The amount of sun we get or not is an adaptation that occurs. Again, a lot of that's temperature regulation, a lot of different receptors we have, and that changes also the microbiome and the foods we eat.
It's pretty cool that we're able to do this cold therapy, force adaptation in ourselves, and have this hormone adaptation. It's hormone optimization, man. I mean, honestly, you talk about norepinephrine, talked about endorphins; growth hormones surges after this adaptation.
Look, how cold does it get? People were saying that. I threw out a number, and people were going oh, my God, and then you guys do something different. I've been at different types of units, so I want you to describe your unit versus the pictures that most people see, pictures with heads sticking out. Your unit, if you show the picture—remember, I said that picture behind me was a picture of the unit, and you could see that it's not somebody with a head sticking out. You go in fully. Why is that different?
Kevin Kramer:
Okay, well, this is the most common question that we get. We started the industry in the United States with the first center, and the reason that we did so with the walk-in systems, and the electric, and the refrigerated systems is those are the units that were being used in the hospital clinics in Europe and for the basic clinical studies that were being done there, which then produced indications for rheumatoid arthritis, fibromyalgia, and the dermatitises. We wanted, number one, to go with the safest product that was available without the exposure to liquid nitrogen but secondarily, the products that were the most studied.
We brought those into the United States and shortly after that then, there was this flood of distributors and products being brought in that were using liquid nitrogen. It's a different apparatus, essentially, to use the nitrogen tank. They connect it to a little can or however you would describe it that an individual stands in alone with the head and shoulders out at the top. You see a lot of pictures of those. Primarily you see them because there are a lot of them out there with these independent operator locations. You'll hear temperatures of -240 to -300 degrees in these. It's been an educational challenge for us because we have the products that have been the most clinically studied, that are the safest, that have no exposures to gasses, but we're a family-owned, slowly growing, maturing business. We've taken the high road all along.
I'll dispel some of the myths that are out there in the market. The first is that the temperature is significantly different. We've seen these—a recent study just came out basically measuring the temperature inside these nitrogen saunas, we call them, which are the products that use forced air cooling from the bottom up. I've done all the products around the country, as well. I stop in and go into centers whenever I can and just try to experience them You feel cooling in the legs, but you don't feel so much really above the waist.
Dr. Pompa:
I agree. My legs were freezing. I'm telling you, they were—my knees, I would say. Up here, I didn't feel it. Quote me if I'm wrong, but I think most of your cold receptors from here above, so it was forced core temperature, your body thinking it's cold.
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, so the reality of it is two things. One, thermo-reception happens all around the core, so that's all in your upper body, which is the area you want to cool to activate the central nervous system. It's why a whole-body walk-in chamber is so much more effective, because you get even cooling from head to toe.
The study that just recently came out measured inside these nitrogen units. The actual temperature at the top is -20 degrees Fahrenheit, so they're promoting -240 to -300. That's the temperature of the gas as it's released, and it's really more of a marketing thing that most—the general public probably wouldn't completely understand. Colder's not better. All we're really trying to do in these things is drop skin temperature evenly during the duration of exposure. The nice thing is now that through skin temperature measurements, and that's done with a thermal skin temp gun, the objective of whole-body cryotherapy is to really drop skin temperature between 30 and 45 degrees during the exposure. The reason there's a range there is that BMI plays a role in how the body thermo-regulates. A very vascular thermo-regulated individual could go five minutes and still probably only drop 32 degrees whereas somebody that has a higher BMI and is not as vascular, for example, really couldn't tolerate that duration, so 30 to 45 degrees is the range they're trying to drop in terms of skin temperature.
Dr. Pompa:
I can say myself, at first I had trouble getting into that range. I wouldn't lower as much. Now I can lower 45 even. Does that happen often like that?
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, well, we start everybody at two and a half minutes in all of our systems just to get a baseline. Then we'll gradually increase the temperature time that—not the temperature but the treatment duration so that we can get to an optimal—within that range. So three and a half minutes would be our maximum treatment time, and most people will get in that range, if not right at the top of that range through that exposure time.
We get the NBA teams that all come through. We have chambers in 20 professional sports teams, and a lot of those guys are big, and they're lean. Three and a half minutes, they might come out at 31 or 32 degrees skin temperature drop but for their bodies, that's enough to activate the central nervous system. We're seeing that in some of the studies now that are coming out, which is great.
Again, going back to the two products, the main difference really is that you've got this cooling from the bottom up and you're not really getting whole body. Then our systems, they do measure about -150 to -190 degrees would be about the maximum in the two-room systems. When you hear those temperatures, you think wow, that's not tolerable. It's non-humid. It's dry. It's not like exposing your body to dropping in water where you have this permeation of water into the bloodstream. Your core temperature really is unaffected; it's really just skin temperature change
As you mentioned, right away you'll feel a little bit of a shock, but then you adjust. It's really not that uncomfortable. We're trying to educate that you feel great when you come out. You feel really like you have an endorphin rush and very euphoric. It's not terribly uncomfortable.
Dr. Pompa:
No, you do. You have—it lasts for hours, actually. It really is. It's remarkable. It's not just talk. You really feel good. It is. It's that hormone rush and the optimization, the endorphins, all of it. Alright, Meredith, I know you have a lot of questions because hey, Meredith you said something off-show. You said, “Yeah, I'm really curious on this topic because I've been afraid to do it.” Uh-oh, can't wait to hear this.
Meredith:
Well, you're right, and you know, Dr. Pompa, I'll try anything as far as health strategies go. I'll try it. I'm open I've had some health challenges over the years, of course, as many of us are so excited about the health industry is we go from pain to purpose. One of the issues I've struggled with is an autoimmune condition called Raynaud's syndrome. If you don't know what that is, it's a circulation to where specifically my hands and feet get very, very cold in cold temperatures, and it's challenging because I like to ski. I love outdoor activities but during those cold seasons, my hands and feet just get numb. Sometimes they turn white and blue, just really poor circulation.
When I think about getting into a freezing tank, that doesn't sound like it would be helpful. So can you particularly speak to that condition, Kevin, and for circulation issues, could that be helpful?
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, so everything we do at US Cryotherapy is based on a whole contraindication waiver check-in. We do everything electronically, and there are some contraindications to using cold therapy that would be consistent with a cold plunge or otherwise, cardiovascular issues being the primary risk factors, circulatory risk factors being another. Reynaud's is listed as one of the—we call them a relative contraindication. So one thing that I'll tell you having worked in the medical industry for a long time, a lot of people talking about fingers and toes. I'm not suggesting this is your case because I think Reynaud's is an over-diagnosed in a lot of cases, but major circulatory dysfunction, we would suggest that that really has more to do with whole body.
If you're dealing with just fingertips and toes from a sensitivity and maybe numbness standpoint when they get really cold, we cover all of the small extremities in the chamber from a personal protective gear standpoint because we want people to be more comfortable. You'll wear gloves, and you'll wear socks and slippers, wool slippers that'll cover your toes, and you'll wear a mask and a headband that'll cover the ears and the nose because those are the smaller vessel areas that don't get a lot of circulation. They would get naturally colder even if you didn't have any circulatory issues.
My only comment on that is that my sister-in-law actually has a similar condition, Reynaud's, and she has finger and toe sensitivity in cooling. She's gone in the chamber many times and actually afterwards, she notices that her feet sweat, which she claims is like a miracle for her because she doesn't get a lot of that. Her translation of that is that she's getting circulation in her feet where normally she probably doesn't. I do think systemically, a lot of the problems that we have—and this relates to the auto-inflammatory diseases—is that the body just isn't circulating very well.
I would say there's a relative contraindication. You'd be best to ask your healthcare provider if they thought you were at any risk. You're going to be covered on the fingers and toes, so you're not going to have any issues with direct exposure in those areas That one would really be up to the patient and the healthcare provider as to whether or not they would pass a relative contraindication. I for one believe improved circulation can improve in a lot of different areas.
Meredith:
There was another question, too, that you said that spot treatment is an option. So for someone who didn't want to go in the whole chamber, how does that work?
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, so I mean, if you came in and you were dealing with a shoulder issue and you had a contraindication, we still have our localized devices that blow cold air on a specific body part. Typically what we like to do at the centers is we like to do the chamber treatments first, which would be considered more of the systemic. We want to get the body circulating. You want to get the endorphin and the norepinephrine circulating. Then we'll rewarm a little bit on a piece of cardiovascular equipment just to help the body revascularize. Then we'll go into one of the treatment areas, and we'll do a localized treatment. We'll blow cold air on that particular body part. It's very similar but localized so you don't get the whole systemic effect.
We're going to flush that area, everything, fluid, blood, and everything is going to run from the temperature because it's extremely cold, much colder than you'd get with an ice pack. You're going to draw a significant blood supply to help regenerate at a cellular level back into that area. You'll notice—and that's where we get a lot of the people talking about the pain relief and the range of motion. Actually many people rave about the localized devices because it really helps get rid of the inflammation almost immediately. Even if you had a contraindication, a cardiovascular issue, or a circulatory dysfunction, or pregnancy, for example, is another contraindication, we still have services there that can help with your recoveries.
Meredith:
Yeah. How quickly do people typically see results? It seems like it's maybe pretty immediate, but then how long do they last? How often do you have to go back for treatments?
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, it's a great point. The big thing is that we really try to talk and consult all of our customers that utilizing whole-body cryotherapy really needs to become emote of a lifestyle and a routine. It's a procedure that takes time. You're going to see dramatic results if you come in and you have chronic pain or you're an acute injury. You're going to see the pain relief, as Dr. Nan talked about. You'll see that almost immediately, and you'll start noticing those things.
Over the course of several treatments, you'll also start to notice a lot of those ancillary benefits that I talked about earlier, which is the body starts to make some adjustments; you start noticing a really good and deep sleep pattern. As you're releasing all these hormones, the body then, from a balancing cortisol standpoint, starts to regulate hours later, gets into a really deep, rhythmic sleep, and that helps with recoveries, as well. Skin, a lot of people mention that they're noticing complexion and skin tightening and changes there, and mood and energy levels go up dramatically.
I for one, I've been using it for six years. I probably have done more whole-body cryotherapy treatments than anybody in the world, maybe. I'm a former athlete; I played baseball in college and had a lot of that chronic knee and ankle issues that most people probably do from playing sports. I'll be 50 next year. My workouts are better today than they were 20 years ago. I go three to four times a week, use the chamber, and I just—my energy and my mood when I get up in the morning—I'm on a long day schedule. I'm up at 5:30 and I'm working late in the evenings, but my energy levels are great, my workouts are great, and all of it has come together in a way that I didn't—that wasn't happening ten years ago for me.
It's all about lifestyle, really. You'd say the same about exercise and nutrition. You can choose to eat right and manage what you put in your mouth, and you can choose to exercise. You wouldn't expect results out of one or two visits to the gym, so that's how we try to think about it. If you incorporate it routinely, the benefits are compounding.
Dr. Pompa:
You have a great system to do that because I go at least three times a week, and you have a monthly fee for me, my wife, and my kids. That's the way to do it. I travel a lot, and it still pays more—it's better for me to do the monthly, even though there's weeks when I'm away like the last one where I wasn't able to do it. Man, I missed it; can't wait to go today. It still makes—than paying individual pricing, which some people choose to do. The monthly thing, man, that's the way to go. It's great.
By the way, you all are cheaper than the units that don't work as well. It's even more reasonable, so appreciate that; that's for sure.
Kevin Kramer:
One of the things that we rolled out nationwide is an executive membership program. For 79 bucks a month on average, you get your first three treatments a month prepaid, and they carry over, by the way. For people who travel and are busy, you can carry them over if you're not getting in. We expect two to three visits per week for most of our customers. Every visit after that is a $20 drop-in rate up to the tenth visit, and then it's free. You'd pay no more than $219 a month, and you could come 30 times. Nobody can compare to that. There's nothing out there. Because we can do very high volume, we're electric and refrigerated. We can do, in our large centers, 400 treatments a day in these locations. We're the model people are turning to, and we want to make it sustainable. You can't create anything at a price point that's so non-affordable that people go a couple of times and stop.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no, that's true. Matter of fact with that said, where do you have units? How do people find a unit? Give—that's important.
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, well, I mean, www.USCryotherapy.com is our primary website, and then all the locations spawn off of that. We now have 13 centers open. We'll be 22 by the middle of September, end of September. We keep adding locations, franchise and company-owned centers. You can just go to the site and then hit Locations, and you can find those that are opening or coming soon.
Dr. Pompa:
Are you doing opportunities? What if someone wants to open a center? Are you—can they contact you if they want to open a center? Do you have that option?
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, everything's done through our website. There's a franchise inquiry section there, and then that goes directly to our sales team, and they'll contact you with information about—
Dr. Pompa:
I guarantee you'll get calls on that from this show. We get 2, 300-plus thousand downloads of people listening to this show, I promise you. These are health-oriented people. These are athletes. These are people lost their health. I promise you, somebody's going to be like, I'm going to open one, man, just for me. It's a great business opportunity, I can tell you. -inaudible- down here, man. It's just—and rightfully so; you should.
My wife did the—you guys do the facial thing. She notices a difference. She swears by it. You're doing it because it has an effect on collagen and stimulating collagen, but you do it on the face as a facial. My wife won't touch Botox. There's no Botox ever in our future. I see too many autoimmune cases connected to that. Something like this is part of her regime.
Kevin Kramer:
Yeah, so Meredith, here's one for you that if you don't want to go in the chamber might be a great opportunity, and we're starting to get a lot more of that. From a health and beauty standpoint, as I mentioned, people that go in the chamber notice a difference, but we also do—with the localized devices, we'll do a six to eight-minute cold air facial. Cold is so good for the body. Even if you're just blowing cold air on the face, you're tightening the skin; you're reducing the pore size; you're enhancing circulation in the face, which actually helps cellular turnover and as you mentioned, gets down below the dermis level and activates, enhances collagen.
It's so much more natural to do it that way. People are raving about their complexion and the way their skin feels after. It's a maintenance thing, but you can do it once or twice a month at a really affordable price, and the skin looks great, and it feels great, as well.
Dr. Pompa:
We appreciate you coming on this show, man. I know you're going to get a lot of attention from it, so thank you.
Kevin Kramer:
Oh, my pleasure. Thanks for having me, and thanks for being a member and going out and using the center in Salt Lake. Tom's doing great. If there's anything I can ever do for y'all, let me know.
Dr. Pompa:
Yep.
Meredith:
Awesome. Well, since we've come to the end of the show, we like to conclude with three points that you would have for our viewers, Kevin, on cryotherapy and why you think they should care about it.
Kevin Kramer:
Well, one is that as a society, lifestyle is really important You really need to manage that. To do so effectively, I believe in the holistic modalities. I believe in treating your body well. We're the only ones who can do that safely. You need to find a US Cryotherapy center and try to get your body feeling its best and living younger.
A second part -inaudible- is that it's—what whole-body cryotherapy is, the perception is it's expensive and it's for celebrities and athletes, but it's very affordable, so you need to look into it and the pricing. We try to structure it so that it's no different than going out and getting a massage, and it's cheaper than getting acupuncture or some of these other modalities. It'll be expanding nationwide. It's something that'll be around for a long period of time.
The third part is that I really believe from a clinical and medical standpoint this thing is going to be growing. That's my background and my interest in this. If there are researchers out there and people interested in the mechanism of action of cold therapy and cold shock and norepinephrine and as we talked about, metabolism and other things, as a CEO of the organization that's leading the way in whole-body cryotherapy to move this forward. Those would be my three points, really, of interest.
Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, man, so many of my doctors watch this show. If I had a practice like that, a brick-and-mortar, I should say—because I still have clients from all over the world that I coach. However, if I had a brick-and-mortar, I'm telling you, I'd have a unit. I'd connect it in. It's impressive what it does. I'm telling you from personal experience. I'm addicted to it, so thank you, Kevin. I appreciate it. Keep spreading the word.
Kevin Kramer:
Thank you.
Meredith:
Yep, thank you both. Another amazing tool in our cellular healing toolbox. I was thinking, Dr. Pompa, instead of diet variation, we have temperature variation, so it's all about variation, right?
Dr. Pompa:
I talked about that in my latest seminar, remember? I showed that it's adaptation, forcing adaptation, be it diet, temperature change, hormone optimization. Alright, man, it's great. I'm sure you're going to get a ton of attention. We're going to get hundreds of thousands of listeners; that's for sure.
Kevin Kramer:
Alright, well, thank you.
Meredith:
Awesome. Thanks, everybody, for tuning in and have a great weekend. We'll see you next time. Bye-bye.
