Beneficial effects of the whole-body cryotherapy on sport haemolysis

Background. Sport’s anemia is a common risk for athletes. The principal source of an accelerated
turnover of the erythrocytes in sportsmen is the intravascular hemolysis. This phenomenon is induced
by mechanical breakage for impact of feet and muscular contractions, but also by osmotic changes
causing membrane fragility, typically evident after exercise, when free radicals are increased. Wholebody
cryotherapy (WBC) covers a wide range of therapeutic applications and consists of briefly
exposing the body to extremely cold air. In sports medicine, WBC is used to improve recovery from
muscle injury; however, empirical studies on its application to this area are lacking. Design and
Methods. We recruited ten rugby players of the Italian National Team. In these athletes we measured
hematological parameters, before including mean sphered cell volume (MSCV) by means of Coulter
LH750, besides of haptoglobin, and after WBC. The subjects underwent five sessions on alternate
days once daily for one week. During the study period, the training workload was the same as that of
the previous weeks. Results. We observed in the athletes increase of haptoglobin and an increase of
MSCV after the treament period. Conclusions. WBC reduces sports haemolysis, as judged from
MSCV and haptoglobin data, supported from other haematological values, as well as the absence of
mean corpuscolar volume and reticulocytes increase. The