Can You Actually Get Sick After a Cryotherapy Session? Here's What the Science Says
If you've ever stepped out of a cryotherapy chamber, felt your nose start to run or a slight chill settle in, and thought "great, now I'm going to come down with something," you're not alone. It's one of the most common questions we hear at KRYO KUBE.
It's also a question wrapped in a very old belief — that being cold gives you a cold. So let's do this properly. Below is an honest, evidence-based look at whether, and how, a cryotherapy session could leave you feeling unwell, what's actually going on in your body, and what genuinely matters for staying healthy around your sessions.
No hype. Just the science.
The short answer
A cryotherapy session cannot give you a viral cold. Colds are infections — you need to be exposed to a virus to catch one, and a burst of cold air can't create one out of nothing.
What a session can do is produce a handful of short-lived, harmless responses that feel a bit like a cold coming on, and — in specific circumstances — interact with your body's defences in ways worth understanding. The most likely way anyone actually catches something around a cryotherapy visit has nothing to do with the cold at all.
Let's unpack each part.
Myth first: cold weather doesn't cause colds
This one is settled science. The common cold is caused by respiratory viruses — rhinovirus being the most frequent culprit — and it spreads through airborne droplets and contaminated surfaces, not through low temperatures.
The reason colds feel like a winter thing is behavioural and seasonal: in colder months we spend more time indoors, closer together, where viruses pass between people more easily. Researchers have even deliberately chilled volunteers and then exposed them to cold viruses in laboratory settings — and those studies largely failed to show that being cold made people more likely to become infected.
So the blunt idea that "the cold chamber gave me a cold" doesn't hold up on its own. But there's a more interesting layer underneath it.
The nuance: how cold interacts with your nose's defences
Here's where it gets genuinely fascinating.
Your body's first line of antiviral defence — a rapid response driven by proteins called interferons — works best at your core body temperature of around 37°C. Research from Yale (published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences) showed that this defence becomes noticeably weaker at the cooler temperatures found inside the nasal passages when you breathe in cold air — around 33°C.
At the same time, rhinovirus itself happens to replicate more efficiently at those cooler nasal temperatures. So when the lining of your nose cools down, two things line up: the virus copies itself a little more readily, and your local defences are slightly slower to respond.
But — and this is the crucial part — this only matters if the virus is already there. Cooling your nose doesn't conjure an infection. It can, in theory, give a virus you've already been exposed to a slightly easier foothold. That's the real mechanism behind the age-old feeling of "catching a chill and then coming down with something": for the roughly one in ten people who are already carrying a virus, a cold exposure can nudge a silent infection into noticeable symptoms.
It's a conditional pathway, not a guarantee — and it applies to any cold exposure, from a winter walk to a cold shower, not cryotherapy specifically.
What cryotherapy actually does to your immune system
If cold exposure suppressed your immune system in any serious way, you'd expect regular users to get sick more often. The evidence points the other way.
Whole-body cryotherapy is broadly anti-inflammatory. A 2025 meta-analysis pooling 11 randomised controlled trials found that markers of inflammation, including the pro-inflammatory signalling molecule IL-1β, were lower after whole-body cryotherapy than in control groups.
It briefly mobilises immune cells. In healthy people, a session is associated with a short-term rise in white blood cell counts — particularly lymphocytes and monocytes — along with a surge in adrenaline, noradrenaline and cortisol. This is your body's normal, healthy response to a sharp cold stimulus.
Habitual cold exposure is linked to fewer sick days. A large Dutch randomised trial of over 3,000 people (published in PLOS ONE in 2016) found that people who finished their daily shower with 30–90 seconds of cold water took 29% fewer sick days off work than those who didn't.
We want to be honest about what that last study actually showed, though: the cold-shower group didn't record fewer days of illness overall — they were simply absent from work less often. The most reasonable read is that regular cold exposure builds a kind of resilience and tolerance, helping people function through minor illness, rather than dramatically rewriting their immune defences. It's a meaningful finding, but it's not a licence to claim cold exposure "prevents colds."
So why do some people feel a bit off afterwards?
If cryotherapy doesn't cause infection and generally supports your immune response, why do a few people walk out feeling like something's brewing? There are a few completely normal, non-infectious explanations.
1. A runny nose is just a reflex
Breathing cold, dry air triggers a well-known reflex called cold-induced rhinorrhoea — sometimes nicknamed "skier's nose." Your nose produces extra fluid to warm and humidify the air. It's your body working exactly as designed. It settles within minutes and has nothing to do with a virus.
2. The cold "buzz" can feel like malaise
That surge of adrenaline and cortisol, followed by the body settling back down, can leave some people feeling briefly tired, headachy or simply "different" for a short while. Again — transient, and a sign of a normal physiological response, not illness.
3. Cold air can irritate sensitive airways
Inhaling cold, dry air cools and dries the lining of the airways, and the rapid rewarming afterwards can cause brief tightness or a cough — particularly in people with asthma or exercise-induced bronchoconstriction. This is a mechanical, temporary response, not a chest infection. It's also one of the reasons chamber design and correct use matter (more on that below).
4. Timing plays tricks on us
People often book a session precisely when they're run-down, post-heavy-training, or already feeling like they're fighting something off. If a cold surfaces a day or two later, the session gets the blame — when in reality the infection was already on its way. It's a classic case of correlation being mistaken for cause.
The one genuine way to catch something: the room, not the cold
Here's the honest truth the industry doesn't always lead with.
If you're going to catch an actual virus around a cryotherapy visit, the likeliest source is the facility itself — shared surfaces, door handles, and other people — exactly as it would be at a gym, a pool or a spa. That's a hygiene and operations issue, and it's entirely preventable with good cleaning protocols and sensible etiquette (don't attend when you're unwell, wash your hands, and so on).
The cold isn't the villain here. The shared indoor space is.
The nitrogen question — and why chamber type matters
Not all cryotherapy is built the same, and this is where the differences become genuinely important for both comfort and safety.
Many older "cryosauna" style units cool the air using liquid nitrogen vapour. Because that vapour displaces oxygen, these systems carry risks that have been flagged by regulators including the US Food and Drug Administration — among them the possibility of oxygen displacement in an enclosed space, alongside frostbite, burns and eye injuries from the extreme cold. In nitrogen-based partial-body units, the user is also breathing near that vapour, which can contribute to feeling light-headed or briefly unwell after a session.
KRYO KUBE chambers are 100% electric and completely nitrogen-free. The air is chilled by electric refrigeration — there's no nitrogen vapour to displace oxygen, and nothing to irritate the airways in that way. To be clear about what this does and doesn't mean: going nitrogen-free removes an entire category of risk and discomfort, but it doesn't make you immune to colds. It simply means the "felt a bit off afterwards" experience isn't being driven by nitrogen or oxygen displacement — and that's a real, measurable difference in how a session feels and how safely it can be delivered.
Who should take extra care
Cryotherapy suits most healthy adults, but a session is more likely to leave some people feeling unwell — or is best avoided altogether — if you:
Have asthma, COPD or cold-sensitive airways (cold air can trigger symptoms)
Have uncontrolled high blood pressure or cardiovascular disease
Live with Raynaud's, cold urticaria or cryoglobulinaemia (cold-triggered conditions)
Are pregnant
Are already acutely unwell — a session won't help you fight off an infection, and you may simply feel worse
If any of these apply to you, speak with your GP before booking. And if you're already coming down with something, do everyone a favour and reschedule.
Practical tips to stay well around your sessions
Skip your session if you're already sick. It won't speed your recovery, and it protects other users.
Choose a clean, well-run facility with clear hygiene protocols — this is your single biggest protection against catching anything.
Follow the guidance on dry skin and correct positioning. Entering dry and using the chamber as directed minimises cold-related irritation.
Breathe calmly and normally. There's no need to gulp big breaths of the coldest air.
Warm up gently afterwards and let your body settle before rushing back into a cold environment.
Listen to your body. A brief chill, tingle or runny nose is normal. Anything that feels genuinely wrong is worth pausing for.
The honest bottom line
A cryotherapy session can't hand you a virus. What it can do is produce a few short-lived, completely normal responses — a runny nose, a brief chill, a bit of airway tingle — that are easy to mistake for the start of a cold. In specific cases, cold exposure of any kind can bring forward symptoms of an infection you were already carrying, but it doesn't create one. And if you do catch something around a visit, the shared room is a far more likely source than the cold itself.
The broader evidence suggests whole-body cryotherapy is anti-inflammatory and, like other forms of regular cold exposure, may support resilience rather than undermine it. As with all cryotherapy, the research is still developing — so we'd rather give you the accurate picture than an oversold one.
Cold, done well, isn't something to fear. It's something to respect.
This article is for general information only and is not medical advice. Cryotherapy is not a treatment or cure for any medical condition. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before starting cryotherapy, especially if you have an existing health condition or any concerns about whether it's suitable for you.
References & further reading
Foxman EF, et al. Temperature-dependent innate defense against the common cold virus. PNAS, 2015.
Whole-body cryotherapy and the inflammatory response: meta-analysis of 11 randomised controlled trials. Scientific Reports, 2025.
Buijze GA, et al. The effect of cold showering on health and work: a randomized controlled trial. PLOS ONE, 2016.
US Food and Drug Administration — Consumer Update on whole-body cryotherapy.
Johns Hopkins Medicine; Mayo Clinic — patient information on the common cold.