LAS VEGAS (AP) — A growing number of people around the world are seeking cryotherapy — a treatment that subjects their bodies to cold temperatures far below those found anywhere on Earth.
But whole body cryotherapy is largely unproven and unregulated worldwide, and it's receiving new scrutiny after a Las Vegas spa employee was found dead last month in a chamber chilled by liquid nitrogen.
Backers say the procedure can treat pain, inflammation, blood flow and weight loss and even ward off aging and depression.
Cryotherapy involves entering a chamber and spending two to four minutes in temperatures ranging from minus-166 to minus-319 degrees Fahrenheit.
Las Vegas police and Nevada state officials have opened investigations into the circumstances involving the recent death, but it has moved slowly because the industry is so new in the state that no one agency assumed responsibility for it.
Nevada has since expanded its review of the entire industry. Oversight varies in other states.