Cold-Blooded

There’s a cold plunge. And then there’s a cryo plunge.

“So much of this is about being as healthy as possible for as long as possible,” says Markida Henley, owner of CRYO Therapy Idaho in Driggs. “This healing comes from within the bloodstream. That’s why this is such a big deal.”

CRYO Therapy Idaho takes the cold-plunge concept and super-cools it. Instead of an ice bath, where temperatures rarely dip below zero, the nitrogen-cooled equipment at Markida’s center plummets to negative 175 Fahrenheit. Your brain goes into self-preservation mode, pulling blood from your limbs and into your core, where it is loaded up with oxygen, nutrients and enzymes. After a few chilly minutes the treatment is finished and your body recovers, sending the blood back into achy joints and sore muscles, like a cardiovascular oil change.

“Plato said, ‘The part can never be well unless the whole is well,’” Markida says. “We don’t put a Band-Aid on top of a Band-Aid. That’s a steroid shot or a knee replacement. This is treating the whole.” 

Longtime locals might recognize Markida’s name from the Targhee Village Golf Course. Her family owned the Alta-area course for more than three decades before selling it in 2017.

Around the same time she took a trip to L.A. and happened to read an article on cryotherapy. She was intrigued. The clinic she found offered treatments so cold they were mind-boggling.

“It was minus 250 degrees. I thought, ‘You have to be kidding me,’” Markida remembers. “That is too cold.”

But she had to know what it was all about. While waiting for her first treatment, she did a little impromptu research in the lobby.

“While we’re in there I’m talking to a lot of people: ‘Why are you here, what has it done?’” Markida says. “For the majority, beyond health benefits, they’d had major accidents like botched surgeries — big-time stuff — and they were moving right through recovery at incredible speeds.”

She did more research, learning how the average human has over 60,000 miles of blood vessels and capillaries – enough to circle the globe more than twice. She learned how cold exposure will constrict the bloodstream and combat inflation.

Then, Markida met a 93-year-old woman with debilitating arthritis. The woman could barely open her hands when the staff took her to a cryo sauna. A few minutes later she emerged.

“Her hands had opened to half their normal distance,” Markida says. “At 93, if you can affect change like that in the body, that is unbelievable.”

Markida braved the cold and never looked back. Now, she’s offering the service to others in downtown Driggs — and she’s quickly accumulated devotees.

One cryotherapy session at CRYO Therapy Idaho is $39 for three minutes. Markida recommends two sessions at $49 with a warm-up period between. And she knows what newcomers are wondering: Won’t I freeze in just a few seconds? 

“Shivering will happen, but that’s your natural response to being cold,” Markida says. “‘After a few times that goes away because the body knows what to expect. It’s not bad. It’s cold, but if you can tolerate it, and most everybody does, it is worth it.”

Markida loves talking to clients. She especially loves sharing their success stories.

She tells how one man came to CRYO Therapy Idaho with a herniated disc in his spine. It kept him from lifting his head – until a few sessions in the cryo sauna.

“He was due for surgery, but he didn’t want it,” she says. “He thought it was too scary. He didn’t want to be paralyzed. And he was absolutely blown away that he could hold his head up straight after seeing us.” 

These outcomes aren’t immediate. Like exercise and a good diet, cryotherapy needs time and consistency. Markida recommends between 10 and 14 sessions to start, and then maintenance through cryotherapy and other treatments, like the BEMER gun. Short for Bio Electro Magnetic Energy Regulation, it swaps cold exposure for electromagnetic exposure with similar results. Athletes especially love it for rapid recovery after a workout.

Markida reflects on the Plato quote and the 93-year-old woman she met in L.A.

“What Plato said is so profound and accurate because what we do in our medical world is treat parts,” she says. “But in the bigger picture, if you want to live healthy and long, everything has to be working. It starts with the blood.”