The history of medicine is filled with accounts of strange and often downright dangerous “treatments,” but these have sometimes opened the way for lifesaving discoveries. In this Curiosities of Medical History feature, we look at the unusual practice of exposing the body to cold temperatures for therapeutic purposes: therapeutic hypothermia.
The term “hypothermia” appears to have first emerged in English-language texts in the late 19th century. It comes from the ancient Greek word for “hot” or “warm” — “thermós” — to which the Greek-derived prefix “hypo-,” meaning “under,” is added.
Nowadays, hypothermia is classed as a severe condition in which the body is unable to maintain its normal heat, and body temperature drops dangerously. Severe hypothermia can result in heart failure and death.
This dangerous medical condition has been understood as such for centuries, yet there is also another side to the history of hypothermia.
Therapeutic hypothermia — the cooling of the body for therapeutic purposes — is a medical practice that has been around, in one form or another, since ancient times.
Some of its uses have been controversial at best, but it has also given rise to legitimate modern-day treatments. In this Special Feature, we briefly outline the complex history of therapeutic hypothermia.
To understand more about the curious history of therapeutic hypothermia and the continued appeal of exposure to low temperature for medical purposes, we also spoke to Dr. Phil Jaekl, neuroscientist and science writer, whose upcoming book, Out Cold: A Chilling Descent into the Macabre, Controversial, Lifesaving History of Hypothermia, discusses these topics at length.
Therapeutic hypothermia seems to have been practiced for over 5,000 years. Its first known mention was in the Edwin Smith Papyrus, a medical treatise outlining treatments for various injuries and ailments, a text that may date back to around 3,500 B.C.E.
“The earliest written records of using cold were discovered in ancient Egyptian texts,” Dr. Jaekl told Medical News Today. “Some experts think these texts are the first recordings of medical teachings from Imhotep, a polymath and advisor to the pharaoh Zoser. They suggest using local cold applications to treat skin irritations, likely for [enslaved people] or in military situations.”
For “an abscess with prominent head on the breast,” the papyrus prescribes “cool applications,” which in this case were ointments with cooling effects, made of ingredients such as fruit, mason’s mortar, and water.
According to Dr. Jaekl, “[t]hese texts are significant because they are some of the first to advocate systematic medical procedures rather than incantations or prayers, which were common at that time.” The Edwin Smith Papyrus is possibly one of the first medical “textbooks” laying out case studies of physical ailments and indicating dedicated treatments.
Some of the better known forefathers of medical science also wrote about cold temperatures and their dangers and therapeutic potential. “The next big advancement for using cold therapeutically didn’t happen until over 1,000 years had passed, when cold was incorporated into the humorist system of medicine,” Dr. Jaekl noted.
This system posited that in the human body, there circulate four “humors,” or liquids, which, when out of balance, would cause any number of diseases. To restore health, a physician would have to diagnose and address the humoral imbalance.
These humors, most often listed as black bile, yellow bile, phlegm, and blood, were either “hot” or “cold,” “wet” or “dry,” thus causing corresponding afflictions. Fever, as a “hot” disease, would have required exposure to an opposite element as a treatment.
Ancient Greek physician
Yet he also recognized the therapeutic potential of cooling elements, as he prescribed using
Galen (129–c. 210 C.E.), who was significantly influenced by Hippocrates, is credited with the invention of cold cream, which he prescribed not for skin care or the removal of makeup, as it later came to be used, but for cooling purposes in a medicinal context.
His cold cream may have been a mixture of olive oil, water, and beeswax.
The method of cooling the body as a therapeutic intervention further expanded in the 17th century, when physicians such as John Floyer (1649–1734) started experimenting more widely with the use of hot and cold water in medicine.
In his treatise, An Enquiry into the Right Use and Abuses of the Hot, Cold, and Temperate Baths in England (1697), Floyer wrote at some length about the hygiene and medicinal benefits of cold water baths.
Source: Medical News Today
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