After 45 minutes of cardio and strength exercises in the intense heat, Deanna Young wants to cool off fast. The 31-year-old lowers herself into a 380-liter tub filled with ice water. Her body instantly feels a cold jolt, but then relaxes as she concentrates on the therapeutic benefits.

"It takes a lot of the inflammation away," she said. " It's so energizing. When I get out of the tub I feel like a million bucks."

Whether for wellness or emergency response, ice immersion has become a go-to as the heat index soars.

"Ice will lower your temperature rapidly," said Rob Simonelli, director of Slash Fitness, which has been offering ice baths for about two years.

"It has a lot of recovery benefit."

Simonelli's gym offers a workout experience called Fire & Ice that begins with a 45-minute outdoor and ends with a therapeutic soak in a tank filled with ice water. Each week, as many as 40 people take an ice bath, and Slash goes through about 230 kilograms of ice daily to refill the tubs.

Anyone who goes in must shower first - and get medical clearance. He urges his bathers to ease in slowly, building up to about five minutes.

"Once you learn how to tolerate the cold temperature, there are benefits to the body," Simonelli said.

However, he acknowledges that anyone taking the plunge needs to be cautious: prolonged cold exposure can increase your risk of hypothermia.

Spas targeting equestrians and athletes tout the anti-inflamatory benefits of ice baths, relief from muscle pain, along with better mental clarity and energizing effects. Wellness centers advertise yoga or sauna followed by an ice bath to stimulate circulation.

Overheating is one of the most common and most serious dangers, and this summer is setting new record highs in temperature and humidity.

Said Benjamin Abo, an emergency medicine physician: "It's not just the temperature. It's also what someone is wearing, their activities, their health conditions, the medications they are taking that affect their ability to compensate with heat."

Marathon runners, outdoor workers and even pickeball players are suseptible to heat strokes, as is anyone who overexerts themselves in scorching temperatures without enough hydration.

Abo has led efforts to instruct and equip first responders to place patients suffering from heat-related illnesses in zippered bags that engulf the body, then pack them with ice cubes and water, until the body cools to safe levels. "When their core body temperatures come down, we take them out of the bag and do passive cooling instead of active," Abo said.

Five minutes in a full body bag can lower core body temperature by as much as 0.5 degree Celsius.

"It's important to recognize heat stroke can happen," Abo said. "We have to figure out how to decrease the rate of what's happening, and when it happens know how to handle it."

Some emergency responders mist patients with water and fan their bodies to cool them, then rush the patient to a nearby hospital. More recent guidance has taught responders to put ice or cold water on a patient's major arteries in the groin, neck and other areas.

Jim Roach, medical director for the Broward Sheriff's Office, said he is considering putting the body cooling bags on all ambulances. "I think it's a promising treatment, and we want to look to see how we can implement that into our systems," he said.

High schools also use ice baths to prevent student athletes from getting heat stroke.

Raphaella Albites, program manager for U18 sports medicine with Joe DiMaggio Children's Hospital, said schools have coolers of ice water at athletic practices, and most have tubs for immersion. The trainers typically place them near the field, ready to be filled in an emergency or to help athletes rejuvenate tired muscles.

"We also use polar pods, kind of like a sleeping bag," Albites said. "We put the kid in it, add ice water and zip it up. It will lower the body temperature quickly. Sometimes we will do it if someone has bad cramps, is dizzy, has headaches, or is nauseous."

Albites said the gold standard to prevent heat stroke is a Polar Life Pod, but schools also use a tarp and cold water. "It cools the body relatively quickly and allows the body to reset," she said.

The longer a person's body temperature is elevated, the more likely he or she will face organ damage or other health issues. "That is what we are trying to prevent," Albites said.

At army bases, firefighting training centers and college athletic departments, another technique involving ice has become a fast cool-down solution. All it takes is a bucket of ice water to submerge the forearms and biceps - basically the arm from the elbow down.

"This is when the body temperature is elevated and they are not a heat casualty yet, but just resting isn't enough," said Dave DeGroot, who runs the Army Heat Center at Fort Moore in Georgia.

He says the arm is easily accessible and doesn't weigh a lot. It can easily be dunked in the ice bucket.

The army has used this method at its training facilities to bring its soldiers' core temperatures down and suggests it for anyone overcome by heat.

But if someone shows signs of an altered mental state, a different method should be used while waiting for an ambulance: ice sheets, which are bed linens dunked in ice water and wrapped around the body. "While it doesn't work as fast as full body immersion, you can avoid someone dying fom heat stroke," he said.

The most important way to avoid a heat casualty is use ice or ice water and get someone cooled off fast, DeGroot said. "It could be life saving."

south florida sun sentinel (tns)

(By Cindy Krischer Goodman)

Ice is a lifesaver in extreme heat