Therapies used by athletes raise debate about effectiveness

To improve performance and alleviate pain, athletes resort to ice baths and osteopathies, but these techniques need a scientific basis to prove their effectiveness; the Olympic Games serve as a showcase for testing numerous therapies and products that have not yet been scientifically proven. Since the Olympics that took place in Rio de Janeiro, therapeutic techniques have been used and their foundations questioned, according to neurologist Didier Bouhassira, a pain specialist: “In sports there is a lot of propaganda for all alternative medicines. There are many demands from athletes”.

Performance and pain-enhancing techniques used in 2024

During the 2024 Paris Olympics, athletes began using cryotherapy, which consists of helping athletes recover through cold, and the most commonly used method is through cold water baths. According to an article by British Journal of Sports Medicinesome federations requested more than 1,500 tons of ice, a number much higher than those requested for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics; according to the article, although ice is used in specific cases of isolation, the technique has no scientific proof of its effectiveness.

_{Ice bath (Photo: reproduction/Istock/Getty Images Embed)}

Another technique used by athletes is a pain relief patch called Initiv, manufactured by the pharmaceutical company Sanofi, which even before the Olympics began had already been the target of criticism, and even though the industry guarantees that clinical studies were approved by the scientific community, for Dr. Bouhassira, the patch is nothing more than a placebo that is more like propaganda than science.

Criticism of osteopathy

According to critics of osteopathy, the frequent use of the technique has a negative impact on the environment with the production and preservation of ice on a large scale; despite its promise to correct a range of bodily dysfunctions, it lacks scientific proof. A study carried out by JAMA Internal Medicinein 2021, compared osteopathy with extravagant techniques that served as a placebo and were not clinically significant.

Featured photo: Rebeca Andrade in an ice bath (Reproduction/instagram/@rebecarandrade)