Sometimes you feel like a nut.  Sometimes you don't.

But lately we've seen a lot more coverage of people in the former category.  Most recently we have seen the spotlight focus on the tiny percentage of the population who have gender dysphoria and insist on thrusting their male genitals into women's showers, locker rooms, and bathrooms.

Today we have a new kind of idiocy, courtesy of the Times, called "cryotherapy."  In cryotherapy, people get into a chamber that is as cold as 300 degrees below zero for three minutes and come out "feeling better."

You step into an upright cylindrical capsule, padded on the inside and open on top. The floor grinds upward, and your head pops out. There’s a whoosh. And suddenly you are encased in gas, below the neck, in a tank that is minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit – colder than the coldest naturally occurring temperature recorded on Earth.

... enthusiasts bill as a path to pain reduction, injury recovery and mood enhancement. Among the many cryotherapy centers opening around the country, some go further, saying that the chambers prevent osteoporosis, treat asthma, increase libido and kick-start rapid weight loss. Celebrity athletes like LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal have been among their earliest proponents in the United States.

Dumb and dumber.  If you've ever seen The Empire Strikes Back, you know this is something not to be tried.

... the Food and Drug Administration does not recognize any medical benefits from cryotherapy chambers ...

Humans have a core body temperature of about 98.6 degrees. At about 81 degrees, the heart fails. The question is how long it takes to move between the two.

Three minutes, at least, is bearable, because it would take longer for our blood and internal organs to freeze. “We’re big chunks of meat,” said Gordon Giesbrecht, a professor at the University of Manitoba.... Frostbite, however, can set in quickly. “At negative 70 degrees, unprotected skin can freeze in as little as two minutes,” he said. “At negative 300 — nobody has done these experiments.”

Ms. Ake-Salvacion worked at Rejuvenice and was a strong believer in the benefits of cryotherapy, said her uncle, Albert Ake. On the night of Oct. 19, she entered a tank at Rejuvenice alone, after hours.

The next morning, a colleague found her frozen in one of the chambers, in the fetal position with her cellphone nearby, said a lawyer for the Ake family, Richard A. Harris. A coroner has not determined the cause of death. But Mr. Harris said it was possible that Ms. Ake-Salvacion dropped her phone in the chamber, reached down and became trapped in a space with too much nitrogen and not enough oxygen, causing her to pass out and eventually freeze.

Do you think we need a law to ban texting in cryochambers?

Anyone with common sense would know that exposing the human body to extreme temperatures, without any scientific basis to show any benefit, is a nutty idea.  Any benefit that people feel is purely psychological, a placebo effect.

That started me thinking: could cryotherapy, a worthless "treatment," be used to treat transgenderism, a nonexistent state of being?  If people in their minds believe they are the other gender, perhaps they could be convinced that the freezing treatment will restore vitality and passion to their current genitalia, in much the same way that putting ice cubes of orange juice into the freezer will produce a much tastier end product.  Since the feeling that they are another gender is an illusion, perhaps the illusion of treatment will cure them.  It is a better thing to try than mutilating their bodies with surgery, or having them take estrogen pills and then demand to shower with the rest of the girls.

And if something does go wrong and one of their lower extremities freezes – well, from their perspective, it won't be such a loss.  What have they got to lose?

This article was written by Ed Straker, senior writer of NewsMachete.com, the conservative news site.