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Nevada has created health guidelines for cryotherapy after a Las Vegas spa worker was found dead in a tank that subjects users to subzero temperatures, a treatment that experts say has been growing in popularity but is largely unregulated and whose benefits are not proven…Dr. Tracey Green, the state's chief medical officer, said Friday that the guidelines from the state health department recommend that the machines not be used by minors under 18, those under 5 feet tall and anyone with certain health conditions, such as a history of stroke, high blood pressure, seizures and infections, as well as people who are pregnant or have pacemakers or claustrophobia…The state said it will work with businesses to implement its "expected standards" but there won't be penalties and this doesn't amount to law. Still to be determined is how oversight measures will be carried out to ensure the guidelines will be implemented. The health department has said it will work with other agencies that regulate and license such businesses, including the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration…"We will go back and assist them," Green said of the businesses. "There's not a penalty. It's really about public safety."…The new guidelines ask cryotherapy centers to have nitrogen monitors in the rooms and emergency kits and defibrillators on site. Signs and user waivers that clearly state that the treatment cannot treat illnesses or be used for medical purposes and outline the service's procedures and risks should also be provided…

Jeremy Koenig, CEO of Athletigen…visited the Nevada Institute of Personalized Medicine at UNLV…to talk about how genetic testing can help athletes become better, stronger and faster by leveraging the genes within them…The institute is conducting research, developing technology and providing education and training to improve individual and community health in Nevada. Personalized, or precision, medicine looks at genetic makeup to help provide a blueprint for effective treatments and disease prevention strategies…Koenig, who competed as a sprinter at the collegiate level in Canada, started Athletigen to help athletes use their genetic code to boost performance…Genetics can help show athletes whether they have a tendency toward endurance or power and their maximum level of oxygen consumption…When athletes know their risk for injury, for example, they can take preventative measures by adjusting their training routines and taking steps to ensure their rest and recovery after exertion…Collaboration between private industry and the University of Nevada, Las Vegas precision medicine initiative offers opportunities for new discoveries...

HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) today announced the acquisition of Urgent Care Extra’s Nevada operations, which include 14 urgent care centers in Las Vegas…The...centers join HCA’s Sunrise Health System...which includes four hospitals and four surgery centers. The purchase also includes six additional urgent care centers that are under development in the market…This acquisition adds a strong network of leading urgent care centers to our Las Vegas network and complements our presence in the market…

KryoLife CEO Joanna Fryben on the reported health benefits of cryotherapy and concerns about the potential risks.

For the fifth consecutive year, Southern Hills Medical Center in Las Vegas has made the list of top performing hospitals compiled by the independent agency that accredits the most U.S. health care organizations…Fourteen of the 27 Nevada hospitals that submitted data last year to The Joint Commission attained top performing status, including seven other facilities in Southern Nevada. In addition to Southern Hills, the commission also recognized Sunrise, Mountainview, Valley and Desert Springs hospitals in Las Vegas; Strategic Behavioral Health's Red Rock facility; the Spring Mountain Treatment Center in Las Vegas; and Mesa View Regional Hospital in Mesquite.

...this Walgreens isn't your usual neighborhood pharmacy…Then again, it's not in a typical neighborhood. It's on the Strip, and investors have again paid big money for the building in America's gambling and party mecca…The 1.6-acre property, on Las Vegas Boulevard at Convention Center Drive, sold for $37 million on Friday, up 33 percent from what the sellers paid in 2012.

Nevada is looking into whether cryotherapy is safe for the general public after the death of a Las Vegas spa worker found inside a phone booth-sized chamber chilled with liquid nitrogen, regulators said Monday…The state said it was shifting its investigation beyond workplace safety and the equipment used in the treatments to the health concerns surrounding the technology itself. The new approach to the investigation could lead to regulations for the industry, said Steve George, state Division of Industrial Relations administrator…The Division of Industrial Relations is expected to look at all three businesses selling the service in the state as part of its comprehensive review…"At this point, the equipment doesn't seem to be the problem, but we are doing our due diligence," said George, who is head of the state's workplace safety division that also includes the Nevada Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Touted as a way to reduce pain, speed injury recovery, and improve mood, cryotherapy involves exposing the body to temperatures up to minus 300 degrees Fahrenheit…Celebrities and some athletes…are proponents of this treatment. However, a recent death has called the safety and efficacy of cryotherapy into question…Chelsea Ake-Salvacion who worked at a Las Vegas cryotherapy center called Rejuvenice died during an after-hours session in a tank, where she was alone...found “rock-hard solid.”…The coroner’s office determined that Ake-Salvacion died from asphyxia from an oxygen-poor environment…Cryotherapy environments can have oxygen levels around 5%—so low that someone can fall unconscious and die…Here are 6 must-know facts about cryotherapy:

1. There are 2 ways to experience whole-body cryotherapy.
2. One study did find some evidence that whole-body cryotherapy can reduce inflammation.
3. Another study shot down cryotherapy as a successful treatment for repairing muscle damage or reducing soreness.
4. Cold baths and packs may be the way to go until further research is completed.
5. Cryotherapy is not regulated.
6. Ake-Salvacion is not the only one harmed by cryotherapy.

…cryotherapy…treatments…have come under scrutiny after a Las Vegas spa employee was found dead last month in the chamber of a cryotherapy machine chilled by liquid nitrogen…Las Vegas police and Nevada state officials have opened investigations into the circumstances involving the death, but it has moved slowly because the industry is so new in the state that no one agency assumed responsibility for it…Nevada's chief medical officer said Tuesday that the Bureau of Health Care Quality and Compliance will assume responsibility for investigating complaints as the state health department takes over an expanded probe to determine whether or not the treatment itself is safe. The long review process is now only in its fact-finding stage, but Dr. Tracey Green said some form of education, regulation, scope of work agreement and/or licensure could ultimately be proposed…any rules or policies put in place in Nevada would mark some of the first regulations in the world governing cryotherapy.

Through a settlement brokered by the State of Nevada Attorney General's Office, approximately $3.8 million is available to the University of Nevada School of Medicine for research projects aimed at improving women's health in Nevada…The State of Nevada obtained the settlement with pharmaceutical companies Wyeth, Pfizer and Pharmacia & Upjohn relating to claims regarding postmenopausal hormone therapy products…The funds will be distributed by the Attorney General's Office over a five-year period ending in 2019, with half the available research funds going to School of Medicine faculty in Reno and Las Vegas and the other half going to University Medical Center of Southern Nevada.