The review presents brief historical information of the use of cryotherapy in the treatment of various diseases, in particular, degenerative-dystrophic diseases of the spine (DDD) with pain and muscular spastic syndrome. The options for general and local cryotherapy, temperature regimes and modern equipment used for these purposes are also considered in the review. In order to intensify the medical effects of cryotherapy, ultrasound, microwave therapy, impulse currents of low frequency, and others are used. The analgetic effect of cryotherapy serves to "block" pain receptors in the skin, normalization of antidromic excitability of neurons in the spinal cord and the functional state of the autonomic nervous system, change of the humoral/hormonal exchange with participation of the neuropeptides system and endogenic opioids, a rupture of the vicious cycle "pain - a muscular spastic stricture - pain". The development of neuropathic pain is followed by the strengthened production of autoantibodies against neurotransmitters of excitation and of blocking, and the increased induction of autoantibodies against neurotransmitters of the antinociceptive system that promotes the chronization of pain. Examining the particulars of the effects of cold in different methods of hypothermia and of pathophysiological mechanisms of adaptation for patients under the influence of ultralow temperatures represents a promising direction of medical science and practice.