Advocates see it as a miracle procedure to cheat death, and freezing your head after you die could soon become an affordable option it has been claimed.

Known as cryonics, it is thought to be a way of preserving enough of your personality, intellect and memories to bring you back to life.

One UK company believes the cost of the procedure will rapidly drop over the next decade, to just £5,000 ($6,572) for 250 years, helping make it a common practice.

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Advocates see it as a miracle procedure to cheat death and freezing your head after death could soon become an affordable option, it has been claimed. One UK company believes that the cost of the procedure will rapidly drop over the next decade, to a cost of just £5,000 (stock image)

WHAT IS CRYONICS? Cryonics, also known as cryogenics and cryopreservation, is the art of freezing a dead body or body parts with liquid nitrogen in order to preserve them. It is hope that they will be revived once medical science has progressed far enough to cure whatever killed them. Currently, it can only legally happen when someone has just been declared dead. The freezing process must begin as soon as the patient dies in order to prevent brain damage, with facilities currently only available in Russia and the US. In the procedure, the body is cooled in an ice bath to gradually reduce its temperature bit by bit. Experts then drain the blood and replace it with an anti freeze fluid to stop harmful ice crystals forming in the body. Advertisement

Stem Protect is a Nottingham-based firm that specialises in cryopreservation of stem cells, to protect information about the body which can be used for medical purposes while the person is still alive.

Such procedures are becoming more commonplace, and the technology involved is essentially a smaller scale version of its more headline grabbing relative.

Experts at Stem Protect are convinced that cryonics will play a big role in the future.

There are currently only three facilities in the world that offer full head, body and other forms of cyropreservation.

The cheapest, Russian based KrioRus, offers 'neuropreservation' for £10,000 ($13,145), which involves freezing just the brain.

Stem Protect estimates that costs could more than halve over the next five to ten years.

Speaking to MailOnline, Mark Hall, company spokesman said: 'It's a service we could offer today, just not at that price.

'It would probably cost around £50,000 to £75,000 ($65,000 to $100,000).

'It's a bit like Moore's law, technology improves over time, and as more and more facilities are built it will get cheaper and cheaper.

'I think in a few years it will be possible to have whole warehouses that are one giant facility, although you wouldn't want to walk through them. That would significantly reduce the price.'

There are currently only three facilities in the world that offer full head, body and other forms of cyropreservation. The cheapest, Russian based KrioRus (pictured), offers 'neuropreservation' for £10,000, which involves freezing just the brain

Cryonics, also known as cryogenics and cryopreservation, is the art of freezing a dead body or body parts with liquid nitrogen in order to preserve them.

It is hoped that they will be revived once medical science has progressed far enough to cure whatever killed them.

Currently, it can only legally happen when someone has just been declared dead.

The freezing process must begin as soon as the patient dies in order to prevent brain damage, with facilities currently only available in Russia and the US.

In the procedure, the body is cooled in an ice bath to gradually reduce its temperature bit by bit.

CRYONICS: THE FACTS WHAT IS CRYONICS? The deep freezing of a body to -196°C (-321°F). Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged. The hope is that medical science will advance enough to bring the patient back to life. Two main US organisations carry out cryonics in the US: Alcor, in Arizona, and the Cryonics Institute, Michigan. Russian firm KrioRus is the only facility outside the US to currently offer the service. HOW IS IT MEANT TO WORK? The process can only take place once the body is legally dead. Ideally, it begins within two minutes of the heart stopping and no more than 15. The body must be packed in ice and injected with chemicals to reduce blood clotting. At the cryonics facility, it is cooled to just above 0°C and the blood is replaced with a solution to preserve organs. Cryonpreservation is the deep freezing of a body to - 196°C (-321°F). Anti-freeze compounds are injected into the corpse to stop cells being damaged The body is injected with another solution to stop ice crystals forming in organs and tissues, then cooled to -130°C. The final step is to place the body into a container which is lowered into a tank of liquid nitrogen at -196°C. WHAT'S THE CHANCE OF SUCCESS? Many experts say there is none. Organs such as the heart and kidneys have never been successfully frozen and thawed. It is even less likely a whole body, and the brain, could be without irreversible damage. HOW MUCH DOES IT COST? Charges at the Cryonics Institute start at around £28,000 ($35,000) to 'members' for whole-body cryopreservation. Rival group Alcor charges £161,000 ($200,000) while KrioRus' procedure will set you back £29,200 ($37,600). HOW LONG BEFORE PEOPLE CAN BE BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE? Cryonics organisations claim it could be decades or even centuries. However, medical experts say once cells are damaged during freezing and turned to 'mush' they cannot be converted back to living tissue, any more than you can turn a scrambled egg back into a raw egg. Advertisement

Experts then drain the blood and replace it with an anti freeze fluid to stop harmful ice crystals forming in the body.

Whether this procedure will ever work, and the ethical implications if it does, remain to be seen.

But Stem Protect believes it is just a matter of time.

Mr Hall added: 'While we’re not at the point yet where we can bring someone back to life from this procedure, we believe it’s just around the corner.

'We don’t yet know what the emotional impact would be of bringing someone back to life this way even when we are physically able to do it.

'That’s not a question for science but for us as human beings, and it’s a question we might not be able to answer until the first person is brought back to life after being frozen.'

