DEMO: Will stepping into the CVAC pod improve your health?

CVAC Systems is one of 53 companies chosen by VentureBeat to launch at the DEMO Spring 2011 event taking place this week in Palm Desert, Calif. After our selection, the companies pay a fee to present. Our coverage of them remains objective.

CVAC Systems is demonstrating an eyebrow-raising fitness technology at DEMO: The company says that by spending 20 minutes in its CVAC pod two or three times a week, customers can improve athletic fitness and general wellness.

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The company’s name stands for “Cyclic Variations in Altitude Conditioning,” and that’s what happens inside the pod. Once you’re inside, the air pressure is increased and then decreased to simulate the experience of being in high or low altitude. CVAC claims these changes “stimulate an individual’s natural adaptation response to environment.”

Sound a little out there? Well, you can read more about the technology on the CVAC website. The Temecula, Calif. company says it also has a scientific board of advisors that includes faculty from the University of Hawaii and the University of Canterbury.

President and chief executive Allen Ruzskowski said the company has sold the pod to both businesses (you can see a list of locations with a CVAC pod here) and to consumers, but he predicted that the biggest audience will be corporate wellness programs. He said a pod costs more than $100,000, comparing the price to a Tesla Roadster.

When I asked Ruzskowski how he plans to get companies on-board with this idea, he said, “Once a 50-year-old executive tries it out for a week, that’s all it takes.”