The earliest oxygen therapy can be traced back to 1771, when Swedish pharmacist Karl Scheele accidentally discovered how to make oxygen. But oxygen therapy has come a long way since then. Today, many people seek out hyperbaric oxygen therapy benefits as part of their healthcare solutions.
However, this relatively new type of oxygen therapy still isn’t very well known. Misconceptions about hyperbaric chambers abound. Even fans of hyperbaric oxygen treatment may not fully understand all the hyperbaric oxygen therapy benefits.
We’re here to clear things up, so you can decide if hyperbaric oxygen treatment is right for you. Here are the benefits you have to look forward to, and everything else you should know about this type of treatment!
What Is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
During a hyperbaric oxygen therapy session, you’ll enter a pressurized room or vessel that contains pure oxygen. The air pressure in the chamber is three times the normal air pressure. This allows you to inhale even more oxygen with every breath.
Typically, the air you breathe contains about 21 percent oxygen. You may have heard that breathing pure oxygen is dangerous. However, it’s safe for short periods of time, in a supervised medical setting — it only becomes dangerous when you breathe pure oxygen for hours on end.
These chambers are designed to be comfortable, since you’ll be in them for an hour and a half to two hours. Treatments are usually done once a day for about two to three weeks, until the desired results are achieved.
Once you’ve breathed in this pressurized oxygen, it travels through your blood cells throughout your body. That’s where the hyperbaric oxygen therapy benefits begin.
How does oxygen therapy offer all of these benefits?
The main reason is that your body naturally relies on oxygen in order to function properly. With the extra supply of oxygen during oxygen therapy, your body can heal itself faster. That’s why oxygen therapy can help with wounds, infection, and similar issues.
The Top Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Benefits
Now, let’s take a closer look at these benefits and how they work.
Wound Healing
Angiogenesis is a fancy-sounding medical term that refers to the process of new blood vessels forming from existing blood vessels. Studies show that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can cause angiogenesis in different body parts.
In particular, angiogenesis is helpful in healing wounds. Patients with difficult, slow-healing wounds may find that oxygen therapy is what they need.
Wounds related to radiation and diabetes, for example, tend to be hard to heal. Oxygen therapy will help speed up the healing process.
Burn Healing
Similarly, oxygen therapy can also help heal burns faster, since it sparks necessary blood vessel restoration. Your body’s natural burn healing processes can work faster with the extra infusion of oxygen.
Infection Healing
When wounds become infected, the healing process becomes even more challenging, and can have serious complications.
Luckily, oxygen therapy can also help heal an infection before it becomes worse. The extra oxygen in the blood helps fight off bacteria, making your body’s natural anti-infection system work better.
Decompression Sickness Treatment
One of the first uses for hyperbaric chambers was to treat decompression sickness experienced by divers. Although today’s hyperbaric chambers also have many other medical uses, this remains an important use for the technology.
Carbon Monoxide Poisoning Treatment
Many of the effects of hyperbaric oxygen treatment might seem surprising. However, it should make perfect sense that a heavy dose of oxygen can help treat carbon monoxide poisoning.
Gas Embolism Treatment
Bubbles of air or gas in the bloodstream, known as gas embolisms, can cause serious problems, because they block blood flow. Hyperbaric chambers are one way to treat this dangerous condition.
What to Expect During a Treatment Session
There are a few things to know before you start hyperbaric chamber therapy. Here’s what you can expect at your first session.
Choose Single or Group Therapy
Some therapy sessions are designed for individuals. In these treatment centers, you’ll typically lie on a comfortable table that slides into an oxygen-filled tube.
Group therapy sessions usually deliver the oxygen via a hood or mask instead. Depending on where you get treatment, you might be able to sleep, listen to music, or watch a movie during the session.
You can also find hyperbaric chambers for use at home. Still, it’s always best to consult with a medical professional before starting hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Even with the best home hyperbaric chambers, you’ll be safer and get better results if you talk to your doctor first.
Avoid Flammable Items
Since oxygen is very flammable, you’ll need to take care to avoid bringing anything flammable, like lighters or matches, into the chamber with you. You might need to avoid wearing certain personal care products, like hairspray, which can also be flammable.
Know How It Feels
You’ll have a better time during the treatment if you know how it’s going to feel.
You might experience some slight discomfort in your ears thanks to the high pressure, kind of like what you feel when you’re in an airplane. The shape of your eye lens also might change temporarily, blurring your long-distance vision briefly.
After treatment is over, some people feel more hungry or tired than usual. However, the therapeutic results are typically well worth these mild discomforts.
Is Hyperbaric Treatment Right for You?
If you have an issue that hyperbaric oxygen can treat, and your doctor recommends this treatment, hyperbaric oxygen chamber therapy is probably the best choice. You can also bring up the idea to your doctor to get their professional advice if you’re interested in this treatment.
There are many research-supported hyperbaric oxygen therapy benefits, like the ones listed above. However, some people believe oxygen therapy may help treat an even longer list of issues. With more research, new benefits from hyperbaric chambers might be revealed in the future.
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment is just one way technology has improved healthcare for countless people. For more of the latest tech-related medical news, come back to our Technology section to read the latest!
