Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: The benefits and the risks
In their recent quick getaway to The Farm at San Benito, Kapuso Primetime King and Queen Dingdong Dantes and Marian Rivera tried some medical treatments that are believed to have several health benefits. One of these is the hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Dingdong Dantes inside a hyberbaric oxygen chamber / Source: @dongdantes (IG)
The hyperbaric oxygen therapy has fast become a trend among health-conscious celebrities here and abroad.
In Hollywood, some of the celebrities who swear by its benefits are pop icon Madonna, Justin Bieber, and NBA superstar Lebron James.
Other celebrities said to have tried it are Britney Spears, Jennifer Aniston, Cameron Diaz and Uma Thurman.
And, there are also athletes who use it for faster recovery such as NFL star Tim Tebow and 28-time Olympic medalist Michael Phelps.
However, along with its fast rise to popularity, there is also a growing confusion regarding what hyperbaric oxygen therapy does and how it can be beneficial to one's health.
So, below are the important facts and myths about the hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) that you need to know about.
Justin Bieber showing his hyperbaric oxygen chamber / Source: Justin Bieber (YouTube)
What is hyperbaric oxygen therapy and how does it work?
According to the Johns Hopkins University, HBOT was first used in the U.S.A. in the early 20th century by Orville Cunningham to treat someone dying from flu.
Although that first attempt was successful, the hyperbaric chamber he developed later on failed to treat other conditions. So, he eventually decided to dismantle it.
The HBOT was tried again in the 1940s by the U.S. Navy to treat decompression sickness in deep-sea diver. And in the 1960s, it was also used to fight carbon monoxide poisoning.
Basically, to undergo this therapy, you need to enter an enclosed chamber and breathe in pure oxygen as the pressure inside the chamber is slowly increased.
The duration of the therapy can range from three minutes up to two hours. It highly depends on what you need the HBOT for.
The goal is to fill your blood with enough oxygen that your body needs for healing certain conditions.
HBOT aids healing by breaking the cycle of swelling, oxygen starvation, and tissue death that happens in wound injuries.
It also prevents “reperfusion injury” or severe tissue damage so that the healing process wouldn't be interrupted.
Moreover, HBOT can disable the toxins of certain bacteria and helps strengthen the immune system by increasing oxygen concentration in the tissues, which consequently improves the white blood cells' ability to fight off invaders.
Finally, it also encourages the formation of new collagen and new skin cells.
What can HBOT help treat?
Here are some of the conditions that HBOT can help treat according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and The Johns Hopkins University:
- Wound healing (especially diabetic wounds that aren't healing properly)
- Air embolism
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- Cyanide poisoning
- Thermal burns
- Crush injuries
- Gas gangrene
- Decompression sickness
- Acute or traumatic inadequate blood flow in the arteries
- Compromised skin grafts and flaps
- Infection in a bone (osteomyelitis)
- Delayed radiation injury
- Flesh-eating disease (also called necrotizing soft tissue infection)
- Chronic infection called actinomycosis
What HBOT cannot treat
The FDA and other medical experts warn people about so-called health benefits of undergoing HBOT, which have not been clinically proven. Here are some of them:
- Mental health issues (including depression)
- Aids/hiv
- Alzheimer's disease
- Asthma
- Bell's palsy
- Brain injury
- Cerebral palsy
- Depression
- Heart disease
- Hepatitis
- Migraine
- Multiple sclerosis
- Parkinson's disease
- Spinal cord injury
- Sport's injury
- Stroke
The risks
Just like any other treatment, there could be risks involved if HBOT is not used appropriately, such as the following:
- seizure (due to high concentration of oxygen in blood)
- eye damage
- ear pressure
- sinus pain
- middle ear injuries
- lung injuries
- painful joints
- paralysis
- air embolism
- fire (due to pressurized oxygen)
What to keep in mind about HBOT
It's perfectly okay to want to improve one's health by trying certain therapies or treatments, just make sure that you are well-informed of its benefits and as well as the risks involved.
Also, a panacea or cure-all medicine or therapy doesn't exist. So, if something is being touted as such, be highly doubtful about it and do your research first before trying it out.
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