Treating Inflammation with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has an incredible effect on inflammation. Not only does it reduce acute inflammation, but it reduces chronic inflammation by suppressing inflammatory signals at the cellular level. HBOT improves detoxification and increases circulation through the growth of new blood vessels to continually maintain tissue health.
Inflammation is a normal part of our body’s healing process. It happens when inflammatory molecules travel to the site of injury or infection. However, if inflammation stays too long, it may lead to chronic inflammation that reduces blood flow to the site of injury, reducing the oxygen and other nutrients necessary for healing. Many health conditions that people suffer from are associated with chronic inflammation, including Alzheimer’s, cancer, type II diabetes, heart disease, rheumatoid arthritis, and more.
Common symptoms
Inflammation can cause a wide range of symptoms, but common symptoms include:
- Dementia
- Alzheimer’s Disease
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Type II Diabetes
- Heart Disease
- Cancer
- Rheumatoid Arthritis
- Chronic Back Pain
- Headaches
- Migraines
- Gastro-Intestinal Pain and Dysfunction
How can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help with Inflammation?
There are many ways to help prevent inflammation, including diet and exercise, but hyperbaric oxygen therapy should be a major consideration with its powerful ability to decrease both acute and chronic inflammation.
- providing abundant levels of plasma-rich oxygen to our tissue for healing
- reducing inflammation throughout our brain and body
- reducing swelling
- increasing fibroblast production which are critical to healing
- reducing scarring (fibrosis)
- increasing stem cell production for tissue repair
- improving detoxification
- increasing collagen production, which is the most abundant protein in the body and is a major contributor to the health of our joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, bone, and skin.
- increasing flexibility of joints and muscles (by stimulating the hydroxylation of proline and lysine)
- stimulating osteoblasts that are essential for new bone production and repair.
- stimulating release of growth factors such as trophic factor to enhance repair and regeneration at the cellular level.
- stimulating growth of new blood vessels to supply tissue with greater circulation and oxygen to promote repair and regeneration by releasing greater amounts of vascular endothelial growth factor
- balancing our fight or flight and relaxation and digestion systems by strengthening the health of our autonomic nervous system, impacting blood flow within our brain that leads to dizziness, headaches, slow processing, memory changes and many other symptoms
- enhancing cerebrospinal fluid flow
Other benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a quickly evolving science and the full benefits are continually being discovered. HBOT increases the amount of oxygen in our bloodstream and increases circulation to deliver abundant amounts of oxygen to the brain, supersaturating our tissue with energy needed for healing, growth, and repair. This creates a healthier environment for our brain to work and control our autonomic nervous system. Because of this, the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be found in all parts of the body and in a wide range of ways. Some benefits can include:
- Faster healing from trauma
- Reduced inflammation
- Increased stem cell release
- Improved brain health
- Detoxification
- Improved autonomic nervous system function
- …and many more
Learn more about the many benefits of HBOT and how it works.
Supporting Research
- Recently, separate studies from Moghadam et al. and Chen et al. both reported that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) could be effective in early recovery from exercise-related muscular injury due to its beneficial effect on cell recovery and tissue repair.
- Moghadam et al. suggested this as a possible treatment for sports musculoskeletal injuries as it can enhance oxygen delivery, reduce edema and pathologic inflammation, and mitigate ischemia/reperfusion injury.
- Chen et al. applied HBOT treatment to 41 athletes with exercise-related muscle damage and reported that muscle damage indices like CK, glutamic oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), and myoglobin were significantly decreased.
- Woo et al. concluded HBOT treatment in the recovery phase had a positive impact on relieving the inflammatory response and muscle damage after exercise.
- HBOT remains one of the safest therapies used today.
Sources
- Woo J, Min JH, Lee YH, Roh HT. Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy on Inflammation, Oxidative/Antioxidant Balance, and Muscle Damage after Acute Exercise in Normobaric, Normoxic and Hypobaric, Hypoxic Environments: A Pilot Study. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2020 Oct 10;17(20):7377. doi: 10.3390/ijerph17207377. PMID: 33050362; PMCID: PMC7601270.
- Moghadam N., Hieda M., Ramey L., Levine B.D., Guilliod R. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Sports Musculoskeletal Injuries. Med. Sci. Sports Exerc. 2020;52:1420–1426. doi: 10.1249/MSS.0000000000002257.
- Chen C.Y., Chou W.Y., Ko J.Y., Lee M.S., Wu R.W. Early Recovery of Exercise-Related Muscular Injury by HBOT. Biomed. Res. Int. 2019;2019:6289380. doi: 10.1155/2019/6289380.
- Heyboer M 3rd, Sharma D, Santiago W, McCulloch N. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Side Effects Defined and Quantified. Adv Wound Care (New Rochelle). 2017 Jun 1;6(6):210-224. doi: 10.1089/wound.2016.0718. PMID: 28616361; PMCID: PMC5467109.
Contact Us
Ready to discuss how hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help you heal, rebuild and restore health?
Contact Us