Treating Long COVID-19 with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

One of the major tenets of long-hauler, post-covid patients is dysautonomia. Studies are continuing to support hyperbaric oxygen therapy’s role in improving patient reports of fatigue, brain fog, slow mental processing, dizziness and lightheadedness, along with other symptoms that are associated with dysautonomia. Essentially, these patients are not getting blood quickly enough to our brain and tissues to necessitate optimal function.

Dysautonomia refers to any medical condition that impacts the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls involuntary functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion. It maintains proper blood circulation to the areas of our brain and body when and where we need it. We only have 5-6 Liters of blood, which is not enough to be everywhere at once. If you stood up and didn’t have a functioning ANS, all of your blood would pool in your legs and gut and wouldn’t reach your brain.

Common symptoms

Long COVID-19 can cause a wide range of symptoms, but common symptoms include:

• Brain Fog
• Dizziness
• Dizziness Upon Standing
• Lightheadedness
• Fatigue
• Cold Hands, Feet or Limbs
• Anxiety
• Hypertension
• Headaches
• Migraines
• Gastro-Intestinal Disturbance
• Chronic Pain

How can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help with Long COVID-19?

The ANS resides primarily in your brain stem, but receives inputs from multiple areas of our brain and through sensors in our blood vessels, heart, and lungs, known as mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors, which sense changes in blood volume, carbon dioxide and oxygen so that the body can deliver adequate blood flow and maintain proper energy levels while removing waste, balancing pH. A healthy functioning brain is necessary for a healthy autonomic nervous system. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy specifically works on the autonomic nervous system by exercising this system and balancing our sympathetic and parasympathetic systems to ensure we have balanced slow and fast acting systems (i.e. relaxation with fight/flight activity) in order to provide adequate blood flow to areas of our brain and body as needed.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be helpful due to its ability to improve brain tissue function by:

• providing abundant levels of plasma-rich oxygen to our brain tissue for healing
• reducing neuro-inflammation throughout our brain and body
• stimulating release of growth factors such as trophic factor to enhance neuroplasticity for the repair and regeneration of brain cells and their connections (synapses).
• stimulating growth of new blood vessels to supply the brain with greater circulation and oxygen to promote brain 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, which impacts blood flow within our brain that may lead to cardiovascular changes, dizziness, headaches, slow processing, memory changes, temperature changes, easily stressed or overwhelmed, and many other symptoms.
• increasing stem cell production for healing
• improving detoxification
• enhancing cerebrospinal fluid flow