What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a non-invasive, painless treatment that supports the body’s natural healing capabilities. It does this by delivering high concentrations of oxygen to the bloodstream to help heal persistent wounds, injuries and infections and can be beneficial for lots of conditions.
The Benefits of HBOT
Under normal conditions, the air we breathe contains a mixture of gases, of which about 21 percent is oxygen.
Whilst being in our specialised Oxygen Chamber, the patient breathes in 100 percent pure, medical grade oxygen.
High concentrations of oxygen can enhance your body’s healing power to repair itself, rehabilitate an injury or promote healing of a chronic wound. It can also help to rejuvenate cells and tissue that are at risk of dying due to diminished blood supply.
The plasma carries the pure oxygen deep into the body’s tissues, including the lymphatic system and the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. This results in a much higher concentration of oxygen within the body – up to 1,000 percent higher or more than is usual. In people with certain medical conditions, this delivery of highly concentrated oxygen via the plasma can be therapeutic and boost the body’s natural ability to heal processes.
How it Works
Normally, the oxygen we breathe is delivered to tissues and organs in the body by the red blood cells. During HBOT, the pressurized environment allows the oxygen to be dissolved directly into the blood plasma – a liquid component of blood that transports proteins, hormones and nutrients. Plasma accounts for more than half of the body’s total blood volume.
HBOT promotes wound healing and other health benefits by:
1. Increasing blood flow.
2. Decreasing inflammation and swelling.
3.Weakening infection-causing bacteria.
4. Increasing the body’s ability to fight free radicals (unstable molecules that can build up in cells and cause damage)
5. Stimulating the growth of new blood vessels.
Conditions HBOT can assist with:
- Air and gas bubbles in blood vessels
- Anemia (severe anemia when blood transfusions cannot be used)
- Burns (severe and large burns treated at a specialized burn centre)
- Carbon monoxide poisoning
- Crush injuryDecompression sickness
- Hearing loss (complete hearing loss that occurs suddenly and without any known cause)
- Infection of the skin and bone.
- Radiation injury
- Skin graft flap at risk of tissue death
- Vision loss (when sudden and painless in one eye due to blockage of blood flow)
- Wounds (non-healing, diabetic foot ulcers).
*Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not safe for everyone.*
In general, you shouldn’t receive HBOT if you:
1. Have certain types of lung diseases, because of an increased risk for a collapsed lung
2. Have a collapsed lung
3. Have a cold or a fever
4. Have had recent ear surgery or injury
5. Do not like small enclosed spaces (claustrophobia)
6. Pregnant.
Want to learn more…..Please watch Lucy Charles Barclay -Professional triathlete test out one of The Henshaw’s Hyperbaric Chambers.
Please get in touch to book your Complimentary Consultation today.
