I’ve suffered some injuries last few years, a big one in 1998; pelvic fracture. I am researching ways to stay healthy and remain in top physical health. That said, anyone have the 411 on Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy via sleeping in an enclosed portable Chamber? Or is all this BS and overrated by people looking to simple profit from paranoia?
I did a ton of hyperbaric therapy after I severed my achilles, they were using HBT to entice the skin graft over my tendon to take.
I think the real value would be recovery, which might indirectly aid in injury prevention. I did 28 sessions in 2 weeks, and it was noticable how “oxygenated” I felt, my hair and fingernails grew almost before my eyes.
Sleeping in one might be a bad idea, although I was napping during my sessions, they were 90mins twice a day.
There’s a company in AUS that was selling HB chambers much like the ones on Ebay, but for around $1200US, which is much more in line with reality. If I can find the link, I’ll post it, or you can just Google it.
Is the value in the increased pressure itself somehow, or the increased density of oxygen?
If the latter, couldn’t you simply use oxygen the way a person with advanced emphasema does?
The over-simplified answer is that the pressure (hyper)saturates the cells w/oxygen. Clinically it’s being used to speed wound healing and also to increase blood/oxygen in diabetic extremities.
BIG Thanks, Bobo … yea, post up the Link, if you can. I convinced my Doc once to approve me a prescription for oxygen breathing like old people do, a small bottle and nose tubes, breathing thru my nose. I felt good, did it every day for about 30 minutes by the oxygen was expensive therefore I stopped doing it.
Simple answer, don’t waste your money. I ended up turning around and helped some pro triathletes try and sell their chambers 7-8 years ago, as they most used them for a short period of time (as many pros were using them, so at best, you were on equal level to others), then got rid of them.
Now, with that said, I haven’t talked to the folks over at www.cvacsystems.com in awhile, but they have plenty of studies, and people who have used them over the past 25 years (probably closer to 30 now) with some great anecdotal evidence (and now some scientific evidence in certain fields of study). They do have some chambers out to people in different parts of the country, so you may be able to find one close by. Their HQ is located in Temecula, CA.
Personally, I’ve seen quite a bit of extraordinary anecdotal evidence that superseded any solutions that could be provided my current modern medicine (in other words, there were no additional options provided by most medical practioners). Everything from healing bone breakage in half the time (2-3 weeks as opposed to 4-6), nerve regeneration for spinal cord injuries, chronic pain, and many others. Unfortunately, I just don’t think the company has the right business plan to get the technology into the mass market - as they have had marginal success in the past 10 years since I’ve known of them. However, I am amazed at many of the things I’ve seen/heard by those who have used a CVAC pod.
TT - I admire your ingenuity. I don’t know that there’s enough research out there, about the healthy triathlete trying to stay that way, that you’d really benefit from this. But, if you have $5K in a drawer in the kitchen who are we to tell you not to do it. But, in my mind, there are better ways to spend your money to get faster like a good coach or a Trek Speed Concept bike.
Hey Bucko, I’m on your side. I was just correcting a possible misunderstanding between the 2 systems that PJC was possibly having. (Did I work in enough weasel words to have plausible deniability?)
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy has been around for year. The Navy uses their recompression chambers to treat mostly diving injuries that require recompression therapy. On occassion, we will see a request for HBOT for numerous issues. Bone problems, Head Trauma from IED’s. Infections, post surgery treatment, eye disorders, etc. Have good succes in some cases. The DOD Medical is seriously looking into this issue for post traumatic brain injuries.
HBOT increases the partial pressure of oxygen when compressed, thus increasing the percentage of O2. Thus the O2 will increase in the body and saturate the tissue with O2, The motto is: green gas is good gas. It is becoming a little more common to see HBOT at local Navy Dive Lockers that have Hyperbaric systems. Our talented Diving Medical Officers that move into a different field of work, ortho seems to be the big on, know the benefits of HBOT.
A related effect is the increased oxygen transport capacity of the blood. Under normal atmospheric pressure, oxygen transport is limited by the oxygen binding capacity of hemoglobin in red blood cells and very little oxygen is transported by blood plasma. Because the hemoglobin of the red blood cells is almost saturated with oxygen under atmospheric pressure, this route of transport cannot be exploited any further. Oxygen transport by plasma, however is significantly increased using HBOT as the stimulus
commom treatments:
Air or gas embolism.
carbon monoxide poisining
gas gangrene
crush injuries, compartment syndrome or other accute traumatic ischemias
Decompression Sickness
enhancement of healing in selected problem wounds
diabetic foot, diabetic retinopathy, diabetic nephropathy
Exceptional blood loss (anemia)
intercranial abscess
necrotizing soft tissue infections (necrotizing fasciitis)
Osteomyelitis
delayed radiation injury (soft tissue and bony necrosis)
Skin grafts and flaps
Thermal burns
Other reported treatments are:
Autism
Epidural abscesses
certain kinds of hearing loss
infammatory bowel disease
off label treatments included:
lyme disease, stroke and migraines
I have heard promising results from various treatments, have even seen documented video results that were amazing.
Hello TTRay,
I stumbled upon this forum and wanted to give you a little info on HBOT. I am currently working with a Hyperbaric Clinic in Dallas so hope this helps.
HBOT is FDA approved and complies with safety codes. Bag chambers do not. Bag chambers offer very little pressure and therefore do not give you a super saturation of oxygen that you are after to speed recovery. Breathing oxygen under pressure is key to HBOT. If I were you, I would try to find a reputable clinic in your area offering HBOT; it will be supervised and very comfortable and you will receive the right pressure for your condition.
Best of luck!!!