There’s currently over a billion of confirmed cases of COVID-19 globally. Even at that, new and more contiguous variants with deep effects that can elude immunity are been discovered. For many healthy people, the symptoms of COVID-19 typically lasts between two weeks or less. However, an estimated 20% of COVID-19 cases as well as the symptoms persists for three or more months. When you don’t get relief from symptoms for this length of time, it’s not just COVID-19, but said to be post-COVID condition or long COVID.
So far, effective treatment for this condition has not been on the good edge. Now, a new study explains the benefits attached to using hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treating this condition. This article today will take a close look at the effects of HBOT on Covid. Are you positive is on the negative side? Let’s find out.
It will interest you to note that the symptoms of COVID-19, I.e., fever, and cough, loss of taste and smell, and sore throat aren’t the same as the symptoms of long COVID. Long COVID also known as “long haul” is always accompanied with symptoms ranging from the physical to the cognitive. For the physical aspect, people with long COVID-19 may experience; same symptoms of post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression.
Long COVID can also have effects on the brain; leading to a decreased executive function, and impacting our ability to stay active on tasks as well as remembering new information or regulating our emotions. However, new studies postulates that there is still a chance for people suffering from long COVID. A scientific study carried out in 2022 proves that HBOT can have various effects to the brain which may also improve the symptoms of long COVID. So, what exactly is this Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
A QUICK LOOK AT HBOT
HBOT is a widely known treatment that entails inhaling 98% pure oxygen in a hyperbaric chamber. During HBOT, there’s an increase in the level of oxygen that enters the lungs by as large as 3x the normal atmospheric pressure. After this, the blood transport the oxygen throughout the various parts of the body and also the brain. This is where it effectively accelerates the healing processes of any damaged tissues in the body.
HOW DOES HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY WORK?
All treatments with HBOT basically involves lying in a pressurized chamber for a period of time. The posture you assume depends on the type of hyperbaric chamber in use. For Monoplace hyperbaric chambers like the OXYHELP Oxylife 1 hyperbaric chamber, users get to lay down in the pressurized chamber.
But for a Multiplace hyperbaric chamber that can accumulate up to 6 people like the OXYHELP Oxylife C hyperbaric chambers, users get to sit and oxygen is delivered through BIB masks.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be delivered in either hard-shell chambers or soft-sided chambers. However, both types of chambers still provides benefits all depending on the needs of the user. In addition, the number of HBOT seasons required also depends on individual needs. Traditionally, HBOT was used to treat divers caught up with drastic damage in pressure around them. This situation is called decompression sickness but may also be called “bends” the use of HBOT today has extended to various other areas including burns, treating of diabetic wounds, and carbon dioxide poisoning.
OXYHELP HYPERBARIC OXYGEN CHAMBERS
In need of quality professional-grade hyperbaric chamber for both home use and commercial uses, OXYHELP hyperbaric chambers are the best there is in the market today. Unlike the traditional hyperbaric chambers which could accommodate only one user at a time, the OXYHELP hyperbaric chambers also comes in a Multiplace design.
OXYHELP hyperbaric chambers comprises of two types namely:
- Oxylife 1 Monoplace hyperbaric chamber
- Oxylife C Multiplace hyperbaric chamber.
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HBOT ON LONG COVID AND OTHER ISSUES?
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-Known oxygen treatment for addressing decompression sickness notable in deep sea divers. However, various research shows that this form of therapy also has effects for a large variety of other issues like would healing, combating infections, paraquat poisoning and burns.
In the past years, people have reported many benefits of HBOT treatments for other issues like; memory loss, depression, anxiety, migraine, Lyme disease, stroke, attention problems, Alzheimer’s disease, autism spectrum disorder, agonizing brain injuries, vascular dementia, post-traumatic stress disorder.
With the research in natural medicine, it was clearly proven that the signs of Long COVID can be a part of this list. It analyzes the use of this form of therapy on people suffering from long COVID symptoms that has got no relief for over three months after been diagnosed of having the corona virus. To carry out this research, 73 people were grouped into 2 with a group going in for 40 HBOT sessions and the second group going through Shem treatments. The group that went for HBOT experienced good improvements in sleep, energy, psychiatric symptoms, attention, exclusive function, and pain.
In addition, it was noticed that the group that received HBOT experienced a boost in the level of flow of blood to different brain parts that are related to cognitive functions and emotions.
According to researchers in Israel, long COVID-19 patients who received hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments noticed improvements to their various damaged tissues and improved functional cognition compared to those exposed to the regular air. A notable symptom of long COVID-19 is “brain fog” and research states its possible causes to be tissue damage and brain shrinkage. The HBOT experiment carried out was just to see if it would yield positive effects for COVID-19 related brain problems.
As we all know, COVID-19 patients with cognitive problems received 40 HBOT seasons in a hyperbaric chamber for over 60 days. In each of these seasons, they used 90 minutes for breathing through the mask with one group receiving pure oxygen and the other normal air with less oxygen. Results of this research shows positive improvements in damaged brain tissues and functional cognition for those that received pure oxygen
