Can Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers Be Used for Health Care?
Mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy does not fall within the medical category but rather the health care category.
Currently, there are no relevant standards such as indications and contraindications for the use of civilian hyperbaric oxygen equipment. The generally recommended user groups are the elderly, patients with chronic diseases, women, and office workers.
Hyperbaric oxygen itself has the effects of anti-aging, repair, and health care, which have been proven by scientists long ago. In 2020, Israeli scientists studied the "health care" effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and published the results of clinical experiments in "Aging". The scientists gave a group of 35 elderly people aged 64 and above hyperbaric oxygen therapy once a day, five times a week, for 60 consecutive times over a period of three months. After three months, it was found that hyperbaric oxygen could significantly halt or even reverse the cellular aging process. The telomeres of the elderly were found to have lengthened by more than 20%, and the number of senescent cells decreased by 10 - 37%.
The "health care" effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy are not limited to this. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can also repair the body after high-intensity exercise. After high-intensity exercise, the body will experience hypoxia. Hyperbaric oxygen can help the body restore normal oxidative metabolism and promote the recovery of serum enzymes and liver enzymes. If there is physical damage during exercise, it can also reduce the inflammation of the injured muscles. Many sports stars such as NBA star LeBron James and football star Cristiano Ronaldo use hyperbaric oxygen chambers for "health care". In order to be in the best physical condition for each game, they will spend a lot of money to hire specialized therapists, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy is also an essential "health care weapon" for them to recover their bodies. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers have also been favored by the Winter Olympics in China. There are hyperbaric oxygen chambers in the training centers of the Winter Olympics.
Civilian hyperbaric oxygen chambers (mild hyperbaric oxygen chambers) can also be used for beauty, prevention, and alleviation of altitude sickness. Because of the reduced oxygen content and air pressure at high altitudes, which cause adverse altitude sickness, hyperbaric oxygen can help alleviate it. Those who often use hyperbaric oxygen chambers can also prevent altitude sickness.
The 18th Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army once published a study showing that hyperbaric oxygen can improve the human body's ability to tolerate hypoxia and resist fatigue on the plateau. It was found that hyperbaric oxygen therapy enhanced the activity of antioxidant enzymes and the ability to clear lactic acid in the body, and this effect could last for more than eight days. During the construction of the second "Heavenly Road" in China, the Sichuan-Tibet Highway, there were hyperbaric oxygen chambers to help workers cope with the physical discomfort caused by altitude sickness.
The core of mild hyperbaric oxygen chambers is still hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and it has different "health care" effects on different groups of people. For patients, it has the effects of regulating chronic diseases, improving rehabilitation efficiency, and shortening the duration of illness. For ordinary people, it can provide daily oxygen supplementation, regulate fatigue status, adjust circulatory metabolism, and adjust sleep, etc.
