HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY (HBOT) IN SPORT
At LondonCryo we have recently introduced HBOT as it compliments all that we are doing, replicating the best in nature to help accelerate recovery and repairs.
Now lets take a look at what Henshaw Hyperbarics have to say about why this therapy is used to support performance, recovery and long-term health of athletes, as well as with traumatic brain injuries.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Explained…
Around the world, many athletes, sports teams, and organisations are turning to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) to support their performance, improve injury recovery times, extend their careers and to protect their long-term health.
While HBOT itself is not new, its use in sport is rapidly becoming common with many athletes incorporating HBOT into their daily routine.
HBOT is increasingly being used in sport to support four important areas…
• Peak Performance – When HBOT is used consistently, an increase in available energy provides long-term benefits for the body. Many elite athletes believe that HBOT supports and enhances their performance on the field.
• Recovery from Injury – Athletes, physios and coaching staff all use HBOT to reduce inflammation and ease pain, which supports and speeds up rehab, and cuts recovery time, allowing athletes to return to play faster.
• Traumatic Brain Injury – TBIs incurred by sports-related activities are a substantial concern among players, coaches, parents and professional organisations. The benefits of HBOT for traumatic brain injuries has been confirmed in multiple studies. Athletes use
HBOT to support recovery from head injuries when they happen, and HBOT is increasingly used by those who have been diagnosed with early onset dementia caused by multiple concussions.
• Long-Term Health – HBOT can help support the immune system, give added protection to the body against everyday toxins, and can help slow down the ageing process. With extra energy in your body, you are more able to fight disease, heal, and live life with strength and vigour. However, there’s a lot to understand with this type of therapy.
Peak performance, recovery from injury, traumatic brain injury (TBI) support, and long-term health concerns caused by playing sports are of substantial interest to players, coaches and players’ families.
Whatever sport you are involved with, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy could support you. The top 4 benefits for all sports are:
• Improved sports performance
• Promote faster recovery from injury
• Support traumatic brain injury
• Improved long-term wellbeing
This is why professional sports trainers, coaches and sports doctors around the world have chosen to utilise the powers of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
Elite athletes from American Football, Football, Basketball, Moto GP, Rugby, Olympic Swimming Boxing and Equestrianism, have all been known to use HBOT to help with healing and recovery time. This includes Nicola Adams (British Professional Boxer and Olympic Gold Medallist), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portuguese Footballer), and Randy de Puniet (French Moto GP rider) and many more.
1.1 Peak Performance
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy supports tissue repair and function by increasing the available cellular energy.
When HBOT is used consistently, an increase in available energy provides long-term benefits for the body,
by increasing the body’s ability to fight disease, accelerate healing, and improve overall vitality and wellbeing.
The pressurised chamber in which athletes breathe oxygen enriched air, allows up to a tenfold increase in the oxygen level of the blood plasma and haemoglobin.
The red blood cells become more malleable, increasing their ability to penetrate restricted blood vessels so that cells and tissues receive the oxygen they need to regenerate and heal.
With Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, recovery time between training sessions is reduced significantly, and athletes will be able to train and compete more effectively.
1.2 Recovery from Injury
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy may serve to provide a means of therapy to facilitate a speedier return to pre-injury activity levels, as well as improving both the short and long-term prognosis of the injury.
Reduced Pain
The anti-inflammatory and therapeutic benefits of HBOT can support pain relief without the long or short-term side effects that often follow prescribed pain relief medication.
Reduced Inflammation
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy increases the availability of oxygen in the body, enhancing cellular metabolism and the production of ATP. This can accelerate the healing process and reduce inflammation (acute and chronic).
Higher oxygen saturation allows for a greater volume of white cell production, which, combined with reducing sanguine acidity, enhances the body’s ability to combat bacteria, reduce swelling, and allow new blood vessels to form quicker in the affected areas.
New Collagen (Connective Tissue) and New Skin Cells
Increasing the level of oxygen availability to the body allows more energy to become available to be used to support the generation of new collagen, by activating cells called fibroblasts, which play a critical role in wound healing.
The generation of new collagen can sustain bone, cartilage, and organ health, as well as supporting skin health.
1.3 Traumatic Brain Injury Support
Every concussion you have (no matter how mild) is a traumatic brain injury (TBI) that damages the brain.
We are seeing more players turn to HBOT to support recovery from head injuries immediately after they happen, but also in those who have been diagnosed with early onset dementia caused by multiple concussions.
HBOT aims to relieve symptoms and accelerate recovery by promoting damaged tissue repair and the development of new blood vessels.
Damaged Tissue Repair
At normal air pressure, our oxygen carrying cells (red blood cells) are saturated and therefore cannot carry any more oxygen that may be introduced into our bodies.
During HBOT, the body is gently placed under pressure, creating an environment where oxygen can dissolve directly into the blood, tissue, and other bodily fluids. This increases the oxygen levels in the cells and triggers an increase in available energy. This increased available energy can be used to heal damaged tissues.
New Blood Vessels
Increasing the level of oxygen available to the body, allows more energy to become available for the generation of new blood vessels. This can benefit those who have suffered injury or tissue damage that has resulted in destruction of the supporting blood vessels.
This new blood vessel initiation can support chronic and non-healing wounds following brain injuries, heart attacks, and wounds occurring as a result of diabetes or the ageing process.
1.4 Long-Term Wellbeing
Dylan Hartley, former England and Northampton rugby player, explains in his book, The Hurt, that ‘Rugby is great for the soul, but terrible for the body.
This doesn’t just apply to rugby. The training required for any sport demands mental resilience and resistance to pain. It requires you to push your body to its limit, and then more.
That’s why more and more sportspeople are using HBOT during retirement to support their general wellbeing after years of putting their body through the rigors of professional sports.
Improve and Enhance the Immune System
A higher level of oxygen availability helps the body fight off infection by boosting the immune system.
In conditions where the body’s blood oxygen levels are reduced, the immune cells have insufficient oxygen and have a reduced capacity to fight infection.
HBOT supports the immune response by making more energy available to the body, so that vital functions are maintained, and the extra available energy can be focussed on the repair, maintenance and healing process.
Protection for your Body
Stress plays a big part in our busy, modern lifestyles – from our environment to our everyday habits, everything costs us energy, leaving less and less energy available for healing and regeneration.
HBOT delivers more oxygen throughout the body, including to the brain, which results in a calming effect.
Increased oxygen availability can also assist the body in eliminating some of the harmful by- products of air-pollution, toxins, fast-food, smoking, and inflammation-inducing stress, and repair the damaged caused.
With extra energy in your body, you are more able to fight disease, heal, and live life with strength and vigour.
Anti-Ageing
Mitochondria are the powerhouse organelles inside every cell and have a direct relationship between the energy required by the cell and its tissue function, including repair and regeneration. Mitochondria are present in all metabolically-active tissue and cells inside the body, with the brain having the highest levels, due to its energetic demands and responsibilities.
1.5 Other Sports-Specific Benefits
As well as the four key areas outlined above that HBOT can support sports people with, studies have demonstrated that HBOT can also have the following sports-related benefits…
• Faster healing following muscle strain, training and games
• Increased energy, speed and endurance
• Reduction in inflammation and pain
• Rapid recovery from concussions and head injuries
• Faster and better recover from sprains, tears, bone fractures and ligament damage
• Decreased chance of re-injury
• Decreased downtime
• Improved blood flow
• Increase collagen production
• Increased fibroblast activation
• Stimulated stem cell proliferation
• Reduced risk of infection
Former England Rugby Captain Dylan Hartley uses his Hyperbaric Chamber to support long term health
Our Cryotherapy service as well as infrared saunas and lymphatic drainage, red light photobiomodulation therapy, compression therapy, Cryofacials, slimming, toning and double chin services, IV drips are all available to book in our locations – LondonCryo City (located in Liverpool Street) and LondonCryo Belgravia (situated near the suburbs of Chelsea) and St Johns Wood High Street, St Johns Wood.
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