If you’re an injured athlete, should you breathe in pure oxygen to hasten the healing process?
That’s what some sports scientists are recommending, as the inhalation of oxygen under high pressure becomes an increasingly popular form of treatment for hurting athletes.Are you fitness fanatics looking for the energy boost that you need during your workouts?
Do you feel sluggish or fatigued on days after a hard workout? Are you training for a fun or competitive event or race?
Whatever your fitness goals are, the key to improving your athletic performance may be Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy!
Many professional athletes and now many amateur athletes are becoming privy to HBOT and other legal, natural treatment modalities that allow for faster recovery from injuries, sharper performance and longer and more intense training regimens.
In the last decade, competitive sports have taken on a whole new meaning, where intensity has increased together with the incidence of injuries to the athletes. These sport injuries, ranging from broken bones to disrupted muscles, tendons and ligaments, may be a result of acute impact forces in contact sports or the everyday rigors of training and conditioning [Babul et al. 2003].
Therefore, a need has emerged to discover the best and fastest treatments that will allow the injured athlete to return to competition faster than the normal course of rehabilitation, with a low risk of re-injury.
In recent years, professional and college teams have started using hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to treat sports injuries. From muscle contusions and ankle sprains to delayed-onset muscle soreness, HBOT has been used to facilitate soft-tissue healing.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the therapeutic administration of 100% oxygen at pressures higher than 1 absolute atmosphere (ATA). At 2.0 ATA, the blood oxygen content is increased 2.5% and sufficient oxygen becomes dissolved in plasma to meet tissue needs in the absence of haemoglobin-bound oxygen, increasing tissue oxygen tensions 10-fold (1000%) [Staples and Clement, 1996]. HBOT is remarkably free of untoward side effects. Complications such as oxygen toxicity, middle ear barotrauma and confinement anxiety are well controlled with appropriate pre-exposure orientations [Mekjavic et al.2000].
To minimize the time between injury and HBOT treatment, some professional sports teams have on-site centers. Because of the importance of oxygen in the aerobic energy system, many athletes and researchers have also investigated the possible ergogenic effects of HBOT.
Hyperbaric oxygen is used in a sports medicine setting to reduce hypoxia and edema and appears to be particularly effective for treating crush injuries and acute traumatic peripheral ischemias.
When used clinically, HBOT should be considered as an adjunctive therapy as soon as possible after injury diagnosis.
Additional reading:
Phoenix Anti-Aging Clinic: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Boosts Athletic Performance!
FoxSports: Athletes turn to hyperbaric treatment as means to speed recovery.
Medscape: HBO Applications in Sports Medicine.