Hyperbaric therapy consists of supplying oxygen into a pressurized chamber with atmospheric pressure levels higher than normal. Under these conditions, following the basic laws of gas physics, the lungs receive more oxygen than usual. The oxygen delivered is either 100% pure or part of a mix, and it increases the amount of oxygen your lungs receive and deliver to your blood, travelling throughout the circulatory system and arriving all over the body’s periphery. The benefits of this type of therapy are remarkable and proven, and research is consistently advocating the unrivalled health benefits it offers. The main organic effects and therapeutic uses of hyperbaric oxygen therapy are:
- neovascularization, improvement of the function of osteocytes, increase collagen production and treats osteoporosis, osteomyelitis and osteonecrosis by delaying callus formation;
- bacteriostatic and bactericidal (anaerobic, pyogenic etc…) as well as the mechanisms leukocyte, antibacterial action is exerted directly by free radicals on the anaerobic bacteria; O2 tension higher than 1520 mmHg kills Clostridium perfringens, while tension of O2 equal to 600 mmHg prevents the production of clostridic toxin;
- restoration of cytochrome oxidase A3 function, if compromised in the event of altered cellular respiration: used in cases of poisoning by CO, cyanide and toxic methaemoglobin;
- normalization of immune phenomena: used in the treatment of inflammatory and immunosuppressive;
- increase in nerve conduction velocity: used in the treatment of demyelinating diseases;
- analgesic and antispasmodic action: hypoxia induces spasm and pain, and oxygen breaks this cycle.