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What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Why Is it Used?

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As a human, your body requires oxygen to survive. All of your tissues, including those in your brain and bones, require oxygen to function and heal. Whether a child or an adult sustains serious damage to these tissues, treatment must be sought.

When tissue is injured, it requires even more oxygen to survive and repair itself. For this reason, hyperbaric oxygen treatments exist. It may seem like a jumble of complex words, but the process is a bit simpler than that.

What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized room or tube. In a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, the air pressure is increased to three times higher than normal, which allows your lungs to gather more oxygen than would be possible at normal air pressure. Your blood then carries this oxygen throughout your body to help stimulate healing and proper funtioning. This helps fight bacteria and stimulate the release of substances called growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing.

Why Are Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments Used?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases the amount of oxygen your blood can carry. An increase in blood oxygen temporarily restores normal levels of blood gases and tissue function to promote healing and fight infection. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used to treat several medical conditions, and medical institutions use it in numerous ways.

What Can Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Treat?

The benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy are high in number, and the medical treatment can be used to treat multiple issues within the human body. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a well-established method of treatment for decompression sickness, which is a common hazard of scuba diving. Other conditions this therapy can treat include serious infections, air bubbles in blood vessels, and wounds that cannot heal properly as a result of diabetes or radiation injuries.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatments are providing new and safer methods of treatment for multiple issues within the human body. Though it does come with its own unique set of risks, the benefits usually far outweigh them and help promote healing, as well as lower the risk of infection in individuals.

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