I lived with fatigue and brain fog for 11 months. I also struggled with breathing. Long covid reduced me to feeling more like a 80 year old rather than a 26 year old. Then came the hyperbaric chamber treatments and I finally feel like myself again. Nothing else has worked. According to doctors, my health flourished. All the tests came back negative. More and more people report benefits from receiving hyperbaric chamber treatments. But because the medical community doesn’t recognise them as proven treatment (yet), insurance doesn’t cover the costs. These treatments make a dent in your financials but they can be affordable depending on which country you live in. I am lucky enough to be in a position to borrow it home for a month. It did wonders for me but it might not for you. To clarify, I am not a doctor or scientist, I am merely sharing my experience. It would be best for you to consult your doctor before you start these. Prepare yourself to hear they don’t know what it is, let alone the benefits for long covid. Proceed at your own risk. I decided to take the risk because I needed to help myself as the medical community was ignoring me.
You probably don’t know what a hyperbaric chamber looks like and your ideas range from scary to hilarious. Hyperbaric chambers look differently depending on various factors such as portability and size. There are portable ones that one can borrow to use at home. The individual ones that are not portable look like a tube. Hospitals have larger ones that multiple people can use at once and they look much more like the inside of a small plane. The one I had home looked more like a large bag for tennis rackets, large enough to fit humans. There are ones where you lie down and others where you sit. When they are inflate, they almost look like a spaceship. Most, if not all, usually have small-ish windows to prevent claustrophobia. The portable ones use zippers to close you in it. The multi-use ones in hospitals have an actual door.
How do they work? Well, again I am not a medical professional or a scientist but this is what I gathered. The chamber gets pressurised up to 2 times the pressure of the atmosphere. Anything above 0.5 times triggers the effects. The chamber is also connected to an oxygen source using an oxygen mask. Because of the increased pressure, our body absorbs more of the oxygen than is normally the case. This supports the body’s healing functions and intensifies them. Under normal conditions, the air we breath only has 21% of oxygen. The oxygen mask provides us with almost a 100% oxygen filled air. Thanks to this and the pressure, our lungs absorb much more oxygen. When oxygen first enters the body, it usually only binds to red blood cells. With the increased pressure, it also dissolves in our blood, cerebral-spinal fluid as well as other fluids. All of these fluids supply various parts of the body with oxygen that would normally be deprived of it or only receive small doses. Oxygen fuels our cells and improves their function. This in turn makes our immune system stronger, recovery faster and reduces inflammation. Hyperbaric treatment helps oxygen reach tissues that were previously deprived. This promotes healing and reduces swelling and inflammation. According to some studies, it reverses the aging process by not only stopping the shortening of the telomers but also lengthening them. Telomers are located on our chromosomes and they shorten as we age.
Long covid has many underlying causes. Mine was never diagnosed. My blood results didn’t show an ongoing infection. My lungs seemed healthy. But clearly there was some sort of damage. The treatment improves sleep and energy levels in general which might have given me the much needed energy boost. Athletes use hyperbaric chambers to fasten recovery after strenuous load or sports injuries. It supports immune system and strengthens body’s ability to fight. Maybe I just needed extra strength to recover.
Disclaimer, not everyone should receive these treatments. People with ear or lung problems and people who are sick or have a fever should not receive it.
What does it feel to be in the chamber? Your ears might pop as the chamber is pressurized. You may feel some discomfort but that is normal. If you feel pain anywhere, let the person operating the chamber know immediately. It should not be painfully uncomfortable. The experience isn’t fun, it’s a bit boring. Make sure to bring a book or something indoors if they allow it. The ones that get pressurized to 2 times the atmosphere have harsher rules because the dangers are increased. In the portable chambers, where the pressure is much lower, I was able to bring my laptop and work. At first, I only brought a book and got through Brothers Karamazovs since you’re cut off from distractions (unless you bring your phone in). Consult the place about what to bring or not to before you go in. They will explain everything beforehand anyways. You should also be careful with smoking and drinking alcohol or caffeine before or after treatments. It might jeopardize or reverse the positive results. Since treatments can take 1-2 hours, go to the restroom before as it is not possible to take a break during.