When it comes to longevity and recovery, there’s no such thing as shortcuts, hacks, or secrets. What truly sets the world’s best performers apart is their commitment to tools and practices that consistently deliver results over time and enhance their ability to live healthier for longer.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is one such tool—a powerful, evidence-based method that’s transforming how high performers recover and elevate their game.
However, HBOT is not just for athletes alone. It’s a cutting edge practice for anyone striving to live healthier for longer and perform at their best, day in and day out. It’s also the latest addition to my personal recovery stack – which has proven to be an absolute game changer.
That’s why we’re thrilled to be partnered with OxyHealth, the undisputed leader in HBOT technology, to bring this incredible resource to our community.
Whether you’re an elite athlete or simply committed to investing in your long term health, OxyHealth is the trusted choice for those who demand the best.
I’ve known about hyperbaric oxygen therapy for nearly three decades through working with some of the best professional and olympic level athletes. However, its use and efficacy is just now starting to be popularized beyond elite athletics.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is an evidence-based and well-established treatment that involves pushing pure oxygen into a pressured environment, such as a chamber.
The pressure inside is increased to 1.5-3x higher than normal atmospheric pressure, which allows your lungs to take in more oxygen than they’d normally be able to. The increased pressure also enables oxygen to dissolve more readily into your blood and lymph, the fluid that circulates your lymphatic system and helps you fight off pathogens.
This process not only aids in physical recovery but also supports cellular health and regeneration, critical factors in slowing the aging process and enhancing vitality.
HBOT is popularly used by endurance athletes to recover from the physical demands of their sport, football players as a treatment for TBI, military personnel to condition their bodies for extreme altitude and environmental shifts, and people overcoming specific medical conditions like cancer or chronic fatigue syndrome.
It’s even used as a medical intervention for crash and burn injuries, carbon monoxide poisoning, severe anemia, wound healing, antibiotic resistant infections, and hearing or vision loss.
Turns out though, everyone – not just high level athletes or military operators – can benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy, especially if you’re on a mission to consistently feel, perform, and recover at your best.
Which is how I got introduced to OxyHealth.
Whether you’re an athlete, an active professional, or simply someone who values long-term health, HBOT offers regenerative benefits from recovery to supporting cellular renewal and longevity.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the most trusted, non-invasive way to increase the oxygen levels to all your organs and tissues.
A general rule of thumb with human physiology is that where oxygen flows, vitality goes. Oxygen is your body’s lifeline – your brain can only survive a few minutes, and your core tissues can only get upward to an hour without it.
The less oxygen available, the more you start to deteriorate – but the more oxygen available, the more you start to elevate. In other words, the more oxygen you can circulate to parts of your body, the more resources it’s equipped with to repair, rejuvenate, and energize.
Because HBOT works by increasing oxygen availability to all your organs and tissues, the list of benefits is vast, but here are the 7 that have captured my attention the most:
HBOT can help downregulate the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and upregulate the production of anti-inflammatory cytokines, creating a foundation for balanced immune function.
Cytokines are signaling molecules that help maintain immune homeostasis by ensuring immune responses are appropriately selected and scaled to fight infections and heal injuries, but not overactivated to the extent it leads to chronic inflammation.
HBOT can also increase the production of antioxidants inside the body, which helps neutralize free radicals (unstable molecules that can damage cells and contribute to inflammation when in excess).
HBOT can stimulate angiogenesis, the growth of new blood vessels. New blood vessels improve the quality and volume of oxygen supplied to cells, which supports healthy cell growth and repair.
It can also stimulate the release of stem cells from your own bone marrow and blood, which can migrate to the site of any potential injury and differentiate into the various cell types needed for tissue repair in that region.
By stimulating angiogenesis and stem cell release, HBOT enhances the body’s ability to repair and regenerate, crucial for maintaining vitality as you age.
HBOT may help regulate the production of cortisol, your body’s main stress hormone. Specifically by supporting the function of your hypothalamus and pituitary gland, which together make up your HPA axis, a network in your brain responsible for helping you deal with stress.
When your HPA axis is in balance, you don’t release excess cortisol in response to stress or during unideal times of days, such as during the evening.
HBOT can also help improve sleep quality by promoting better whole body and brain oxygenation – which as a byproduct, helps strengthen your circadian rhythm, leading to more consistent sleep. Quality sleep is essential for stress management, as it allows the body to recover and regulate stress hormones effectively.
HBOT significantly increases the amount of oxygen dissolved in your blood plasma, which improves the delivery of oxygen to every single region of your body, even those with compromised blood flow. Higher available oxygen levels boost cellular metabolism, leading to more efficient energy production, cellular repair, and mitochondrial function.
The high pressure in HBOT can also help decrease swelling post exertion, which reduces the pressure on surrounding tissues and nerves – thereby, alleviating any pain associated with tissue damage or injuries that may otherwise keep you sedentary.
HBOT may also enhance the ability of white blood cells to kill off pathogens and directly inhibits the growth of anaerobic bacteria, making it a favorable tool for people recovering from surgery who need to reduce the risk of infection.
HBOT has been shown to promote neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to form new neural connections, and neurogenesis, the growth of new neurons, in specific brain regions. For example, in the hippocampus, which is key for memory, emotional regulation, learning, and time encoding.
HBOT also enhances cerebral blood flow, which increases the amount of oxygen and nutrients delivered to the brain. Improved blood flow supports every function and process in the brain, including attention, focus, reaction time, stress reduction, etc.
HBOT has shown a marked improvement in cognitive functions and neuronal health which usually declines with aging.
HBOT increases your blood oxygen saturation which naturally increases your aerobic metabolism and mitochondrial function, helping you create more energy with less effort and fatigue less easily.
HBOT may also help reduce the accumulation of lactic acid in your muscles, which delays when and how intensely you feel muscle fatigue and soreness – both during and after exercise.
Because HBOT increases your energy availability, recovery time, and mitochondrial power, you can train more effectively and consistently – helping you make greater endurance adaptations and performance improvements over time.
Oxygen is essential for collagen synthesis, the most abundant protein in the human body that serves as a primary building block for various tissues like skin, tendons, bones, ligaments, and cartilage.
Increased available oxygen can activate more collagen production, which can help improve skin texture and elasticity, which you naturally lose with age.
HBOT can also enhance the activity and proliferation of fibroblasts, cells that are responsible for producing collagen and other connective tissues. This can help promote the formation of healthy tissue, rather than excessive scar tissue, which can improve the appearance and functional impairment of scarring.
After seeing first hand how HBOT elevated the performance and recovery of many of the athletes I was working with, I was immediately intrigued to try it for myself – but wanted to ensure I was doing so with the highest quality and rigor in mind.
OxyHealth was consistently the top recommended brand to me and after digging more into their approach, science, and engineering, I instantly understood why.
OxyHealth stands today as the world’s leading provider of hyperbaric chambers, with over 15,000 chambers actively in use (more than all other manufacturers combined) and 20 years of experience building with the highest safety record on the market.
Over 500 NFL, MLB, NBA, PGA, MMA, and Olympic athletes, 3,000 physicians, and the US Special Forces trust OxyHealth as a critical partner in supporting their livelihood and the livelihood of their patients.
They offer a variety of sizes to meet the individual needs of every practice, clinic, home, or facility and are the only portable chamber that’s been approved by the International Olympic Committee.
All OxyHealth’s chambers are made from non-toxic, medical-grade materials and undergo a vigorous, multi-point inspection to ensure they’re over engineered for excellence, safety, and longevity.
Every chamber in their line is expertly sealed using dielectric sealing technology – creating a strong, durable and airtight seal and dissolving the need for chemicals and glues to ever be used in the production process.
OxyHealth also leverages tamper-proof, redundant pressure regulators and angled air-in ports to ensure there’s consistent, circulating air flow and double reinforced flanges for long-lasting functionality and durability.
As a finishing touch, each chamber is crafted with multiple, clear viewing windows that keep the interior illuminated with natural lighting.
I have time blocked off to use my OxyHealth chamber 2-3x a week for 60 minutes per session. The only caveat, of course, being if I’m traveling.
Not only do those time blocks serve as dedicated recovery time, but they’re also an incredible way to stack a few different types of habits at once. For example, I’ll often do a meditation followed by some breathwork, then catch up on emails while I’m in there.
I get to clear my mind, support my body, and lift some looming tasks off my to-do list
It’s generally recommended that you stay in it for at least 30 minutes, and ideally more. The typical treatment lasts for 60-90 minutes because it takes time for the oxygen to saturate your blood and be delivered to your surrounding tissues.
Reaching that 60 minute mark ensures enough oxygen is getting to areas of your body that have poor circulation or damaged tissue – which is where you want the benefits of HBOT the most.
The effects of HBOT are also cumulative, so the more consistent sessions you get in, the more benefits build up over time – leading to better whole body and mind outcomes.
My favorite times to use it are in the late afternoon or early evening after I’m back from work so it serves as a true recovery session, or when I’m arriving home from international travels to bounce back from the jet lag and altitude changes.
The latter has especially come in handy recently as I’ve been back and forth overseas for clients we’re partnering with at Finding Mastery. I’ve noticed a significant difference in how I feel the next day after getting off an international flight if I’m able to squeeze in an OxyHealth session before heading off to bed that same night.
If you’re traveling a lot, getting after it in your daily life in any capacity, want to take a preventative approach to your long term health, and recover like a pro – I’d highly recommend looking into HBOT.
Please consult with your physician or healthcare provider before starting a protocol to ensure you’re a good candidate and so you can structure your routine in a way that best serves your needs. Plus, if you have any specific questions around the technology and how it works, the OxyHealth team is amazing at answering those in detail.
If you’re interested in purchasing or learning more about OxyHealth chambers, please reach out to our team at:
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