Surprising Benefits of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy You Might Not Know About
When thinking of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), recovery from injury, surgery, or intensive athletic training often comes to mind. While HBOT has extensive benefits in an injury recovery setting, these benefits extend far beyond repair and sports performance.
By delivering oxygen at higher atmospheric pressures, your body can absorb significantly more oxygen into the bloodstream. This bolsters your natural healing and regenerative processes, influencing everything from brain clarity to skin health.
Our HBOT is a core recovery option for athletes, but professionals, wellness-minded individuals, and those seeking long-term physical and cognitive optimisation also benefit significantly from its use.
Our members often ask us how they can use HBOT outside of recovery. In this post, we'll explore some of this extraordinary recovery option's more surprising and lesser-known benefits from the perspective of questions our members have asked us.
If you're looking to learn about the more known benefits of HBOT, see this post: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Benefits, Mechanisms & Uses.
1 - Can HBOT enhance focus and mental clarity?
An exciting application of HBOT is its potential to enhance brain function. Biologically, when more oxygen reaches the brain, it supports neural activity, improves energy production at the cellular level, and reduces inflammation. [1] [2]
These factors can directly impact mental sharpness.
Anecdotally, many of our Kensington members mentioned feeling noticeably clearer and more focused after their session, which has helped many of them take the lead in their work as London professionals.
As a non-invasive means to gain a wide range of benefits, using HBOT as a recovery option alongside its focus-enhancing properties can be a powerful way to maintain focus throughout a challenging day, support your memory, and reduce brain fog.
2 - Does HBOT help reduce fatigue and improve sleep?
Sleep is the body's natural panacea, governing recovery, hormone regulation, and overall well-being. Despite the body's incredible attempt to repair and reset itself naturally, modern stress, consistent exposure to distractions and screens, and ever-increasing sedentary lifestyle habits often disrupt this vital time.
By reducing systemic inflammation and regulating oxygen delivery throughout the body, HBOT can help reset the nervous system and, similarly to float therapy, encourage deeper rest. These combined effects indicate that HBOT may support better overall sleep quality with consistent use. [3]
As we speak (figuratively), HBOT is being investigated as a potential treatment for various sleep disorders with conditions such as sleep apnea, insomnia and Parkinson's disease. [4]
The same can be applied to reduce fatigue, with many of our members feeling more rested and alert after a few sessions. Unlike other recovery options, such as cryotherapy and floatation therapy, where you need to change into suitable clothing and engage directly with the therapy, you only need to rest in our Hydroxy pod for HBOT.
Thus, you can use this time to catch up on sleep, read, finalise some work, or engage in another activity, making it a perfect solution for anyone dealing with burnout, stress, or post-travel exhaustion.
3 - Can HBOT help with Mental health conditions & stress?
Unfortunately, stress doesn't just remain in your head; it affects your whole being and negatively impacts various body functions, including increasing inflammation, impairing immunity, and disrupting hormone balance.
HBOT may reduce these effects over time by supporting oxygenation and cellular repair.
Emerging research is exploring the relationship between HBOT and emotional well-being and its ability to assist with mental health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and anxiety. Naturally, leveraging HBOT as assistance with these conditions also highlights its potential impact as a non-invasive option for low mood and symptoms of mental fatigue. [5]
Aside from direct clinical research, it's vital not to dismiss personal experience, especially with recovery options. We're all different, and often, that means the benefits you receive from HBOT will differ from those of another person.
We encounter this regularly, with some members noting they feel ready to take on the day with improved vigour, while others feel more relaxed and clear. Individual response is an important consideration, as your perceived/received benefits may differ from what research tells you.
Similarly, as we mention with any of our services, ensure you speak with a medical professional if you plan to use HBOT to support any known conditions. While it offers a proactive, natural way to support mood stability and overall resilience to stress, it is not a substitute for clinical treatment.
4 - Does HBOT help with skin health or have Anti-Ageing properties?
Oxygen is a vital component of skin regeneration and repair. Increased delivery to skin tissues may promote collagen production, improve skin tone, and accelerate healing. This makes HBOT a promising tool for individuals looking to enhance their aesthetic routine with a non-invasive option or those recovering from cosmetic treatments. [6] [7]
A few of our members use HBOT weekly, integrating it into their wellness plans specifically to support glowing, revitalised skin. If your focus is on anti-ageing, we suggest complementing HBOT with other longevity treatments and holistic recovery services to see the best benefit.
Consistency will also be key, as while the occasional session here and there will provide benefits, it may not have the desired effect on your anti-ageing and skin health goals. If this is your prime focus, let our team know, and we can create a solid recovery plan to help you reach these goals.
5 - Can HBOT help with immune function and long-term health?
HBOT has long gained attention for its impact on immunity and long-term health support. Its ability to reduce inflammation and support oxygen-rich environments in the body allows it to create favourable conditions for healing and resilience. [8] [9]
In recent times, these benefits have prompted its use in areas like long COVID recovery and immune optimisation.
A core component of long-term health is taking an intentional, consistent, proactive approach to your health. This means incorporating a recovery plan that targets all areas of your health that you're most concerned about or looking to bolster as a preventive measure for the future.
HBOT offers a scientifically grounded way to support your immune system, fight oxidative stress, and protect against chronic fatigue or illness-related decline.
It's also an enjoyable recovery option, which, at face value, might not seem important, but enjoying your recovery is one of the main factors that govern consistency. Paired with other recovery options, it provides full 360-degree support for your health now and in the future.
Explore HBOT at The Body Lab
HBOT has a wide range of lesser-known benefits, from feeling more energised and improving sleep quality to reducing stress and improving mood. These additional benefits, in combination with its ability to amplify our body's natural healing processes and aid in injury recovery, make it an invaluable, non-invasive option to add to your wellness routine.
Our members gain access to HBOT and our other recovery therapies as part of their membership. If you're curious how you can benefit, see our membership options for more details.
Looking to try a session instead?
Even if you're not a member, you can book in a HBOT session through our service page, or by getting in touch with our team.
References
[1] Gottfried, I., Schottlender, N. and Ashery, U. (2021). Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment—From Mechanisms to Cognitive Improvement. Biomolecules, [online] 11(10), p.1520. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11101520.
[2] Amir, H., Malka, D.-K., Gil, S., Rahav, B.-G., Merav, C., Kobi, D., Yafit, H., Ramzia, A.H., Efrat, S., Gregory, F., Erez, L., Nir, P., Keren, D., Mony, F., Sigal, T., Yonatan, Z., Yair, B. and Shai, E. (2020). Cognitive enhancement of healthy older adults using hyperbaric oxygen: a randomized controlled trial. Aging, 12(13), pp.13740–13761. doi:https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.103571.
[3] ivana, stacey, patmah fatoni and kusumawati, lucia (2024). Correlation Analysis Between Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Quality of Sleep. Liaison Journal of Engineering, [online] 4(1), pp.1–8. Available at: https://ojs.iuli.ac.id/index.php/eng/article/view/115.
[4] Tan, W., Liu, Q., Cen, M., Leong, I.I., Pan, Z., Liao, M. and Zhuang, L. (2024). Efficacy of hyperbaric oxygen therapy as an adjunct therapy in the treatment of sleep disorders among patients with Parkinson’s disease: a meta-analysis. Frontiers in Neurology, 15. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2024.1328911.
[5] Doenyas-Barak, K., Kutz, I., Lang, E., Merzbach, R., Rachel Lev Wiesel, Rahav Boussi-Gross and Shai Efrati (2023). The use of hyperbaric oxygen for veterans with PTSD: basic physiology and current available clinical data. Frontiers in Neuroscience, 17. doi:https://doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2023.1259473.
[6] Fu, Q., Duan, R., Sun, Y. and Li, Q. (2022). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for healthy aging: From mechanisms to therapeutics. Redox Biology, [online] 53, p.102352. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.redox.2022.102352.
[7] Hachmo, Y., Hadanny, A., Abu Hamed, R., Daniel-Kotovsky, M., Catalogna, M., Fishlev, G., Lang, E., Polak, N., Doenyas, K., Friedman, M., Zemel, Y., Bechor, Y. and Efrati, S. (2020). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy increases telomere length and decreases immunosenescence in isolated blood cells : a prospective trial. Aging, [online] 12(22). doi:https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.202188.
[8] De Wolde, S.D., Hulskes, R.H., Weenink, R.P., Hollmann, M.W. and Van Hulst, R.A. (2021). The Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygenation on Oxidative Stress, Inflammation and Angiogenesis. Biomolecules, [online] 11(8), p.1210. doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/biom11081210.
[9] Memar, M.Y., Yekani, M., Alizadeh, N. and Baghi, H.B. (2019). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: Antimicrobial mechanisms and clinical application for infections. Biomedicine & pharmacotherapy = Biomedecine & pharmacotherapie, [online] 109, pp.440–447. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biopha.2018.10.142.
