Our anxiety about getting older—or just looking older—has resulted in an anti-aging market worth over $67 billion. Botox injections and skin creams may claim to make you look younger, but they don’t actually prevent aging.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is truly anti-aging. During an HBOT session, you breathe 100% pure oxygen inside a pressurized chamber. This allows oxygen to reach every part of the body, where it both repairs damaged cells and encourages new cellular growth.
Multiple studies have found HBOT to be an effective anti-aging treatment. Read on to learn about the top five ways HBOT works to fight aging.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) involves breathing 100% infused oxygen inside a pressurized chamber. At the same time, HBOT promotes circulation and stem cell growth, which reduces inflammation, and supports the immune system. For decades, HBOT has proven effective for treating a multitude of medical conditions, including diabetic ulcers, sudden hearing loss, and radiation injury.
1. Repairs and prevents sun damage
Ultraviolet radiation—also known as UV rays—from sun exposure can cause significant skin damage, known as photodamage or photoaging. Common signs of photodamage include wrinkles, freckles and hyperpigmentation, uneven skin texture, and skin cancers like melanoma. Photodamage makes you look older than you are.
Research has proven that HBOT can treat photoaging, rejuvenate skin, improve complexion, and reduce and prevent wrinkles caused by UV rays. Another study found that HBOT can work as a natural sunblock by protecting your skin from future ultraviolet exposure.
2. Improves collagen production and skin elasticity.
As we age, we lose strength and elasticity in an important building block of the skin known as collagen, which leads to thin, loose, and sagging skin. HBOT improves blood flow throughout the body, promoting the growth of collagen and new skin cells. As HBOT thickens and strengthens collagen over time, it improves skin elasticity and results in visibly younger looking skin.
3. Allows antioxidants to thrive
HBOT encourages the growth and function of antioxidant molecules in the body, which protect against certain diseases, fight off harmful free radicals, repair damaged cells, and help maintain overall cell health. Antioxidants have many anti-aging benefits, including protection from photoaging, reduced risk of age-related diseases like dementia, and improvements in memory and executive function.
4. Increases telomere length
Like the tip of a shoelace, telomeres are structures that “cap” and protect the ends of our chromosomes, and are crucial for the health and function of every cell in the human body. Telomeres shorten in length as we age; shortened telomeres are associated with many serious illnesses and are considered to be a hallmark of the human aging process.
Many anti-aging experts theorize that lengthening telomeres could be the key to anti-aging: though research on HBOT’s potential to lengthen telomeres is still new, the current data backs up this theory. A recent study of patients over age 64 found that HBOT resulted in telomere lengthening of more than 20%.
“The significant improvement of telomere length shown during and after these unique HBOT protocols provides the scientific community with a new foundation of understanding that aging can, indeed, be targeted and reversed at the basic cellular-biological level,” said study author Professor Shai Efrati.
5. Improves brain function
Aging causes atrophy—shrinking—of the brain, which negatively affects cognitive function. Cognitive decline can range from mild symptoms like a lower attention span, to severe neurological diseases like dementia.
Flooding the brain with oxygen can reduce neuroinflammation, increase blood flow, and protect the brain from further damage. Increasing the flow of both oxygen and blood can help fight aging-related cognitive decline by helping to improve memory, mental clarity, executive functions, and more.
Learn more about Alex Williams, and how Holisitc Hyperbarics is helping their clients with the use of HBOT in conjunction with the Human Touch Perfect Chair, by clicking here.
