It is estimated that around 1.3 million people in the UK are experiencing long COVID – COVID symptoms that continue for months or even years after a COVID infection. These people are considered “COVID long haulers”.
Promising research by Tim Robbins et al states that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) could help COVID long-haulers improve significantly.
The study monitored 10 patients who received 10 sessions of HBOT over 12 days. Each one of these treatments lasted for 105 minutes, consisting of three 30-minute exposures of 100 percent oxygen at 2.4 atmospheres. Individuals then had five-minute air breaks. On both day one and day 10, patients were asked to complete fatigue and cognitive scoring assessments in order to measure any improvement. Results showed a “statistically significant improvement” in numerous symptoms including fatigue, global cognition, attention, information processing and verbal functioning.
Johns Hopkins Medicine reminds us all that HBOT is not a new therapy. It has been used in the past to treat people suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning and the bends (sick scuba divers). It has also been approved for more than a dozen conditions ranging from burns to bone disease. HBOT is now used across the world for an extremely large number of off-label indications, including long-hauler COVID relief.
Read more at Express News UK