Summary
- As more people start playing sports, the more get injured.
- Injury varies from simple swelling to joint dislocation or traumatic brain injury
- As per research, HBOT has shown promising results in healing sports injuries and helped people return to their favourite sport sooner.
In the last decade, competitive sports have become more popular than ever. The number of people training for sports championships has grown by leaps and bounds. The intensity in sports and certain games has also increased. Injury while playing a sport is very common and sometimes dangerous as well. When a sports person is injured, he/she always look towards quicker healing so that they return to their favourite pursuit sooner.
What happens when a sports person gets injured?
There are different types of injuries a person can inflict upon him/herself when playing a sport. They include strain, sprain, broken joins, dislocation of joints, broken or fractured bones, muscle and/or ligament tear etc. Usually when an injury occurs, the tissues and the area gets inflamed and fluid gets accumulated in the affected area as a part of natural healing process. However as a result of these, the blood vessels around the injury get compressed and in turn lead to lower blood (and oxygen) supply to the injury area. Oxygen is highly essential for an injury to heal or for a damaged tissues or muscles recover well. Due to lowered supply of oxygen, healing takes a long time. In some cases, if the recovery takes longer than usual, it can result in tissue and cell death in the affected area.
In cases where the injury is a cut or a tear, that can lead to infection around the site. Due to lower supply of blood, the number of leukocytes that can fight off the infection will be lower than normal adding to more damage to the body.
How does HBOT help in healing sports injuries?
In a HBOT chamber, the pressure is typically at 2 to 3 times that of normal atmospheric pressure. The chamber is filled with pure oxygen. Normal atmospheric concentration of Oxygen is around 21%. Being in a hyperbaric chamber means that the person is inhaling 5 times more oxygen at higher pressure than normal. This results in 2 things inside the body:
- Chemically – More oxygen gets into the haemoglobin. As more oxygen gets into the haemoglobin, more oxygen is delivered to the muscles, tissues and mitochondria cells in the body.
- Physical – Oxygen directly dissolves in the plasma.
As more oxygen is supplied, this also results in regeneration of blood vessels, angiogenesis. Consequently, HBOT therapy reduces the probability of cellular and tissue death, helps in regeneration of blood vessels, supply of more oxygen to the body including the injured area and helps the injury heal faster.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy has also showed promising results in sports persons with brain injury. Mild traumatic sports injury to the brain is often seen in some sports such as football, soccer, cricket etc. When the skull/head is hit while playing the sports, the area gets inflamed in the brain and the tissues around the area are swollen in response. When high amounts of oxygen is delivered to the body and the affected area, quicker healing of the brain tissue is seen along with reduction in swelling, inflammation and pressure in the brain.
Suffering from sports or any other type of injury and looking to heal faster?
Chennai Hyperbaric Clinic is an exclusive HBOT centre located in T Nagar, Chennai offering Oxygen Therapy sessions at highly affordable costs.* If you have an injury that hasn’t been really healing with conventional treatment methods, you can try HBOT and see the results for yourself.
