OxyGeneration is recommended as soon as possible after injury to counter inflammation and accelerate and enhance the body’s recovery. Custom sessions can be arranged for professional athletes. OxyGeneration is used sports injuries and can reduce recovery time for muscle damage, joint, ligament and tendon injuries.
Sports injury covers a wide variety of soft tissue injury. Soft tissue injuries are when trauma or overuse strain occurs to muscles, tendons or ligaments. With many sports injuries, the time it takes to heal and successful rehabilitation are the biggest challenges. Sports injury can also include fractures, fatigue and delayed onset muscle soreness.
Because of the mechanism of Hyperbaric Oxygenation Therapy (HBOT) – that it enhances healing and speeds up recovery – it has many potential uses. Studies have shown that it can reduce time in pain and increase healing times for sprains, torn ligaments and muscle trauma. It also promotes recovery of eccentric strength in muscle, promotes the return of normal stiffness/ strength of ligaments, and help with post event recovery. Faster recovery means the sooner physiotherapy and rehabilitation can start and the sooner athletes can return to competition. The use of HBOT for sports injuries builds on existing knowledge in relation to wound healing and its use in treating crush injury, compartment syndrome, and other acute traumatic ischemia.
Professor John McElwain, Clinical Professor of Trauma and Orthopaedic Surgery, Trinity College Dublin, Adelaide and Meath Hospital, and Blackrock Clinic, notes in his experience that:
“Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in the treatment of trauma has been shown to improve the healing and outcomes significantly. Any patients that I have sent for this treatment have reported increased union rates. I believe that as time goes by, that Hyperbaric Oxygen will very soon become more widespread in the management of predominately major trauma”
OxyGeneration can help those injured return to full function and competition faster, without compromising their recovery or increasing the risk of reinjury. Regular sessions are recommended for best results. For further technical information please see our Resources section.
Please call +353 91 394444 discuss your questions with our team.
In August of last year, a Galway coach told my dad about this place (OxyGeneration). We did some research and decided to give it a go. I hadn’t much expectations to be honest, as we had tried a few other therapies and while they gave some relief, it didn’t last. I’ve done about 40 sessions now and I do notice really good short-term benefits. Immediately after the session, I feel refreshed and being inside the chamber itself is quite relaxing, though I found the time long in the beginning. But I’m used to it now and I spend the time studying on my laptop. It’s certainly helping me.
Client with Post-Concussion Syndrome
I had a horrific injury on my shin. I had damaged nerves and tendons about eight years ago. I never really got any instant relief. Coming to OxyGeneration was a huge relief. After completing 20 sessions all scar tissue in my leg removed and I got full flexibility in my foot. I had three sessions this week for the current pain in my leg and I feel fantastic. I would highly recommend OxyGeneration for any kind of ailments and sports injuries.
Client with Shin/tendon injury
How can Hyperbaric Oxygenation help?
Every injury, from a simple bruise to a complex fracture, at its most basic level is damage to cells. The body recovers by repairing those damaged cells. The body follows a consistent process when healing an injury regardless of the underlying cause of injury. This process is usually characterised as four sequential but overlapping phases: (1) haemostasis (0 – several hours after injury), (2) inflammation (1-3 days), (3) proliferation (4-21 days) and (4) remodelling (21 days – 1 year). For more technical information please see here.
Oxygen plays a crucial role in each of these phases and Hyperbaric Oxygenation helps provide the cells with this oxygen to support and speed up the naturally occurring healing process. Hyperbaric Oxygenation works by decreasing inflammation, improving vascular flow, increasing stem cell release and activation, accelerating new tissue growth, and decreasing scaring on the muscle and skin tissue.
SOFT TISSUE
HBOT has been shown to reduce swelling post-injury and improve the recovery of muscles and ligament injuries. Hyperbaric Oxygenation’s effects of improving wound tissue hypoxia, enhancing perfusion, reducing oedema, downregulating inflammatory cytokines, promoting fibroblast proliferation, collagen production, and angiogenesis make it a useful adjunct treatment for soft tissue injury more generally. Effective healing means that rehabilitation can start sooner.
BONE INJURY
Case reports on Hyperbaric Oxygenation show that it may help improve healing (eg bone regeneration) and speed up recovery time for bone fractures. As with wound healing, HBOT assists by increasing the oxygen supply to the surrounding tissue and fracture site itself and thereby stimulates new tissue growth and stem cell release.
RECOVERY & FATIGUE
Hyperbaric Oxygenation has been reported to be beneficial in terms of accelerating cell recovery and tissue repair, which helps to eliminate fatigue and recover stamina. Studies have indicated that lactic acid and ammonia were removed faster with HBOT leading to shorter recovery periods.
CONCUSSION
When someone suffers a concussion, or traumatic brain injury there is often local bleeding at the site of the injury and damage to the cells. After the injury an area of inflammation will develop around the contusion, this is similar to the bruising and swelling that will occur when someone is injured elsewhere on the body. HBOT may help relieve post-concussions symptoms. Please see further technical medical information in our Resources section. OxyGeneration does not provide emergency medicine services for concussion or traumatic brain injury.
Professional athletes
OxyGeneration is relied upon by the Irish International Rugby players, Connacht Rugby, Galway United, Galway GAA, Mayo GAA and Clare GAA players amongst others. Having attended OxyGeneration a Galway GAA Senior Football player who had a fracture told OxyGeneration that his surgeon noted that the healing was so good that “you could not see the recovered fracture on the X-Ray”. OxyGeneration is also used by marathon runners, triathletes, and endurance athletes to help with their recovery and to support their training programmes.
Elite athletes are experts at maximising their performance and minimising their downtime/ fatigue recovery time. In the world of professional sport, millions of euros are at stake and every little performance edge counts. These “bio-hacks” are strictly regulated and athletes are tested regularly for anti-doping and to ensure that they stay within the rules. Hyperbaric Oxygenation is a permitted “bio-hack” and is used by elite athletes globally.
Footballers Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Wayne Rooney and Ireland international rugby players Jamie Heaslip and Gordon D’Arcy have all chosen to use Hyperbaric Oxygenation to speed up their recovery from sports injuries.
David Beckham fractured the metatarsal bones of his left foot in April 2002. A broken metatarsal is an injury that can take four to six weeks to heal, with another two to four weeks needed for rehabilitation. Beckham famously used a hyperbaric oxygen chamber to speed up his recovery time. He was able to play for and captain the English team in the 2002 World Cup played over May and June.
The tennis player Novak Djokovic is also a big advocate as he uses it to boost his recovery between matches and has even brought his own chamber with him to tournaments. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympic athlete of all time, used hyperbaric oxygen chambers as part of his recovery routine. He said it made a positive impact on his ability to bounce back after training. During the 2015 Rugby World Cup, the Japanese team strategically set up their training camp near a hyperbaric chamber and attended daily sessions as part of their training regime. Professional athletes regularly attend sessions for their general well-being and to deal with the injuries that come from training at an elite level. Many professional sports teams and elite facilities have their own private multi-person chambers similar to OxyGeneration.