What is Long COVID and how common is it?
Long COVID involves new, returning or ongoing symptoms that people experience long after getting COVID-19. Cited by Mayo Clinic (2022), research suggests that between one month and one year after having COVID-19, 1 in 5 people ages 18 to 64 has at least one medical condition that might be due to COVID-19. Among people aged 65 and older, 1 in 4 has at least one medical condition that might be due to COVID-19. We can Explore that Can Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Improve Long COVID Symptoms.
What are the symptoms of Long COVID?
The most commonly reported symptoms of Long COVID include:
*Cited in Clinic, M. (2022, June 28). Covid-19: Long-term effects: ‘It is not clear if Long COVID is new and unique to COVID-19. Some symptoms are similar to those caused by chronic fatigue syndrome and other chronic illnesses that develop after infections. Chronic fatigue syndrome involves extreme fatigue that worsens with physical or mental activity, but doesn’t improve with rest.’
What is HBOT & Can It Help With Long COVID?
The Cocoon by O2genes is a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber (mHBOT) made for individuals who wish to reinvigorate tired muscles, boost skin rejuvenation, or even just to improve overall health and wellness. Individuals seeking to alleviate their symptoms with the Cocoon, would lie in this pressurised chamber for around 1 to 1.5 hours. Oxygen levels and pressure in the Cocoon is 40% higher than sea level. Our cocoon can offer benefits depending on the individual’s needs. In this case – overcoming the symptoms of Long Covid!
In a research by Nature Medicine, a group of people experiencing symptoms of Long COVID were offered treatment with HBOT. It was stated that after 40 sessions of HBOT, the group ‘experienced significant improvements in attention, executive function (cleared brain fog), psychiatric symptoms, sleep, energy and pain.’ Brain scans showed that HBOT effectively increased blood flow and circulation to multiple regions of the brain associated with cognitive functions and emotions. Study authors hence suggest that HBOT’s benefits are due to this increase in blood flow and neuroplasticity. (Clinics, 2022)
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is ‘an intervention where an individual breathes near 100% oxygen intermittently while inside a hyperbaric chamber that is pressurised to greater than sea level pressure (1 atmosphere absolute, or ATA)’. HBOT can be used for medical conditions both elective (eg. soft tissue radiation complications and non-healing chronic wounds) and emergency (eg. carbon monoxide poisoning, decompression illness and gas embolism). HBOT has been proven to be safe and effective in the treatment of chronic fatigue syndrome. At University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust, working in direct partnership with the Midlands Diving Chamber at the Rugby Hospital of St Cross, it was proposed that HBOT may be of benefit to people suffering from symptoms of long COVID. (Robbins et al., 2021)
References:
- (Clinics, A. (2022, August 23). Can Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Improve Long COVID Symptoms? | Amen Clinics. Can Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Improve Long COVID Symptoms? | Amen Clinics. https://www.amenclinics.com/blog/can-hyperbaric-oxygen-therapy-improve-long-covid-symptoms/)
- (Robbins, T., Gonevski, M., Clark, C., Baitule, S., Sharma, K., Magar, A., Patel, K., Sankar, S., Kyrou, I., Ali, A., & Randeva, H. S. (2021, November). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of long COVID: early evaluation of a highly promising intervention – PMC. PubMed Central (PMC). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8806311/)
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