Chemotherapy takes an enormous toll on the body. If you or a loved one is going through cancer treatment, you know that the side effects can be debilitating. With the right supportive treatments, you can experience healing and wellness.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is a helpful addition to your cancer treatment regimen. This innovative therapy helps reduce the severity of the physical and cognitive side effects of chemo using the power of oxygen.
You deserve vitality, energy, and good health. Learn more about how hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help you during your cancer treatment journey.
Chemo and Radiation Are Hard on Your Body
Radiation and chemotherapy treatments slow or stop the growth of cancer cells in the body. However, they come at a steep price since both can injure soft tissues like blood vessels and nerves.
These tissues are essential for numerous bodily processes. You need healthy, well-functioning nerves, muscles, and blood vessels to breathe, move, think, and feel.
Chemo and radiation injuries can temporarily interfere with whole-body wellness.
Many chemo patients describe symptoms like:
- Brain fog
- Fatigue
- Sores
- “Chemo brain” (poor concentration and focus)
- Mood changes
- Nerve pain
- Changes in hair, skin, and nail health
These symptoms stem from microinjuries to your body’s tissues and important structures. They can take away from your sense of health and vitality.
That’s where supportive treatments like hyperbaric oxygen therapy come in. HBOT aims to heal these cancer treatment injuries and restore your soft tissues to good health.
How Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Works
Oxygen is naturally present in your blood but only in certain concentrations, and it only makes up a percentage of the air you breathe. Injured tissues benefit immensely from higher oxygen levels, thanks to oxygen’s energizing effects on your cells.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy uses this to your advantage by increasing oxygen levels in an enclosed environment, where you can breathe it in. The goal is to boost oxygen saturation in your blood and speed up healing throughout your body.
What to Expect
During HBOT sessions, you enter a hyperbaric chamber. You lie down in this highly pressurized space and relax. As you lie there, your body receives much more pure oxygen than it normally would in the outside air.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy sessions usually last for one to two hours. Longer session times help more intensive injuries heal.
The hyperbaric chamber isn’t painful, but it can cause ear pressure and popping. Make sure you yawn and swallow frequently to release the pressure and alleviate discomfort.
How Many Sessions Do You Need?
Your healthcare team will monitor your progress during and after HBOT sessions to determine how many you need. Generally, the more intense and numerous your injuries and symptoms are, the more sessions you need.
For chemo and radiation injuries, hyperbaric oxygen therapy can take a while. This is especially true if you’re still actively undergoing cancer treatments. Take note of how you feel after each session. Many clients notice improvements after just a few sessions!
How HBOT Benefits Cancer Patients
Cancer is a complex disease that can cause many surprising and uncomfortable symptoms. Chemotherapy and radiation may help treat your cancer, but the side effects can feel unbearable.
HBOT can relieve some of your discomfort and help restore your body to better functioning after cancer treatments. Here’s how it can help you.
Boosts Immune Power
Your immune system is responsible for keeping your tissues and systems healthy. When you undergo intense cancer treatments like chemo and radiation, your immune system may get weaker. These treatments do target harmful cancer cells, but unfortunately, they also wipe out some essential immune cells.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy fuels your immune cells and helps keep them healthy and ready to defend. Increased oxygen saturation helps your immune system work properly and heal existing tissue injuries.
Reduces Inflammation
Your body’s inflammatory responses are designed to keep you safe, but chemo and radiation treatments can throw them out of balance. Inflammation is a common and uncomfortable side effect of cancer treatments.
HBOT reduces system-wide inflammation by supplying your cells and tissues with the oxygen they need to heal. Faster wound healing means your body won’t have as much chronic inflammation to deal with. Better immune cell function means inflammation is kept in check and you feel more comfortable overall.
Stimulates Blood Vessel Growth (Angiogenesis)
Blood vessels can become damaged or stop functioning entirely after cancer treatments. This is a normal side effect, but it can impair wound healing and circulation, leading to other health problems down the road.
HBOT helps stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, a process known as angiogenesis. The oxygen in the hyperbaric chamber releases certain hormones in your body that signal it to create new blood vessel pathways.
This therapy can also help repair damaged, but not destroyed, blood vessels through tissue healing and enhanced circulation.
Prompts Stem Cell Release
Stem cells are extremely beneficial for tissue healing and regeneration. They can turn into almost any type of bodily cell to take on necessary roles. HBOT helps release some of the stem cells present in your bone marrow, which traditionally had to be surgically harvested.
With more “blank” cells to work with, your body can effectively fight against chemo and radiation-related side effects and start to heal.
Heals Radiation Injuries
Radiation can cause permanent tissue scarring, injury, cell death, and other problems. HBOT has been shown to consistently repair radiation injuries in the body, facilitating healing and hope for cancer patients.
Common radiation-related problems, like frequent infections, tissue necrosis (death), and poor circulation, can all be reduced or eliminated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The increased oxygen supply helps your body effectively heal and generate new, healthy cells that help you thrive.
Is HBOT Right for You? Book a Consultation at Nenergy Boost
Are you wondering if HBOT can help you replenish your health and sense of vitality? The healthcare professionals at Nenergy Boost are here to help.
Our comprehensive medical team can evaluate, assess, and guide clients toward better health and wellness using the healing and restorative powers of HBOT. It’s time to feel and function better after your long, difficult cancer battle.
Book a consultation with us today!