All through December about the only thing our usual newsfeeds wanted to know was, Will the Australian cricket skipper Ricky Ponting be healthy for the Boxing Day Test? To speed healing of a strained tendon in his elbow Ponting spent the night of his 35th birthday in a hyperbaric chamber. Seems to have worked. Yes, he played December 26, and played brilliantly, by all reliable accounts.So we add another high-profile testimonial to a growing list of elite athletes using and promoting hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). And it's not just a fad. More and more professional athletes, trainers, and sports medicine professionals are choosing HBOT as an alternative or adjunctive treatment for sports injury rehabilitation. Even if claims of speedier healing don't find much support in the clinical literature, there's no stopping a trend this strong.
We're fascinated by the growing popularity of HBOT for sports rehabilitation. But could hyperbaric oxygen be considered a kind of performance-enhancing drug, like blood doping? Does room air at mild pressure (mHBOT) do any good? What dosages of pressure and oxygen work best for various types and severities of injury?
In time, today's active practitioners will find the answers in the clinic and spread the word among their peers. We're on the beat and on the side of healthcare consumers seeking useful information and easy connections to local clinics and physicians.
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