There have now been more than half a billion confirmed cases of COVID-19 worldwide.
Long Covid is the common term for signs and symptoms that last for four weeks after getting COVID-19. (Also referred to as Post Covid-19 condition.)
Experts are still learning of its effects and how it might be treated as symptoms can last for months if not longer.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines Long Covid as follows: “Post Covid-19 condition occurs in individuals with a history of probable or confirmed SARS CoV-2 infection, usually three months from the onset of Covid-19 with symptoms and that last for at least 2 months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.”
Symptoms of Long Covid are many and varied and can change over time. The NHS has stated the most common symptoms which range from a shortness of breath and fatigue to brain fog and muscle aches.
According to the Office of National Statistics, almost a million people in the UK were reported with Long Covid in the four weeks to the1st August 2021, “So you’re not alone”.
So far, effective treatments for long COVID symptoms have been elusive. However now, a new study details the potential of using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and how successful it might be.
Our bodies need oxygen to heal and survive. When oxygen enters your lungs, it travels across capillaries & into the bloodstream, this then travels to the heart to get pumped around your body. If part of your body is damaged, the tissues become inflamed and this reduces the amount of oxygen to the tissues.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps reduce the inflammation allowing the newly oxygenated blood through.
There are two parts to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HbOT)-increased purity of Oxygen and Higher than-normal pressure.
The air we normally breathe contains 21% oxygen and 78% nitrogen, with the remaining 1% being contributed by noble gases and carbon dioxide. However, in HbOT, you breathe 95% pure oxygen.
At Oxify our chambers are pressurised to 1.45 Atmospheres, which is almost one and a half times the pressure we usually experience in our everyday lives.
The unique HbOT combination of pure oxygen at high pressure revitalises. Better still, these benefits involve no drugs and are non-intrusive.
Sarah, the CEO at Oxify, has been working with many clients who have struggled with the effects of Long Covid and has seen the first-hand benefits to them within only a few sessions, she says: “The morning after just one session of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, our client was able to get up as though the illness had not happened. Some patients need three or four sessions to see the cumulative results for longer lasting results, but sometimes the body needs this extra boost in order to be able to heal itself naturally.”