“The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to take their toll on the body as we pass through life”… from Hamlet by William Shakespeare
In some people the ageing process is more visible externally than others. Whilst genetics plays a part in this, so does lifestyle and one of the primary agents in the ageing process is oxygen. Smoking, poor diet and lack of exercise all contribute to reduce the supply of oxygen to tissues, so potentially the brain, joints, muscles, tendons, organs and ligaments all have to get by with a diminished supply of oxygen. Skin sags, gets wrinkles and loses its sheen which are all signs that there is less blood flow and therefore less oxygen being delivered to the skin.
Following studies undertaken in 2009, the University of St Andrews and the University of Bristol found that there was a correlation between healthy skin and overall body health. Rosy skin flushed full of oxygen was synonymous with strong lungs and heart. Post- exercise red cheeks indicate that there are high quantities of oxygen-enriched blood circulating around the body.
Each cell of your body contains mitochondria. These function as fuel tanks; the bigger the fuel tank the more the cell can thrive as there is more oxygen to help burn the fuel to produce energy. With age these little energy factories become less effective with the decline of oxygen. In turn, the surrounding cells cease to flourish.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be an effective solution to this. In the chamber, the surrounding air pressure gets increased to two atmospheres, and you breathe in 90% pure oxygen. Over the course of an hour, you will super oxygenate your body thus delivering an abundant supply of oxygen to every cell.
A 2017 study demonstrated that hyperbaric oxygen therapy had a consistently beneficial effect on erectile disfunction, for the same reasons. Much of what we feel about ourselves, which is fundamental to our overall wellness, is how we perceive our body image. How we perceive our body image is based on how we see our sexual attractiveness which our culture associates with ‘youthfulness’. This is a product of our culture and lifestyle as we associate ageing with loss of looks and sex appeal, yet it often has a lot to do with how we live.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help offset and reverse this process. Combined with a healthy lifestyle and feeling good about ourselves completes more segments of the wellness wheel, and so;
- Your skin starts to glow again and regains some of its elasticity
- Mood and brain function improves
- As mood and brain function improves so does your appearance
