How hyperbaric oxygen therapy heals the body - Part 1

Oxygen is crucial to healing — but it has to be able to reach the damaged tissue to help the body recover and fight off infection. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can facilitate that process by dramatically boosting the amount of oxygen your blood cells deliver to an injury. You may have heard about the therapy’s use in treating scuba diving incidents or carbon monoxide poisoning, but it can also speed healing from crush injuries, chronic wounds related to diabetes, radiation damage from cancer treatment and a host of other conditions. In part 1 of this two-part episode, two world-renowned experts in the field explain the history of this powerful treatment, how it works and what to expect during a session in the "727 airplane-sized" hyperbaric oxygen chamber at Phelps Hospital, who qualifies and the research driving it forward. 

Podcast transcript

Meet the guests

• Owen J. O’Neill, MD, MPH, medical director Division of Undersea and Hyperbaric Medicine at Phelps Hospital
• John Peters, Executive Director of the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society

* Part 2 of this episode will be available Wednesday, November 30.