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Extra Oxygen Not the Answer for Injured Muscles--Yet
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Posted on: 02/28/2001
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Part of the body's healing response is to flood injured tissues with blood. The blood flushes away toxins that build up, and it brings in a fresh supply of nutrients and oxygen to help the tissues heal. Tissues that don't have good blood supply tend not to heal as well. For this reason, doctors treat certain types of injuries by giving patients extra oxygen. The idea is that maximizing the amount of oxygen in the blood will help get more oxygen to the injured tissues. Recently, high-level athletes have begun to use specialized oxygen therapy for injured muscles.
This technique for giving extra oxygen is called hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO). HBO treatments are given in special chambers that also increase the atmospheric pressure. The patient wears a mask over the face that delivers 100% oxygen, rather than the 21% oxygen in the air you're breathing right now.
In this study, researchers tested the benefits of giving HBO therapy for injured muscles. They divided 21 college-aged men into three groups. Each person did six sets of 10 bicep curls using a preset weight that would produce a strain in the muscles.
After lifting weights, the three groups got different treatments. One group received HBO treatment two hours after lifting weights and then once a day over the following three days. The second group got a fake HBO treatment two hours after exercising and then real HBO treatments once a day for the following three days. The control group got four fake HBO treatments.
The men went through a series of tests before, during, and for two weeks after the study. Their arm strength was checked, MRI scans were compared to look for changes in the muscles, and blood was tested for a chemical that builds up in injured tissues. As expected, all the measurements showed that the men had injured their muscles. However, over the course of the study there was very little difference in the test results between the three groups. The muscles of all participants seemed to heal at about the same rate, no matter what kind of HBO treatments they received.
Research has shown that HBO is effective for injured tendons or other connective tissues in the body. But the authors conclude that HBO didn't help injured muscles heal faster in this study. However, this study didn't test whether HBO therapy was effective if it is started immediately after injury or if it is useful in more extreme muscle injuries. Accordingly, the authors stress that more research is needed.
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References:
Brooke C. Harrison, et al. Treatment of Exercise-Induced Muscle Injury Via Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. In Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. January 2001. Vol. 33. No. 1. Pp. 36-42.
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