The Role of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

If you’re reading this because you have myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), we don’t need to tell you how wide a net this condition can cast over your life and how small your world can feel. Up to 3.3 million people in the United States are diagnosed with ME/CFS, and it’s a good bet that they understand your frustration, especially because there’s no cure for the condition.

Nevertheless, there are some very effective management tools for the large array of symptoms that can come with ME/CFS, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy is proving to be an invaluable one for many.

As our name implies, that’s the focus at Clover Oxygen Hyperbarics and Wound Center in Aledo, Texas — Dr. Leon Tio and our team offer hyperbaric oxygen therapy for a wide range of conditions, including chronic fatigue syndrome.

Let’s take a look at how hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can improve your quality of life when you’re struggling with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome.

ME/CFS — a challenging and complex illness

To call ME/CFS complex and challenging is an understatement as the illness can invade almost every aspect of your life. To give you an idea, the National Institutes of Health labels ME/CFS as a “systemic disease associated with neurological, immunological, autonomic, and energy metabolism dysfunction.”

Researchers don’t know what causes ME/CFS, and there’s no test available to determine if you have it. Instead, doctors look for a combination of symptoms that can include:

• Persistent fatigue, even when you’re well rested
• Post-exertional malaise — severe exhaustion after activity
• Unsatisfying sleep
• Musculoskeletal pain
• Dizziness and vertigo
• Cognitive impairments, such as difficulty concentrating
• Neurological symptoms, such as numbness
• Gastrointestinal issues

These symptoms can come and go and grow so severe that people with ME/CFS become housebound, which occurs in about one-quarter of people with the condition.

How hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help with ME/CFS

Because there’s no cure for ME/CFS, the goal is to manage the symptoms to improve your quality of life. There are many ways to go about this, and we want to make the case for adding hyperbaric oxygen therapy to your overall treatment protocol.

HBOT is a unique way to boost your health and your body’s resources as we deliver oxygen into your tissues in a pressurized chamber. For context, the air you breathe has about 21% oxygen and you take in this oxygen through your lungs. With HBOT, we deliver 100% oxygen in a pressurized environment that pushes the oxygen straight into your tissues and blood.

This therapeutic dose of oxygen can:

• Encourage vascularization (creation of new blood vessels)
• Fight off bacteria and infection
• Reduce swelling in your body

For ME/CFS patients, these benefits of HBOT translate to:

• Addressing chronic fatigue by boosting your energy levels
• Reducing swelling in your joints for pain relief
• Helping to improve brain health and cognitive function

Ultimately, the success behind hyperbaric oxygen therapy is simple — we amplify the body’s most critical resource: oxygen. For people with ME/CFS, this extra boost in oxygen can improve their symptoms and their lives.

To learn for yourself why hyperbaric oxygen therapy is playing an important role in treating chronic fatigue syndrome, please contact us today to schedule an appointment.