Hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Last reviewed 25 August 2026 · Evidence-graded review — see Methodology
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy means breathing pure oxygen in a pressurised chamber. Medicine uses it for serious, specific problems: decompression sickness, carbon monoxide poisoning, non-healing diabetic wounds. Longevity clinics rent the same chambers for ageing, cognition and recovery, where the evidence is early, small and expensive.
A 2025 systematic review of HBOT in aesthetic medicine and anti-aging concluded that while the therapy may prove useful, the evidence to support its use and justify its cost is limited, calling for large standardised randomised trials. Much of the anti-ageing buzz traces to small Israeli studies reporting telomere-lengthening; telomere length is not a validated patient outcome anywhere on our diagnostics pages either. Approved indications exist precisely because the evidence there is different in kind.
Doing it: For the marketed uses, there is nothing to implement. If a clinic offers you a course, ask which approved indication you have; if the answer is none, the treatment is experimental and priced as if it were not.
Who it suits: Patients with an approved indication, prescribed by a doctor. Healthy adults are paying spa prices for clinical machinery on thin evidence.
Sources
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