this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
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What is this thing?
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Well, the good news is that this is just a fake hyperbaric chamber that rich people get swindled into buying because they don't actually understand science.
Actual hyperbaric chambers are illegal to own and operate in residential properties, so there are private companies that build chambers that do not run on the right amount of pressure or oxygen to reap the benefit of hyperbaric medicine.
This is just an expensive form of snake oil.
I don’t think it’s right to say these treatments don’t do anything positive.
I recommend them for everyone with over 100 mil dollars. Make sure to get the nicer carpeted version and wear comfy socks!
That makes sense... After learning about it from my wife's experience, I wouldn't want to go on that journey without a professional present. Shit can go very wrong.
has. people - kids - have been killed. they're really good when managed correctly but dangerous as fuck if standards/training fall.
https://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/2025/03/13/what-we-know-oxford-center-hyperbaric-chamber-child-death-royal-oak/82364065007/
Oh wow. What a nightmare.
Holy shit, this is shocking.
yeah that particular shit show is def nearing worst case scenario.
Yeap, my dad used to run hypobaric chambers for the air force and then for the FAA. Just maintaining that kind of equipment is basically a full time job, let alone actually monitoring their uses.
Are the dangers that high? And how is this enforced?
They are very dangerous to operate. You're working with 100 percent O2 under pressure, so even little things like lotions/ perfumes that use a thinning product can cause combustion.
As far as enforcement.... There are only a couple different companies capable of making a chamber that can withstand 6 atmospheres of pressure safely, and they're all governed by CMS like other pieces of heavy duty medical equipment.
There's a lot of licensing and overwatch for medical equipment like this, if a company were to actually make one without going through the proper channels the companies and licensing orgs that have done their due diligence would come after them.
Not to mention that breathing 100% O2 at pressure can be deadly by itself.
100% O2 at sea level means you are breathing about 1 bar of oxygen, usually called 1 partial pressure of oxygen (PPO2). The commercial machine in the OP supports 1.5-3 atm of pressure, assuming that I saw the right info. 100% O2 at 3 atm would mean breathing about 3 PPO2, which is more than enough to cause problems.
You said it needs to safely support 6 atms of pressure, do you mean for the safety margin? You could safely breath air (21% O2) at 6 bars, it would be about 1.25 PPO2. Breathing 100% O2 at 6 bars would be about 6 PPO2, absolute insanity.
Divers expose themselves to a maximum of 1.4 PPO2 because it starts to become toxic at 1.6 and above.
When diving, there is a balancing act between nitrogen and oxygen that starts with your air mixture. More oxygen and less nitrogen lowers your risk of decompression sickness (caused by nitrogen) and allows you to stay deeper for longer, but it lowers your maximum operating depth (MOD) because of oxygen toxicity.
A common "nitrox" mixture is 32% O2, which has a MOD of 111 ft. Going deeper risks having seizures underwater which are obviously extremely dangerous. We put the O2 mixture and maximum PPO2 into our dive computers and never exceed any of the thresholds it gives us.
That said, things like cold, physical exertion, etc. bring the threshold down to that 1.6 bar number. You are exposed to those things while scuba diving but not in a hyperbaric chamber, so the threshold is probably higher in a hyperbaric chamber.
I wouldn't ever think about "hyperbaric oxygen therapy" outside of a hospital, the risks are too high.
High oxygen concentrations are extremely dangerous.
Pre 2025, FDA in US
A comment of silence for the FDA. It will be missed.
Anyway Don’t forget the people who burn alive! Like that kid at the shitty autism clinic thing.
If you aren’t a professional you risk static shocks and things like that which turn it immediately into a fire death tube.