Welcome to 2025: there are a plethora of wellness trends, and you can’t go one weekend without watching someone run a half marathon whilst you watch from your phone curled up like a shrimp, not having moved for three hours. Anyone else? No?
Strava this, sub-3.00 that, PBs, ice baths, nasal strips, health hacking - it’s all quite a lot to keep up with if we’re honest. But the latest wellness trend is something we can get behind - and even if you’re not a big exerciser, you will too. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT): a fairly new wellness method that involves climbing into a chamber with an increased ambient pressure and breathing in almost pure oxygen for an hour at a time.
HBOT is a method of delivering extra oxygen into the body predominantly by increasing the pressure that the body is usually under (by a very small amount). A chamber - which kind of looks like if you cross-bred a sleeping bag with an inflatable tent - is a way of doing this easily. Whereas the air we breathe day to day has an oxygen saturation of around 21%, what you're inhaling in the chamber is 90% pure oxygen, which goes straight into the plasma (bloodstream, not TV).
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy: In short...
- Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a non-invasive therapy treatment which increases Stem Cell production, lowering heart rates, and helping with gym recovery
- A surprisingly affordable wellness therapy, it lands in London as Rebody opens up in Wandsworth
- The combined Red Light Therapy can help target hair loss, repairs scar tissue, and improves skin rosacea
- After one session we noticed major improvements in stamina and speed on our next gym session
What are the benefits?
The increased oxygen intake has some seriously appealing benefits. Top of the list is elevated stem cell production, which helps with signs of ageing, and regenerates new brain, bone, skin, heart tissue, and new blood vessels much more quickly. This is also incredibly beneficial for any chronic illnesses, auto-immune diseases, and hard-to-heal injuries.
The influx of concentrated oxygen helps to provide extra energy for tissue repair and function, whilst also reducing joint and nerve pain. As you can imagine, not only is this great for anyone struggling with aches, pains and the like, but also for anyone training for any intense sporting events (think marathons), as it speeds up recovery. Also, if you’re going for a PB, the enhanced oxygen improves cardiovascular efficiency, which increases stamina and general athletic performance.
Deeply breathing oxygen has a calming effect on the body, helping lower heart rates, reducing stress, and encouraging mental clarity.
It’s not going to make you automatically qualify for the Olympics, but when we headed to the gym later that evening, we definitely noticed a difference. Granted, it could have been placebo, a coincidence, or that we really were trying hard (although seeing as it was 8.30pm on a Friday night, it's unlikely), but we managed to shave off more than a couple of minutes off our usual 5k time.
If you’re thinking that the benefits are solely physical, you might be interested to know that there are some noted mental benefits too; deeply breathing oxygen has a calming effect on the body, helping lower heart rates, reducing stress, and encouraging mental clarity. HBOT is often recommended for people who are struggling with anxiety and insomnia.
The team at Rebody - London's only HBOT and red light therapy centre - gets people of all ages using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy with customers using it for a range of issues including chronic conditions, anxiety, long-term injuries, and alleviating the symptoms of long Covid. The red light therapy helps with everything from hair loss to acne — using similar principles to devices like the Shark Ninja CryoGlow device we tried earlier this year.
How does it work?
Getting started, you head into a chamber (again, we say chamber, though it’s more akin to a one-person tent) and get settled. Once you’re in, the chamber inflates up to its set pressure, which at Rebody is 1.4%.
The chamber is roomy enough for you to either sit up in, or you can have a little lie down. Once the chamber is fully inflated, you pop on a face mask, making you quickly resemble an extra in a US medical drama (goals), and chill.
The session lasts an hour, usually, but it goes really quickly. Although it feels like you shouldn’t be allowed any technology in a pressurised environment, it’s totally safe because the pressure level is still quite low. So, you can bring in your laptop and get some work done, pop on a podcast, or even stream some episodes of your latest Netflix binge.
What does it feel like?
In the beginning, it feels really strange; it’s like going into an aeroplane, as the pressure will cause your ears to pop. For the first 5-10 minutes, you’ll need to pop your ears quite regularly as your body adjusts. After the first 10 minutes, it feels weirdly normal - you’re just chilling out in a little human cocoon with an oxygen mask on.
There are little windows in the chamber at Rebody so you can easily tap and communicate with the guys working there if something doesn’t feel right - although apparently this is very rare.
To help your body adjust slowly, they recommend not putting the oxygen mask on until the chamber is fully pressurised, and we’d agree. Also, as you’re breathing in cool, 100% oxygen, you find your throat feels a little scratchy after the session, sort of like when you sleep with the air conditioning on full whack. However, this went away quite quickly afterwards, and it’s not a common side effect, so maybe that’s just an "us" thing.
Also, it’s quite cool in the chamber, so if you’re someone who gets cold easily, then definitely take them up on the blankets they offer to go inside with you. Although it was such a hot day when we went, the coolness was like being in a little air-conditioned room - bliss.
Should I do it?
If you struggle with claustrophobia, then you probably don’t want to hop on this wellness trend. But then again, if you’ve ever spent time travelling on the seriously cheap, and stayed in hostels where the beds are just small ‘pods’ then this chamber will probably feel downright spacious.
Where is it?
There are a couple of Hyperbaric oxygen chambers in the UK, but the one we visited - run by Rebody - is the first in the UK that combines both hyperbaric oxygen therapy with red light therapy. They only have one location at the moment, which is over in Wandsworth on a new site called The Light Bulb.
Can I leave if I don't like it?
100% yes. Not only can you wave via the little windows (which also help ease the claustrophobia), but there is an emergency cord you can pull, which will allow you to exit safely. It may feel a bit odd when you’re first in, but you adjust incredibly quickly,
How much will it set you back?
When you hear 'hyperbaric oxygen therapy', you can almost see the pound signs flashing in front of your eyes, money draining from your account - and usually you wouldn't be wrong. However, luckily for us, one of Rebody's aims is to keep wellness accessible, and it is one of the cheapest places offering HBOT in the UK. Sessions start from just £37, with an introductory offer available for £59 - plus, Rebody offer different packages which will sign you up for a chunk of hours which you can book in whenever suits.
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