AI Summary
The study reveals a new strategy involving intermittent exposure to low oxygen availability in a low-barometric pressure chamber to improve and accelerate recovery from muscle injuries. This approach, based on scientific evidence, can help athletes, especially in elite competition, recover more effectively. The use of hypoxia in regeneration of injured muscle is being explored in this research, offering potential benefits in sports and health sectors.
Muscle injuries are common in the active population, and they cause the majority of player leaves in the world of sport. Depending on the severity, recovery of muscle function is quite slow and may require surgery, medication and rehabilitation. Now, a study led by the University of Barcelona reveals a strategy to improve and accelerate recovery from muscle injuries that has potential application in the sports and health sector in general.
This is the first study to provide scientific evidence for faster and more effective recovery from muscle injuries through intermittent exposure to low oxygen availability (hypoxia) in a low-barometric pressure (hypobaric) chamber that simulates high-altitude geographic conditions.
The new approach is important for the recovery of athletes — especially in the competitive elite — but also to mitigate the socio-economic impact of the loss of work productivity caused by these injuries on the active population.
The study, carried out with animal models, has been published in the Journal of Physiology. The authors of the study are the experts Garoa Santoildes, Teresa Pagès, Joan Ramon Torrella and Ginés Viscor, from the Department of Cell Biology, Physiology and Immunology of the UB’s Faculty of Biology.
Why does hypoxia help to regenerate injured muscle?
Hypobaric chambers have long been used to improve physical fitness in high-performance sports (mountaineers, climbers, etc.) and in professional sectors (high-altitude mining, astronomical observation, border control). In hypobaric hypoxia conditions, the body is exposed to a low atmospheric pressure environment in which cells take up less oxygen