I Watched My Friend Spend $40,000 on a Pressure Chamber. Here's What Actually Happened.

Okay so my friend Séraphine has been doing hyperbaric oxygen therapy for eight months.

Forty thousand dollars.

I know.

She keeps telling me she feels amazing and I keep waiting to actually SEE it? Like she'll show up to brunch one day and look twenty years younger or her bloodwork will come back and her doctor will be confused. That hasn't happened. She looks good. She looked good before too. She changed her moisturizer around the same time she started HBOT so honestly who even knows what's doing what at this point.

The whole hyperbaric oxygen therapy cost thing has been living in my head rent free for months now. I genuinely cannot figure out if this is real medicine or just expensive air.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Cost Per Session: The Real Numbers

Séraphine found out about this because she was doom scrolling PubMed at 2am. As one does. She sent me a link to some Tel Aviv study with the message "THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING" and like. She does this. She once texted me at midnight because she found out about a $400 water bottle that supposedly structures your water differently. She bought it. Her yoga teacher had one.

I love her. Her judgment is questionable.

But the telomere study was actually interesting. 60 sessions of HBOT lengthened telomeres by 20 to 38 percent. Telomeres are the caps on your chromosomes that get shorter as you age. Most interventions like diet and exercise move that number by maybe 2 to 5 percent. So either this study was wrong or these researchers found something big.

Anyway the actual cost.

Soft-shell chambers run $75 to $180 per session. These are basically inflatable pods. They only reach 1.3 atmospheres and use regular air not pure oxygen. My friend Lucien who's a PA calls them "the kiddie pool of hyperbaric" which is mean but also he's usually right about this stuff.

Hard-shell medical chambers cost $200 to $650. These go up to 3.0 ATA and use 100% oxygen. National average is $250 to $400 according to some journal I found.

Séraphine went to Aviv Clinics in Florida. Full program. $36,000 to $51,000. Sixty sessions. Twelve weeks. They throw in cognitive training and physical therapy and nutritional coaching and brain scans. It's based on the research from that Tel Aviv professor.

She booked it without asking her husband.

There was a thing. They're fine now.

Does Insurance Cover Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy? (Probably Not for This)

Here's the annoying part about hyperbaric oxygen therapy insurance coverage.

If you have one of the 14 FDA-approved conditions then yes Medicare covers it. Diabetic ulcers. Decompression sickness. Carbon monoxide poisoning. Radiation damage. Things where there's actual data going back decades.

Medicare pays 80% after deductible for those. About $595 per session.

But.

Anti-aging? No. Skin stuff? No. "Wellness"? Absolutely not. Cognitive enhancement? They will laugh at you.

My colleague Mathilde tried to get coverage for her mom who has long COVID. There's research showing HBOT helps. Insurance still said no. The estimate was $12,000 out of pocket for 40 sessions. Her mom didn't do it.

Some places take HSA. Some have CareCredit. That's about your options.

How Long Do the Effects of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Last

I kept asking Séraphine this and she kept giving me nothing answers. "I just feel different." Okay but WHAT does that mean. "More energy." For how long after you stop. "I don't know, it just feels different."

Helpful.

So I looked it up myself.

There's a 2024 study that followed long COVID patients for a year after finishing treatment. The improvements in quality of life scores held steady at 12 months. Same as right after they finished. That's actually kind of impressive? A year of sustained benefit?

The immediate effects happen same day. Less swelling. Better oxygenation. Short term stuff like inflammation reduction lasts a few weeks. The cellular level changes seem to stick around for months. Maybe longer. The research doesn't go far enough to really know.

Séraphine finished her main protocol five months ago. She goes back monthly for "maintenance" sessions. $400 each. She says she sleeps better and thinks faster.

But also during those twelve weeks she started meditating. Changed her diet. Worked with a physical therapist. The Aviv program includes all of that.

Would she feel this good if she'd just done yoga and eaten better for $3,000?

I have no idea. She doesn't either. She admitted that.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Benefits for Skin: What the Studies Show

Okay so the skin stuff is where I'll give HBOT credit.

There's actual research. 2015 study showed increased collagen production. The oxygen stimulates fibroblasts which make collagen. Makes sense mechanistically.

Better study came out in 2021. 13 men average age 68. 60 HBOT sessions. They found more collagen density. Better elastic fibers. Fewer senescent cells.

Senescent cells matter. They're basically zombie cells that build up as you age and make everything worse. The researchers called this the first human study showing any treatment could clear them from tissue. That's a real claim.

Séraphine's aesthetician told her skin texture improved.

Her husband said he couldn't tell.

I asked my friend Raffaella about this. She's a dermatologist in Milan. She actually went to university with Séraphine, there was some drama between them in their twenties that neither of them will fully explain to me. Something about a guy and a summer house. Anyway Raffaella says the research on hyperbaric oxygen therapy benefits for skin is probably legit but the cost makes no sense when retinol exists.

She has a point.

Who Should Actually Consider This (Honest Assessment)

I've been going back and forth on this.

If you have an FDA condition and insurance covers it? Obviously yes. That's just medicine.

Séraphine's situation kind of makes sense. She tried NAD IV therapy for a year before this. She has chronic fatigue that doctors can't explain. And she can spend $40,000 without it mattering to her life. That's a specific profile.

My friend Vittorio asked me about it last month. He's 52. Runs some consulting thing. Wants to stay sharp.

I told him honestly maybe start with the cheap chambers. $150 per session at his local wellness place. Try 20 sessions. See if he notices anything. If yes then consider the serious protocols.

He looked so relieved. I think he wanted permission to not spend his retirement fund on a pressure tube.

My cousin Delphine wanted to try it for skin. I sent her to our cold plunge article instead. Different mechanism but overlapping benefits. She's been doing cold exposure for four months now and says her skin is better than it's been in years.

Cost her $400 for a tub.

What Happens During Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Treatment

If you're actually going to do this.

Sessions are 60 to 120 minutes. Your ears will feel weird for the first and last 5 to 7 minutes. Like airplane pressure. Most people just relax during the middle part. Sleep. Read. Whatever. Cleveland Clinic has more details if you want them.

The nice facilities have entertainment systems and temperature control. Aviv apparently has first class airline seating. Séraphine sent photos. It looked fancy. I guess it should for that price.

Side effects are usually mild. Ear pain is the main one, happens in about half of adverse events reported. Fatigue. Sinus pressure. Sometimes temporary vision changes that go away after a few weeks. Johns Hopkins has the full list.

Serious complications are rare. Seizures from oxygen toxicity happen in like 1 in 10,000 treatments. Overall adverse event rate is 0.4%.

You can't do it if you have a collapsed lung that hasn't been treated. Some lung conditions and medications need evaluation first. Severe claustrophobia is obviously a problem.

Before you go in: no perfume or lotion. Take out contacts. Don't drink alcohol or anything carbonated.

I Haven't Done It

Probably won't.

Not because I think it's fake. The telomere research is real. The skin studies are solid. If someone handed me $40,000 with instructions to spend it on my health I'd consider it.

But watching Séraphine I genuinely can't tell what's the pressurized oxygen and what's just her paying attention to herself for twelve weeks. Showing up somewhere every day. Having a routine. Eating better. Moving more.

Would anyone feel better after three months of that?

The hyperbaric oxygen therapy cost question is really a question about what you're paying for. The oxygen? Or the structure and attention?

Maybe in five years there will be clearer data. Prices might drop. Insurance might expand. Or this could end up being another expensive thing rich people do while scientists argue about whether it actually works.

Séraphine is booking another round next year.

Her husband seems to have accepted it. Or stopped fighting about it. Hard to tell.

I'm still watching. Still not sure.

Still kind of hoping she's right and I'm wrong.

You know anyone who's done the full protocol? Curious what they think.