What 600 Hours of Breathing Pure Oxygen Did to My Body
I’ve spent almost 600 hours in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber (HBOT), more than anyone you’ll ever meet. Today I’ll share what I did and why, to help you understand an understudied tool on your journey to total well-being.
Note: None of this is medical advice. I’m not a doctor, and don’t pretend to be one. I’m just trying to live the best life I can. I studied HBOT as much as I could, but you should always consult a medical professional before risking your health.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, or HBOT, is a treatment in a high-pressure capsule where you breathe purified oxygen. The pressure boosts your body’s ability to uptake oxygen into your cells. This extra oxygen seems to accelerate many physical processes.
You are delivering more oxygen to your cells than they have ever had before.
We don’t fully understand the effects of taking in extra oxygen, but what happens seems magical. Imagine faster healing for wounds and injuries. This includes tough hard-to-treat cases, like inflamed joints and deep brain injuries.
That healing process is exactly why I wanted to push HBOT to its limits.
Some context: I learned about HBOT years ago, as a way to improve health, boost metabolism, and treat chronic illness. I hypothesized that I could use HBOT to heal myself, and optimize my performance in the process.
I was not gifted with the world’s strongest constitution. A lifetime of allergies, illnesses, and eye problems, along with intense lifestyle stress, set me back. Decades of accumulated injuries and sufferings had taken their toll.
That’s where HBOT came in: I hoped it might rejuvenate my body, energy, and cognitive function in the process. Such had been reported anecdotally across many case studies… why not for me?
After 600 hours and hundreds of sessions, I can say this: IT WORKED. The gains I made from sustained HBOT years ago never faded. HBOT transformed my health for the better, from the inside out.
The Setup
I started with a soft-shell hyperbaric chamber. A plastic, zipper-sealed capsule designed for daily, repeatable use. It worked with an oxygen concentrator, providing about 93% purified oxygen through a mask. The chamber used regular air, pressurized by an air compressor. This design made it safe and fire-resistant.
I ran the chamber at 1.5 atmospheres of pressure, which is as high a pressure as you can go with a soft-shell chamber.
That number matters. At 1.5 ATA, your body experiences the equivalent of being about 3 meters (or 10 feet) underwater. Not enough to be harmful, but enough to change how oxygen acts on your body.
You feel it right away: a not-so-gentle squeeze on your body, pressure in your ears, and a tightness in your stomach. You feel something strange happening, and it’s not pleasant.
Each session lasted between 45 and 150 minutes. I did this almost daily for years. At peak usage, I’d be doing HBOT five days a week. During periods of extreme stress, or when I needed a boost, I did it daily to give me the edge I needed.
My protocol was simple:
Mask on, oxygen flowing continuously.
Occasional air breaks: Some people take air breaks every 15 minutes to stimulate a hormetic response. In my earlier tests, I didn’t see much change, so I only do it when comfortable or it seems right.
Slow pressurization and depressurization help clear ears safely and prevent injury. After about a hundred hours, my body got used to rapid depressurization, which is great for air travel. But slow depressurization was crucial at first.
I worked and took calls in the chamber when needed, but I mostly spent the time meditating or light reading. The pressure made intense reading difficult.
No stimulants beforehand; even smoking can significantly alter the experience. I would do red light therapy from time to time pre-session, but that’s about it.
Now you know exactly what I did.
Here’s what happened.
What came next wasn’t random, and it wasn’t subtle. The experiment played out in three phases. I didn’t plan it that way; it was my biology reacting to the stress placed on it.
I experienced three stages:
First, an adaptation period for the initial 1 to 15 sessions.
Second, an acclimatization period for the following 15 to 70 sessions.
Third, an optimization period covering all sessions after that first hundred or so.
Stage 1: Adaptation
This phase was intense and unmistakably physical.
I felt deep joint and bone pain in my legs. It was unlike anything I had faced before. I can only describe it as “deep in my bones,” similar to the bone-chilling cold when you’re soaked in cold weather.
I felt significant ear pressure, imbalance, and disorientation. It was like my senses were being slightly disoriented.
Blurred, unstable vision, especially after prolonged early sessions.
A heavy feeling of pressure made digestion slow. It was uncomfortable but still bearable.
Mild claustrophobia inside the chamber that only passed with accumulated experience.
These early sessions had a distinctly medical feeling. Over time, I realized that this “adaptation” was my body healing old injuries.
As this phase ended:
Joints became looser and more flexible.
Long-standing pains disappeared.
Vision stabilized and mildly improved.
Pressure tolerance increased significantly.
By session 8:
After each treatment, I felt focused and energized. I was almost euphoric for 6 to 8 hours.
Sleep was very deep and restful, especially with evening sessions.
But these mild benefits were only the beginning.
Stage 2: Acclimatization
Most of the exotic symptoms faded through the acclimatization stage, sessions 15 to 70. By session 70, I experienced almost none of the early symptoms. Instead, I felt an intensification of the effects of high oxygen exposure. I felt better and better.
At the time I was under great stress, working far too much, often staying up until 4 a.m. My circadian rhythm was destroyed, my appetite poor. I was gaining weight. I wasn’t exercising enough. I had too many obligations, an overwhelming amount.
During this time, there were many crises. I dealt with challenges like fundraising, exchange collapses, and stablecoin depeggings. I took part in more than a hundred war rooms to stop and prevent onchain hacks. It was a rough time.
The hyperbaric oxygen chamber was a lifesaver. It helped my body heal faster. It also lowered my stress and gave me more energy and focus. Even after a full day of work, an HBOT session would consistently give me hours of extra concentration and working attention. This proved critical to both the survival and eventual success of @immunefi.
Stage 3: Optimization
By around session 100, something had forever changed. The benefits were no longer coming and going; they had become ingrained. My joints were as flexible as they had been in my teenage years. My thinking, focus, and memory improved in a way that stayed consistent. My vision got sharper, my tolerance for pressure grew, and my energy levels rose.
I was no longer bothered by ear or body compression from pressurization. What was once uncomfortable had become mild, leaving me functional in the chamber. I could work, take phone calls, read, write, meditate, or do whatever else I wanted in the chamber.
My eyes became problem-free. HBOT, along with other steps I took for eye health, made my vision the best it has been in years. My stress headaches subsided, and my weight stabilized.
At that point, hyperbaric oxygen felt less like the main driver. Instead, it acted as a modest amplifier, giving me an extra 15% energy per day and a few extra hours of focus. The real change was that the benefits didn’t seem HBOT-dependent anymore. They felt permanent, like a new, higher baseline.
What Went Wrong
The same healing power that made HBOT so compelling also forced me to confront its limits. When you apply that much oxygen to the body, it doesn’t amplify health alone.
Once, I tried hyperbaric oxygen when I was sick. I hoped it would help me recover faster. It appeared to help at first... but then it didn’t. HBOT didn’t create the problem, but it did accelerate the time to medical crisis.
The symptoms I experienced during my first HBOT sessions were real. The exotic sensations were real. Temporary blurriness of vision was real. The pressure and claustrophobia of being in a pressurized chamber was very real. Early on, it was a frightening experience, and it took a lot of courage to continue.
And yet, I don’t see these moments as failures of HBOT. I view them as reminders of its strength. Deep healing is usually a difficult, strange process.
There is risk here. HBOT demands caution, awareness, and restraint. But acknowledging that doesn’t diminish HBOT’s value: the net result was transformative. The benefits not only outweighed the downsides, but persisted long after. These benefits made the entire experiment unquestionably worthwhile.
The Benefits I Experienced
What surprised me most wasn’t any single effect, but how many parts of my life changed at the same time. The improvements didn’t stay isolated to one part of my body. They were wide-ranging and persistent.
I had more energy day to day. Focus came easily, lasted longer, and didn’t buckle under pressure. I remembered names better, faces stuck, and important details surfaced without effort.
At the same time, my health improved. My vision improved. Pain diminished. Allergies became less severe. My joints grew limber, which let me train harder and recover without feeling beaten up. I felt calmer, more stable, better able to handle stress, and happier.
Short-term session effects remain intense but less noticeable now. Many of these effects seem to have become ingrained. It feels as if my body now oxygenates more effectively all the time.
Bringing it all together
So, is this something you should try?
I want to make it clear that I’m not a doctor, and this isn’t medical advice. However, my own experiment shows that HBOT can be powerful. There are benefits (and risks) that you won’t find anywhere else.
If you’re interested in trying HBOT, it’s not cheap; it’s genuinely expensive. Individual sessions usually cost $50 to $200. If you want your own machine, expect to pay between $7,000 and $100,000. It’s not a casual hobby.
There are also real restrictions to consider. Many machines and countries have specific rules you must follow. Most need special technical or medical training, especially hard-shell machines. These add complexity that is essential to safely using HBOT.
Is this for everyone? Definitely not. But if you’re chasing peak performance and long-term health, it’s worth exploring HBOT.
So there you have it. That’s the story. How I did 600 hours of high-pressure oxygenation so you don’t have to. I don’t think anyone needs to spend as much time and energy as I did. I read studies, explored case studies, and reviewed hundreds of anecdotal stories. Most people can get real, tangible benefits in far less time and with far less effort.
If someone could have told me that at the start, I’d have been forever grateful. So that’s what I did for you: shared the lived HBOT experience I would have wanted someone to share with me. I hope it helps.