Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO therapy, pressure chamber therapy) is a treatment method in which pure oxygen is inhaled under an elevated (hyperbaric) ambient pressure. This serves to increase oxygen uptake into the blood above normal levels. This results in a significantly better oxygen supply even to tissue with poor blood supply. Under normal conditions, the red blood pigment (hemoglobin) in the red blood cells (erythrocytes) is already more than 98 percent saturated with oxygen, so that an increase is hardly possible with the oxygen supply from normal breathing air. In hyperbaric oxygen therapy, the external pressure is increased to 1.3 to 3 times the normal pressure with the aid of a pressure chamber. This physically dissolves more oxygen into the liquid components of the blood. The excess oxygen is also said to reach the blood plasma and the lymphatic system, triggering the observed positive effects such as self-healing, anti-aging and performance enhancement.