As the whole of the UK celebrated the most incredible Euros win for our Lionesses against Germany last Sunday, Chelsea player Fran Kirby, as she went up to collect her winner’s medal in front of the record-breaking crowd at Wembley, must have felt more than a huge sense of achievement and pride. She must have felt a huge sense of relief.
On 15 April Chelsea’s manager, Emma Hayes, had announced the forward’s indefinite absence because of a fatigue problem for which they could find no answer. It was the latest in a long line of blows and disappointments that have blighted the talented player’s career, from the death of her mother at 14 and the severe depression that followed and forced her out of the game to having pericarditis, a condition affecting the fluid-filled sac around the heart.
Her new extreme fatigue setback left the Euros looking a world away.
Reaching this point has been a battle for all, especially Kirby, as there was no straightforward answer to her fatigue problem. “There were no specific answers on the tests where they could go: ‘This is the illness.’ It was extreme fatigue and extreme exhaustion. There was talk about underperformance fatigue syndrome.
Extreme fatigue is more than just being ‘tired’ or out of sorts – it is truly debilitating and can strike anyone, no matter how fit or healthy they may have been previously. Often associated with post-viral syndromes, surgery or stress (burn out), traditional medicine offers little help and certainly no solutions, as Kirby found out to her frustration.
“So there were loads of things that were getting chucked out here and there.’ Kirby said of the aftermath of her diagnosis. “It was a lot of working with different psychologists, working with different specialists in terms of nutrition and recovery. I got an oxygen tent put in my house.”
It was the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy tent that many, including Kirby, attribute to her being fit enough to play in just a few short months – even going on to score against Sweden in the semi-final.
So how does it work?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy or HBOT involves breathing oxygen under pressure in a specially designed Hyperbaric Oxygen individual chamber, or an oxygen tent. This causes oxygen to diffuse more readily into blood plasma, creating the perfect environment for the body to heal itself by promoting the formation of new blood vessels and even new stem cells. HBOT helps the body fix and repair damaged tissue whilst reducing pain and fatigue with a scientifically proven anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effect.
The lesson to take from Kirby’s amazingly speedy recovery is two-fold. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy really does aid and speed up the body’s own healing processes. However, to maintain recovery from fatigue-based illnesses, HBOT works best when combined with a 360-degree holistic approach, one that takes into account things like sleep quality, nutrition and well-being too.
For Fran Kirby the proof she was back on tip-top form thanks to HBOT and her elite recovery strategy was there for us all to see on Sunday, as the girls finally brought it home!
Total Body Health offers a complete fatigue recovery package, featuring Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) in Wimbledon. To find out more call Tony Courtney Brown at 0208 090 0995 / info@total-body-health.com
