Oskar: 10 years ago, most people had never heard of hyperbaric therapy. Today it's part of the recovery and longevity playbook for athletes, clinics, and everyday people. What changed to take it from niche to normal?

Mayur Patel: Honestly, I think awareness, right? Awareness. And during COVID, the world woke up. And so during this awakening, started to see a focus ⁓ things like hyperbarics and other modalities in this functional, holistic space. And, you know, I really do think that this is one the most exciting times to be in this industry is we start to see how preventative medicine will take a huge part in ⁓ the way that we approach healthcare moving forward using these modalities.

Oskar: Mayor, welcome to the business of longevity. It's a pleasure to have you on the podcast. ⁓ who hasn't ⁓ met you or heard of you, you're the CEO of Oxi Health, the that basically invented the modern portable hyperbaric chamber. ⁓ There than 17,000 to 18,000 chambers out there in the world now across clinics, ⁓ sports wellness centers, and even homes. and you've stepped in to carry forward this legacy your father started decades ago. and I bumped into each other in the US and again in Copenhagen, ⁓ we're two relatively ⁓ guys who are pretty obsessed with helping people live better and longer lives. So I've really been looking forward to this one. So someone hearing about hyperbarics for the first time, what's the simplest way to explain what they are and what the chambers do?

Mayur Patel: Of course, well, first off, thanks for having me on your podcast. you know, when you look at hyperbarics, ⁓ word hyperbaric is pretty self-explanatory, right? Hyper elevated ⁓ pressure. And so a hyperbaric chamber is a vessel that pressurizes, that uses the mechanisms of pressure and different gas laws to drive and diffuse oxygen into your body. And so in a general sense, we're using pressure as a driving force to supplement oxygen on a cellular level to your cells, which is really cool.

Oskar: Awesome. And when we look at like the broader longevity toolkit that's out there, supplements, wearables, everything from like cold plunges to saunas, et cetera, where do you kind of see hyperbaric therapy fitting into that? it something you should be doing every day? Is it complimentary once in a year kind of thing? How do you view it?

Mayur Patel: Yeah, well, hyperbarics isn't something you want to do every day for the rest of your life, but it is something you want to do in cycles. And so, for example, ⁓ but you want to do in consecutive cycles. other words, this isn't something you want to do once a week, 52 weeks out of every year, but it's something you want to allocate a period of time to complete at minimum 20 to 30 sessions in as consecutive of a period as possible, right? Because... going into or without getting too deep into the science behind it, part of the mechanism is what you get during your session, right? And in getting a dose of oxygen. And the other part of the session is the literal act of going back and forth and activating a lot of those different regenerative pathways. And so for that reason, you want to do them in a consecutive period of time, kickstart a lot of those regenerative pathways and then build in a break because a lot of people don't realize a hyperbaric session is a stress on the body. It's hormetic. It's exactly why it does what it does, right? We're inflicting a little bit of stress on your body to trigger this adaptive protective response. And that adaptive protective response is exactly why hyperbarics is so strong in what it does outside of the immediate benefits of getting ample or supplemental oxygen delivery on a cellular level. so the longevity space, you'll see it used quite a bit. I guess the place I would put this in longevity is as a recovery modality, right? We recover the most in our sleep. And so for the everyday person, really it's extremely beneficial to do something like hyperbarics right before bed, right? To supercharge your body and really prime it to be in the best state possible, to take full advantage of the session you just did in the period of time or the act. that you recover the most on a daily basis during your sleep. And of course, this is just specific to longevity. you zoom out from the longevity space, you'll actually see hyperbarics being used for a lot more than just longevity and recovery. ⁓ really started like most modalities do with really, really sick individuals and individuals suffering from a lot of different things. So this is just a new scope added to it. And of course, the milder version of hyperbarics, which is deemed a lot safer and to have a significantly lower risk profile than some other hyperbarics has really opened the door for hyperbarics to be used in this longevity space, right?

Oskar: Fantastic. So I personally jump into an oxy health, course, hyperbaric chamber pretty regularly as I have one at home, which is perhaps becoming more of a norm, more people more interested to to having a home. And I do it like intervals. It's like sometimes I do it five times a week. Other periods I have breaks. And it's just it's such an I think it's really nice in the beginning. It's kind of scary. But now it's like and nice feeling no one can get into me. I'm kind of locked away there and I can read my book in peace. And it's quite a kind of a meditative process as well as I'm learning more and more about all the benefits and coming studies out all the time about all the benefits that can help on both longevity, but injury, head trauma like I have, et cetera. So Mayur, you're actually a pharmacist by trade yet I didn't know this when you and I met for the first time. And it struck me how mission driven you are about oxy health and yet you're a pharmacist by trade. So what's the personal why behind you dedicating your 20s soon 30s to these pressurized tubes full of oxygen?

Mayur Patel: Well, you know, I in pharmacy school, I had a back injury. I actually herniated my L3, L4 in my lower back. And you know, of course this is a family business, right? I'm a second generation owner and I've been exposed to hyperbarics but I didn't really understand it. And nor was I really interested in any of this. I really just didn't know much about it. And during pharmacy school, I had my back injury and honestly, The standard GDMT, everything that was recommended as far as pain management and how to handle a herniated disc just wasn't cutting it for me. I mean, I was a, you know, I like to work, right? So as a pharmacy student, I was working 13 hour shifts, on my feet in a retail setting and then also in a hospital setting. I had two jobs at the time. And I mean, I would come home with, you know, my back excruciatingly painful. And sometimes the next morning I wasn't actually able to even get out of bed. I mean, I remember ⁓ one morning my roommate had to actually take me to the ER because I thought my back was broken. all standard recommendations for herniated disc were, okay, we'll get steroid shots, which by the way, have a bunch of side effects. I mean, outside of what they for like your immune and suppressing your immune system. they have a lot of mental side effects. I mean, it was unbearable and just something I didn't think was good for my body long-term. And then of course there's PT and then high dose Tylenol, which I'm sure you've heard a lot of buzz around Tylenol and how toxic it is for your body, as well as occasional narcotics to help cut the pain if it got to that severity level. And quite honestly, I called my father out of frustration and venting to him and how... This was really holding me back and I felt like there was a bottleneck on being able to do what I wanted to do, especially as it pertained to my career in pharmacy. And so he said, dude, do you know what I do for a living? And he shipped me a home hyperbaric chamber. And at first, ⁓ I didn't understand it, right? So I said, okay, what is this thing? It just pressurizes like it's ambient air. There's no oxygen. It just pressurizes. Like there's no way, you know, I'll try it. You know, this is my father. He's built a business that's 25 years at this, you know, for 20 to 25 years at this point, there must be something here. So I'll give it the old college try. And after my first few sessions, I mean, it completely blew my mind. And, you know, that's when I, the nerdy student I was, I dove into the research and realized why it did what it did and it did so, so effectively. And then everything just clicked. I was blown away at how something as simple as a vessel that can increase pressure. without anything else added could have such a strong effect in reducing something like inflammation, right? And kick-starting a lot of these different regenerative pathways. And so was around this time that I reached out to my father and ⁓ to get involved in what he was doing because I was so fascinated by this. his part of onboarding me was, I need you to see why I do what I do. He's... At this point, this was in 2020, he had been doing this for 23 years he's seen hyperbarics has done for a lot of the people of the world, right? I mean, he started with really sick patients and a lot of what he saw in clinic is what drove him to continue doing what he was doing. And he wanted me to see that. So he sent me on a road trip around the country, going clinic clinic, meeting patients. And quite honestly, I was inspired. ⁓ I saw who had to the end of the line in the medical system, two, three years post injury or post accident, completely immobilized, going into a hyperbaric chamber, it was a soft shell hyperbaric chamber and moving their arm for the first time in the last three years since their accident. I saw nonverbal kids speaking the first time to their parents. And quite honestly, I was touched and moved and I was so inspired. seeing what effect this had on the world. was blown away and you know, like growing up as you can imagine, as my father pioneered and bulldozed his way through this off-label industry, I didn't get to see him much. So I didn't understand it, you know, and there might've been some subconscious like, ⁓ well, you know, he was always gone and you know, blah, blah, blah, whatever else. But it finally made sense ⁓ it validated everything in my eyes and what he did. And I knew that... I had to take this legacy forward. I had to continue what he was doing. And I wanted, you know, he took it from nothing to something. I wanted to take it from something to something that completely changed the world forever on a completely different scale. And so that's what drives me to do what I do in my twenties. And I'm forever grateful and blessed to be in this position and, you know, to be able to continue his work and making that impact on a day-to-day basis.

Oskar: Wow, very, very inspiring. And I think we've had this conversation before about how you and I have been probably seen the same kind of success in this field as children of what our ⁓ have ⁓ and being able to continue that legacy and dare to dream bigger than perhaps they ⁓ ever or dared believe at the time is very empowering, is something that creates a very strong So, Mayur, you are now the ⁓ of OxiHealth and you're driving this forward and you're talking about a legacy. And do you mind sharing a little bit more ⁓ ⁓ come you are the CEO today?

Mayur Patel: Of course, you know, when I got involved in 2020, my father and I actually had crafted a five-year plan. You know, just like any business, you have a two-year plan, you have a five-year plan, and you have a 10-year plan and a vision and where you want to go. Part of our five-year plan was actually, we intended for me to not only finish school, you know, I graduated in 2023 from pharmacy school, it was to finish my pharmacy program and then... you know, train along his side from 2020 until the point I graduated going, you know, again, I love to work and then having two years, um, really working full time by his side, shadowing him, learning from him as my mentor, um, until my point to take the role as CEO in 2025. Um, and you know, quite honestly in 2023, um, things change just like anything always expect the unexpected. Um, you know, my father was taken from this world in 2023. so it changed my plan a little bit, or not a little bit, like overnight I was thrown into a position that I thought, I graduated pharmacy school, I thought I was going to come home and look forward to those two years working by his side on a day-to-day basis rather than the back and forth I was doing the three years prior and everything changed overnight. And in 2023, to be completely honest with you, I, you know, as you can imagine being 25 years old and having this thrown at you, you don't have a lot of confidence. so there was a thought that crossed my mind at the time that said, well, I worked with him the last three years he's gone now. ⁓ you know, and I, I don't feel confident in myself to do what he does without his guidance and mentorship. And I still have this path in pharmacy. And so I felt like I was at a crossroads, right? Like what am I, what is the best path forward and what can I do to make sure that I'm getting the most and can still make the impact I want to make without ruining even his legacy or potentially my future plans in my career. I, that thought crossed my head for maybe. few hours. And then to be completely honest with you, I snapped out of it and said, everything happens for a reason. You know, I'm not a, I wasn't actually a very spiritual person, but in around that time, I, I started to be a bit more open-minded as everybody is in this space. You know, when you go into this off-label functional medicine space, holistic space, everybody's spiritual for a reason. And so I, I chose to trust that the universe, that everything happens for a reason. that the universe put me in this situation and took my father for a reason. And that honestly this wouldn't have happened if I wasn't truly ready. And so I trusted that everything truly happens for a reason. And I believed in myself and built that internal level of confidence that I needed to actually jump into this. so, it's ⁓ ⁓ By this time following our standard timeline, I would have transitioned to being the CEO and he would have been a board member of some sort. my plans were expedited and I took the role of CEO in 2023. quite honestly, I don't think I would be as far as I am today in my experience, in my confidence and... in my ability to make a lot of the decisions that I do if he was still here. I I've grown more in the last two years in this role, the experiences I've had, than I did in the first 25 years of my life. ⁓ ⁓ more than I would have ⁓ I had him still here with the dynamic that we had. ⁓ And a lot of it is because when you're thrown into an independent situation, like, do think those are the largest leaps of growth, just like going away to college. mean, you know, when when I left to pharmacy school, I went to school in a different state. prior to pharmacy school, believe it or not, I was a very reserved child. You know, I was studious, but I was very reserved. You know, I didn't have too many friends. I had a very small circle. And then I went to college and Having that level of independence without my parents involvement really changed my life. It changed my, you know, I sharpened my social skills. I found out how to even do things like buy and register a car on my own, how to, you know, how to get an apartment, like do all these different things, how to pay my own taxes, like all these different things that you don't really understand and do on your own when you make that leap to go to college. And, you know, this was another big leap my own independence that ⁓ You know, I'm forever grateful for, know, as tragic as it is, I'm forever grateful for this opportunity to have the experiences I've had and, you know, be the man I am today because of it.

Oskar: It's such a story it's such a healthy reflection, I think ⁓ you've I think the world is going to be ⁓ a better with you snapping out of that few hours of thought ⁓ about going to pharmacy school because the amount of people that you can help ⁓ going forward hyperbaric chambers, ⁓ reaching ⁓ levels. I think will be so impactful that it will have made sense when you look back in a few years time. So thank you for sharing ⁓ that story. ⁓ amazing. And when we kind of continue down that thought and those reflections, when you kind of from, ⁓ I mean, the start must been pretty... hectic and confusing and what direction do I go and how am I a leader and all of these kind of questions and probably also a few insecurities along the way that you kind of alluded to. But when did you go, okay, this is now my company and not my father's, but I'm carrying his legacy forward.

Mayur Patel: Quite honestly, immediately. you know, as soon as I made that decision to take this and take it, you know, that this was my sole path forward, I knew that I was ready for this and that this is my company moving forward and not taking anything away from his legacy, but that his legacy and my legacy would have this singularity as I build and continue building the empire that he left me with.

Oskar: awesome.

Mayur Patel: And, know, I, it kind of, worked. it's so weird. You know, you think you reflect on things all the time. ⁓ I don't know why I chose pharmacy school. You know, I graduated and two months later I was thrown into this role, but quite honestly, I think the background I have in pharmacy was the perfect background to, for the, to the role that I'm currently taking, right? Like in pharmacy school, for example, just like any medical professional. you're taught how to be a leader. There's actually leadership classes because you're the pharmacist in charge at your pharmacy, right? You're running your team of technicians, right? And so there are skills that I've sharpened throughout pharmacy school on a leadership level. anything that would prepare me for the scale that I needed here, but a good foundation, right? On the science side, you know, in this functional space, in this longevity space, in this...

Oskar: You

Mayur Patel: with holistic approaches, the one barrier for a lot of physicians is the stigma around BS because most companies don't keep their products evidence-based. And so being a pharmacist, going through all the clinicals I did, one of the biggest, our sole focus as pharmacists is how do we make an evidence-based recommendation for this treatment plan? to present to our attending physician as we collaborate on rounds, right? Like everything has to be evidence-based. And so those skills set a really solid foundation to not only stick handle this transition overnight, but I think to also reshape how we do things. And you my father's always kept things evidence-based, but he didn't do it himself. He was an engineer, right? He had a team of physicians that used his products that helped him do this. And now, We have somebody coming in with medical background and a doctorate in pharmacy who has experienced doing things around evidence-based medicine to bring that new flavor and completely transition how we do things here. Because as we grow, as hyperbarics grows, there's gonna be a lot of scrutiny. And so we need to have everything. You know, we have to have all our I's dotted and our T's crossed. Everything has to be black and right, white and evidence-based moving forward if we're truly going to get acceptance from allopathic medicine, know, allopathic medical doctors.

Oskar: You seriously could not have teed that up for me any better for the next question because next question is exactly in as short as possible because otherwise I think you could go on for a long, long time. But what ⁓ the real evidence back benefits of spending 60 to 90 minutes in a hyperbaric chamber?

Mayur Patel: course, yeah. Well, it depends on your use case, right? Whether you're a really sick. So rather than kind of honing in or zooming in on specific use cases, let's just zoom out and let's kind of discuss like what are some of the bigger picture mechanisms that are well studied in hyperbarics? It's strong anti-inflammatory effects. That's huge in hyperbarics, whether you're high pressure or low pressure, right? Hyperbarics has a very strong anti-inflammatory mechanism. that's quite honestly responsible for why it's so powerful, or one of the reasons why it's responsible for why it's so powerful in healing, because a lot of the time when we're injured and we're healing, whether it's like an acute injury or just our body's attempting to heal on a day-to-day basis, we get stuck in the inflammation phase, and it keeps us from going to the next phase, the proliferation, right? you can't, inflammation's a natural body response, however, It's important to protect your body, but it also slows down the body's ability to actually heal itself. And so one of the reasons why hyperbarics is so effective in healing and recovery is because it has such a strong anti-inflammatory effect. It can unstuck your body from this, this, you know, inflammation phase that it may be stuck in. So it can now move into, ⁓ you know, actually repairing and recovering. The next thing, you'll ⁓ headlines or see a lot of things about hyperbarics and stem cells, for example, right? There's actually a lot of data for low pressure and high pressure and what hyperbarics does for your internal stem cells that are already circulating. We a bunch of stem cells circulating through our bodies. When we're younger, we have significantly more stem cells circulating in our body than we do. ⁓ you know, as we age, it's actually one of the pillars of aging. We have less stem cells in circulation as we age over, you know, over periods of time. Hyperbaric has shown at both low pressure and high pressure in different magnitudes. Again, remember it's use cases and risk analysis, but at both pressures to actually move the needle in significantly increasing the amount of stem cells that are mobilized into blood circulation. I mean, that's phenomenal, right? Like that's so, and it's not something you can like necessarily feel. But seeing those data points gets me excited because I'm like, wow, okay, we're priming the body for recovery. Like no wonder it does a lot of these, you know, recovery or regenerative outcomes, right? Because we're really just kickstarting your body's own ability to repair and recover itself. And then of course there's what hyperbarics does for your mitochondria, right? So mitochondrial... function is absolutely essential for our vitality. And there's, you you'll hear people talking all the time, experts talking all the time about mitochondrial dysfunction and all the things that can come secondary from that. And so part of the reason why hyperbarics is so effective, like in pediatric care, for example, a lot of these children had mitochondrial dysfunction, which led to a lot of their ASD symptoms, right? Or led to a lot of their like developmental issues. And so using like Part of the reason why hyperbarics works so well for these kids is because it helped optimize their mitochondria, it got them up and running. Cause your mitochondria are the powerhouse of your cells, right? So if you don't have functional mitochondria, you don't have adequate fuel for your cells to do what they're innately programmed to do, to repair and recover, right? And so, know, those are some of the like core mechanisms.

Oskar: Yeah.

Mayur Patel: in hyperbarics that are very well researched. you know, there's things like collagen production, you know, for your skin, like you'll see hyperbarics in wound care for use very frequently, right? And it's because a lot of these different mechanisms are so powerful in what they do. like, you know, wound care has been ⁓ of the uses for hyperbarics, for high pressure hyperbarics for a very, very long time. And when you understand why it works so well for something like wound care, you can... ⁓ start to the dots with the mechanisms, especially as you dive into research. And what we've seen over the last 20 years in the advancements in research for a lot of its different use cases. And then of course there's TBI, right? Brain injury and ⁓ there's data on stroke in particular, but there is a lot of data on brain injury. ⁓ I when it comes to like FDA approvals for indications, I do that there's a lot of politics involved, but ⁓ one of next... ⁓ indications that will most likely get approved is TBI because of how much data there is and how much it actually makes sense that getting more oxygen, getting more blood perfusion into these tissues, especially in the brain and an injured area, is exactly what your brain needs to start to move that needle in recovery.

Oskar: You talk about low and high pressure. What's difference between the two?

Mayur Patel: Yes, so low pressure would be like a mild chamber, like the chamber you use at home, right? This is 1.3 atmospheres and high pressure is more traditional hyperbaric. So these are, you know, two atmospheres and above. And the difference to be honest is severity, right? So if you look at the 15 FDA cleared indications in hyperbarics, they all have one common denominator. They're all very severe and potentially life-threatening indications. And a lot of the reason behind that is because high pressure hyperbarics using pressures north of two atmospheres with 100 % oxygen is a very high risk protocol, right? So this isn't something you necessarily want to do in your home. There are risks with everything outside of fire risks. There are risks, medical risks, right? Risk of oxygen toxicity, pulmonary toxicity. You talk about the stress on your lungs after doing low pressure with a little bit of oxygen. Imagine the stress on your body. when you're going north of two atmospheres with 100 % oxygen. And so for that reason, that's my hypothesis on why hyperbarics was so limited over the last 20 years and why these FDA approvals are still, are limited to those life-threatening indications because it's such a high-risk protocol that really does require medical staff on site because in the event something happens, in the event you have oxygen toxicity, which can result in like somebody having a seizure, for example, you want to make sure that there's somebody on site who can not only take you out, but perform things like basic life support, right? This isn't something you want to self treat in homes. And you'll see a lot of companies putting these devices in homes without taking the proper steps to make sure that this person actually has some kind of medical staff on site to tend to them in the event something happens, right? And then it all comes down to use case, right? the higher the pressure you are, the larger the dose you're getting of oxygen as well. And so that's something very important to consider because again, this is an oxidative stress, right? So, know, higher pressures generally, you know, like if you were to kind of put them on a scale, lower pressures, have, or higher pressures, they have a lot of efficacy, right? But they also have a very high risk profile. Lower pressures, depending on the use cases and tend to have a little bit lower efficacy, but the risk profile is significantly lower. And so if you're not somebody who needs an aggressive protocol, right, for a very intense indication, like let's say even, you know, patients that are looking to use this to suppress an infection of some sort, all right, or to suppress a tumor, you really should consider the different use cases of both and the risk associated with the different protocols that you have access to. And also newer research is showing that, like for something like inflammation, right, you know, I kind of mentioned it's strong anti-inflammatory effect. Lower pressure and higher pressure both had pretty interesting effects on inflammation, right? When you look at, you know, there's a study put together by Dr. Sauners where he looks at low pressure versus high pressure and which cytokines they affect when it came to inflammation, right? Because cytokines are like the markers of inflammation, right? So you have anti-inflammatory markers, you pro-inflammatory markers. Now, when he did his research, he hypothesized that, ⁓ okay, well, higher pressure following that whole scale that I kind of mentioned earlier will probably have greater amplitude, but again, it's the whole risk analysis. ⁓ he was wrong. Lower pressure and higher pressure actually had shared traits in which cytokines that they affected in the same amplitude, but lower pressure affected completely different set of cytokines than higher pressure affected, which makes sense, right? Because when you look at higher pressure, our body's natural response is going to be towards managing that oxidative stress. At lower pressures, it's not nearly as much oxidative stress as the higher pressure, and so the response will be a bit different. And so he found out that cytokines like interleukin-6, are you familiar with IL-6? ⁓

Oskar: I'm not, no.

Mayur Patel: It's an it's a inflammatory marker, but he found out he found that interleukin 6 TNF alpha and TNF beta three of the main pro-inflammatory cytokine markers in more chronic disease management were greatly affected or you know affected in greater and significantly greater amplitude than the higher pressure group Which is pretty interesting because in other words that means the three markers

Oskar: Right.

Mayur Patel: that we typically measure in more chronic diseases like maybe Crohn's disease, right? Something chronic that you have to kind of, you know, deal and treat for chronic periods of time more affected by lower pressures. And so now it gets, you know, it stimulates the, or there's a hypothesis now that lower pressures might be a better fit because they affect different markers that have greater correlations to chronic disease inflammation markers and might be a better fit for chronic disease management long-term. And it's so safe. I mean, it's so safe you can even put one in your home, right? Like, so there's that 1.3 atmosphere. Sorry.

Oskar: I know. I know I have one.

Mayur Patel: You know, right? So at 1.3 atmospheres, it's so safe to use. you know, part of the reason why my father pushed so hard for portable hyperbaric chambers is because he wanted to increase its accessibility and bring it to the masses. But you can't do so and go put high pressure hyperbaric chambers in everybody's homes. I mean, that's, you know, without having... proper infrastructure around the device itself, right? You really need to make sure that we're promoting safety. And at the end of the day, the end consumer, end patient, like I'm sure you know this in any business, there is going to be a lot of human error and user error. So the more simple it is, the lower the risk profile, the safer it will be overall from a liability standpoint. know, we'll... we're at a point right now, we're still in the Henry Ford days of hyperbaric. So you're not hearing about many incidents. On our side, I hear about different incidents all the time with like, you know, different things happening with chambers, whether they're like, you know, failing and bursting. It happens. I mean, it happens more frequently than you think, but it's still, you know, not everybody has a hyperbaric chamber in their home. But if, as this industry grows, as people start to put more chambers in their homes, we will potentially start to see more incidents. And so we really need to make sure that, you know, we're doing it safely and that if you're using something like high pressure, you have proper things in place to make sure that it's being used safely. So I know I dumped a lot, probably went a little bit off topic and on a tangent there, but it all kind of goes into this whole like, okay, well, what's high pressure versus low pressure? And you know, we make high pressure devices too, right?

Oskar: night.

Mayur Patel: but these are devices that we reserve for more clinical settings where they have proper staff on site. But most importantly, trainings, right? There are certified training programs through different organizations that make sure that following your local rules and regulations, you have the proper SOPs for operating this device, and that your entire team is trained adequately to use this device. mean, training doesn't just mean...

Oskar: Mm.

Mayur Patel: You know, I hear about companies all the time just saying like, ⁓ yeah, we'll train you how to use it. They get on a zoom call. They tell them how to use it. And that's it. Like that's the, that's the training. There's no safety training. There's no training on what you need to actually operate this from a legal standpoint. Cause there are requirements, right? Having things like a safety director in your clinic who's responsible for all the maintenance logs of the chamber. Who's responsible for keeping a book together on the SOPs of how to operate it. Having emergency procedures written out. in this book, in the event something happens, like there's so many things involved in running it for good reason, right? So it's just something that, know, we're very cautious of how we approach, which is why I really love like the low pressure chambers, ⁓ they're just so safe. They're so safe, you can put them in a home, you don't have to worry about it, so.

Oskar: And picking up on the Henry Ford and IG that you came with, we are gonna move a little bit into the production of it because one thing is that everyone sees a little bit of a space-like machine and think, wow, they're a bit like futuristic and wonder what they do and they're pretty cool. But when we're talking about businesses here, I mean, there's so much behind the scenes, the engineering behind it that people aren't seeing. I don't assume you guys are following an assembly line structure just like Henry Ford did back in the days, but what does it actually take for you guys to build these ⁓ the materials, how do you test it, ⁓ manufacturing process, I mean, the important thing is how do you guarantee the quality of every unit that ⁓ you out the door?

Mayur Patel: That's a great question. Part of our ⁓ FDA clearance and everything we have to adhere to in the guidelines that they set is there are so many safety tests. So there's like a pretty extensive list. I mean, up the top of my head, there's, I wanted the test we have to do is we literally have to get a 250 pound saddle and drop it on, right? So we drop it from about 15 feet and we see how, the chamber can hold it. Yeah, so we pressurize the chamber.

Oskar: while it's in pressure.

Mayur Patel: we get a 250 pound saddle and it's dropped onto the chamber study it, right? To see if it fails and if it fails, how it fails. ⁓ there's an extensively long list of all these safety tests after we build the device itself. But as far as building it, like we don't necessarily have an assembly line, but I do have a team that focuses on one part of each of the manufacturing process. for soft shells, it's very different than the hard shells.

Oskar: Yeah.

Mayur Patel: So like for the soft shells, know, everything is, it's a bit, will say it's a little bit easier to build the soft shell than the hard shell. And the reason for that is, you know, outside of all the extensive tests we have to do on the hard shells, there are actual welds. You know, the soft shells, we sonic weld everything, so there's no adhesives or glues, and it up very well. Actually, It's a little off topic, but we actually just received a chamber. I'm making content on this today that we're going to be posting on our social media, but we just received a chamber from a customer, long time customer of OxyHealth that's 25 years old. It was manufactured December 21st in the year 2000, right? And so 25 years later, I thought that this chamber was probably going to need a repair and because the customer traded it in, we gave them some credit back. and they bought a brand new chamber. And so I thought that, you know, there was gonna be something wrong with it. Turns out they just wanted something newer and a little bit bigger, because this was a smaller model of the chamber. And so we plugged it in and it works flawlessly. Now it's not the prettiest chamber. I will say they didn't take the best of care of it. It's got a lot of like, you know, like it just looks like they didn't really clean it that well, but it runs flawlessly 25 years later, right? And that's in a testament.

Oskar: Thanks Well.

Mayur Patel: to our build quality and why we pride ourselves in our products and how well constructed they are and how safe they are. I mean, other, actually we are the only hyperbaric company that can actually say with a, that has a chamber that's 25 years old that is still up and running. All of our competitors came probably in the later 2000s, early 2010s, nobody has a chamber to show that it lasts 25 years and still runs very well. So I'm actually gonna film content with that later today with my team and we're gonna brag about it on social media, because we're the only company that can actually say

Oskar: Well, I think you're coming into a little bit. We've spoken about the science behind it now talk about the tedious manufacturing processes and the regulation involved. And that's some of these things that that you have to think of as a CEO. You constantly need to be thinking about all of them and be somewhat passionate in all areas. And that also leads into the. the growth and strategy that I'm a little bit curious to understand as well. And now you're talking a little bit about content all of a sudden. I'm sure your father wasn't thinking too much about ⁓ 15 years ago. ⁓ what's actually driving the business today? You've got clinics, wellness centers, but also people at home. ⁓ ⁓ channel surprised you knowing that there's about 18,000 of your chamber is out there?

Mayur Patel: The home consumers, be honest with you, I'll say about 15 % of our sales are B2B. These are to clinics, more commercial uses of our product. The other 85 % are home consumers, right? Individuals putting these in our homes. I kind of had a general idea. I wasn't too shocked about the channels. I think I was more shocked about our distribution. You know, from an outside perspective, I really thought that we, you know, like we ⁓ had a lot of our, our, our, you know, a lot of our sales came from our, our distributor network because, know, we have 48 distributors around the world. but it really is a 50 50 split, which is pretty interesting. ⁓ a lot of our sales are direct. but one my focuses when it comes to growth is, ⁓ it shouldn't be a 50 50 split, right? Like I actually believe that. If this company like to scale this company up and to build it and to grow it, I really need to focus on my external channels, right? These resellers and build different sales enablement programs for them or build different support mechanisms to help them do what they do a little bit better. Right? So, ⁓ you know, it's been a big part of my focus the last few years, ⁓ and figuring out how to. to really amplify what they do.

Oskar: I mean, it's the sales channels that are so important to get right in order to succeed with all of the fantastic science, all the good manufacturing, all the making sure the regulation is in point. But if you can't get the sales in, going to struggle as a business. And this is a quite a unique case because ⁓ is it would be hard to say that this is a fast moving consumer good. It's pretty. ⁓ solid investment I would say for an individual to put at home with your mid-range price at around $15,000 is that correct?

Mayur Patel: Yeah, that's the mid. So they start at 9,000. They go up to 23,000 for a flagship model the home market.

Oskar: So you talked about a little bit the sales channels. So what's like the most, what's the strongest sales channel for you guys right now when selling such a pricey product to an end consumer?

Mayur Patel: you asking about the demographic breakdown for ourselves?

Oskar: A little bit in terms of these sales partners that you have, how do they go out and find the end consumer? How do you meet the end consumer? it, I mean, when we think a little bit in functional future that I've got where we're selling collagen powder, as you were talking about collagen earlier, it's pretty easy to push this product onto consumers through advertisement, et cetera. What other channels do you use to get the customers to buy your product?

Mayur Patel: Of course, a big one are the clinics, right? So in the US alone, we serve, I don't know the exact number, but it's well over 500 clinics in the United States have oxy-held chambers. And so a lot of these clinics are, you know, we have referral programs we've built with these clinics that generate quite a few leads for us for their guests, right? So they kind of start them with hyperbarics in clinic and then they send them home with a home hyperbaric chamber. So. It's been a big part of how we reach a lot of these home consumers. know, we also do, it to be 60 to 70 trade shows a year. You know, that was my father's way of bulldozing his way, you know, in the first 10 to 15 years of this business. But I do that things have changed a bit and we've pulled back on how many shows we're doing and putting more focuses on like online marketing and just kind of trying to understand ⁓ science is moving forward because the world has changed, right? 20 years ago, the internet wasn't as big, online marketing wasn't nearly as big as it is today. And so we're finding that medium. But ⁓ the thing for us is doctors, right? These clinics, this is a prescription medical device, right? You'll see a lot of companies out there saying like, ⁓ this is just a wellness chamber. It's non-medical. There's no such thing as non-medical. Anytime you're increasing pressure, right whether there's oxygen or not if you're increasing pressure It's a class two medical device. It's labeled and defined as a hyperbaric chamber, which has a prescriptive authority right or prescription requirement and so Still going to conferences putting on educational programs to educate doctors on what hyperbarics is and how they can apply it has been You know the most successful way for us to get that reach that we need over the last 20 years and is still going to be a huge focus of what we do moving forward. mean, we ⁓ organizations that accumulate build research in hyperbaric, ⁓ in to ⁓ advance therapy and build different protocols. We support organizations that build safety trainings, right? So really it's... ⁓ it's kind of hard to pinpoint it to one thing because we do so many things. you know, like every dollar we make to be completely honest, I reinvest into these different programs because I'm thinking about the next 10 to 20 years of hyperbarics and where we need to go. And I'm also thinking about, okay, what are the needs right now and what are the concerns? And one of the biggest concerns for me is safety, right? I need to focus on how can I make Hyperbaric safer through different trainings because it's kind of the wild, wild west out there right now with a lot of people. mean, they're ordering these things on Alibaba and putting them in clinics. how does that, like there are websites, e-commerce, right? Like I believe in e-commerce. Don't, don't. Yeah. And not even that, like you can go on some of these companies that are non-regulated and you can buy a Hyperbaric chamber online. You can add it to your cart and you can pay.

Oskar: To any listeners, do not go onto Alibaba and buy a hyperbaric chamber.

Mayur Patel: I'm like, that's not it works. There's ⁓ lot more to it, right? In order to actually be successful and to safely use it, there's trainings involved. ⁓ the B2B side, our sales cycle is actually very long. It's close to two to three months because there's so much training involved. There's expectations that need to be set. We schedule a lot of different things to make sure that we're setting them up for success. And then on the patient side, our sales cycle is typically like two to four weeks. because we have some customers that have heard about it, they already have a prescription from the doctor, and then we have some patients that say they want to learn more or they don't have a functional medicine doctor and they want to find a functional medicine doctor near them. Unfortunately, we're very well connected. we connect them with the right physicians in their area because work with so many organizations that foster a lot of these functional medicine doctors that have, you know, 15, 20, 25 years of experience in Hyperbaric. So there's a lot to it, to be honest. So I can't really give you one ⁓ answer, but we do so much to these sales channels going.

Oskar: But I think that's what's so fascinating about a conversation like this because that's it's multifaceted the ways you do marketing today ⁓ in larger organizations, especially companies that are so science-backed and this space and longevity. I mean, if you're in the space and you really understand, it's so easy to see through the bullshit. There are companies out there that are promoting left, right and center and got influences upfront and just saying that this product is going to change the whole world but have not done the evidence and proof and scientific proof is behind those claims and that's an issue. Now I actually ⁓ vouch for this being a prescription to go into hyperbaric because even though I have one in the basement I was at the the Amon clinics Dr. Amon recently in LA and I was waiting in a consultation and my scan Actually, it was a scan and then the consultation and I was like, well, what am going to do now? So I said, well, since there was an OxyHealth, of course, I sent you a picture of it because I find it so great to see your products around. I asked him, can I just jump into Hyperbaric for half an hour because I enjoy it. And the lady behind the counter denied me access because I didn't have a prescription from a doctor.

Mayur Patel: Okay.

Oskar: And I was like, okay, well, I'll just go home and do one in the basement instead where I have mine. So it's a interesting conversation. I love the point to say the clinics are also part of the driving force. If you have ⁓ partners, you see the value. They are your number one sales army soldiers out there that are going to talk highly of your product. ⁓

Mayur Patel: Thank you.

Oskar: I am kind of curious because in these conversations we've been moving around lots of parts of your business and here comes one that I'm really intrigued in right now. Just not just in your company but generally in this space because the word funding is very loosely and everyone thinks that they can go out and raise funds because there are VC groups, private equity groups, even angels out there willing to put loads of loads of capital into longevity companies, yet the ones that have been around for 20, 25, 30 years are not necessarily the ones that actually took funding, but they, the ones that are booming away now over the course of two years have received funding. And it's this weird kind of complex scenario that's going on in the market right now. And I'm curious to hear your thought a little bit. You guys have never taken an external funding, have you? No. So it's fully organic company. And again, you and I can be very aligned on experiencing organic growth. is there a little part in you that wonders where you could be today if you had taken some funding in five, 10 years ago?

Mayur Patel: Honestly, it may have, I think for our business, to be completely honest with you, it only would have held us back. I say that because this business was built on relationships, but most importantly, its heart. And anytime you take funding from, ⁓ know, the guys in suits, ⁓ very limited in what you can do. I mean, like part of the reason why my father was so respected and so loved by this community, is because yes, he ran a business, but he also had a huge heart. I mean, I can't tell you how many families he sponsored, which, know, and he didn't do it because he was like, ⁓ I'm going to sponsor this and it's going to make me look better. And then I'll get it back. But he sponsored families because he genuinely cared. And people felt that heart and passion and they felt the huge heart that he had. And because of that, they loved our brand. They loved my father. and they wanted to work with us. They wanted to help us. They wanted to advance the field forward. He inspired so many people with his huge heart to go and take their own action to help contribute to this huge movement and this hyperbaric revolution over the last 20 years. And so when you have guys in suits, all the stuff my father would have done, they would have been there saying, well, hold on, hold on. You're not the sole owner, right? You can't just go do this. You can't just go do that. And I really think it would have held us back. And it was necessary, right? When you're pioneering an industry, you're not necessarily focused on like, You're not, see the guys in suits, all these VCs, they're focused on their profits. How do I get my return? When you're pioneering an industry, you're not focused on return. And that wasn't my father's mentality. He wasn't thinking like, okay, I'm gonna do this and get my ROI. He said, I have a mission to make hyperbarics more accessible and I'm gonna do it at all costs. And there were some years where, you know, before things started to gain traction, like he was on the cusp of bankruptcy. Like, you know, things were not always easy. but he kept pushing forward and driving forward. And when money came in, I'm not even kidding. When I say that I reinvest every dollar that we make into the company, every single dollar that he made in profits over the last 25 years was reinvested into Oxie Health. single dollar, whether it was reinvestment into the product, whether it was reinvestment into our marketing or reinvestment. into the community and supporting these communities and building education, every single dollar was reinvested. And so could it have helped? I think it could have helped in some of the scarier times in the past, but I think it would have held us back because he would have not been able to do what he did over the last 25 years.

Oskar: It's such an interesting discussion because I think that startups need to be startups not immediate scale ups because they have the capital. So really liked that way of thinking that the burden of ⁓ creating concepts, ⁓ the all of these things have been played out. And I like the thought to say, could it be interesting because perhaps you're transitioning ⁓ from what was very agile and very quick moving, fast paced, reactive, but trying to also educate and people didn't know what it was all about to now being in a stage where you can, you can't scroll the TikToks and the Instagrams of health influencers that aren't talking about a hyperbaric. And that's maybe also an interesting turn whereby you need more. corporate strategy and structure and individuals that know how to take it from a reasonably sized company to make it really big in order to impact as many people. that was a really good of ⁓ you saw it. And I think we're very, very aligned there. We're ⁓ moving towards the end of this episode, but If you were to fast forward five to 10 years and you've just come in a little bit on it, but what would, what do you want to achieve with OxyHealth? And do you see the hyperbaric ⁓ at a whole in everyday healthcare?

Mayur Patel: I want OxyHELT to maintain its global leadership, not only in being the safest leading edge technology in hyperbarics, but also in being a data center. We over 18,000 chambers in the field today. And we have... over well over 500 clinics in the United States. And that number, you know, is amplified when we go to international regions. So I really think I see value in the data that we can collect that can continue to push hyperbaric advancements in research, because one thing every industry needs is research, right? And needs data. And so, you know, and I think at the time my father was more focused on just like spreading education awareness and he wasn't really, you know, and me having the background I have, I love data and I wanna see data. And so really I see Hyperbarics as not only being the manufacturer, but also being that hub, right? Collecting data and using it to fuel research to get things like FDA, you know, more FDA approvals, which then leads to insurance coverage. And of course, ⁓ on my father's initial vision and mission. to make hyperbarics more accessible.

Oskar: So, we're going to meet the Oxie Health University in a few years time.

Mayur Patel: You will, I'm not gonna call it that but... ⁓

Oskar: that's fair enough. I was trying to think quick there, but I look forward to hearing what it's going to be called. On closing, short remarks on your number one recommendation for someone starting something, it be a business or concept or personal brand in the longevity space.

Mayur Patel: Of always do your market research. The biggest thing to be honest with you is just make sure that, make sure you're doing it the right way. And what I mean by that is, as a scientist, if you're coming into a medical space, it's called longevity, but we're using medical devices and modalities, make sure that you're building a proper foundation with research. Because without research, you're just going to be the next miracle pill at the next trade show that we're going to see. So make sure you have research in there. You know, and find a good leadership team, right? Find a good leadership team, not just with skilled individuals. Like, yes, skills are important, but with people who have hearts. This company was built on the massive heart my father had, and that poured into not only all of his staff, but the community he built around the business. And so as long as you have heart and you're doing things the right way with that proper foundation, I think you can really be successful in anything you do, especially in the healthcare space.

Oskar: That was perfectly said, evidence-based and heart, two important things. So, Mayur now you're going to be challenged a little bit. What's your one health habit that you can of never miss that's most important for you, apart from hyperbaric? Because that's an easy one.

Mayur Patel: Honestly, hyperbarics isn't number one on my list. The number one health habit is sleep. That's, know, for me, sleep is everything. ⁓ I have to get eight hours of sleep. I have a whole, you know, a healthy bedtime routine that I do to do things like lower my heart rate. I don't eat after a certain time. And so sleep is everything to me because I know that if I can maximize my quality of sleep that That's the biggest like bio hack you could ever do in your life, right? So, and ever since I really started to focus on my sleep, minimizing the amount of screens and lights that I'm exposed to right before bed, it's completely transformed my energy on a daily basis and it's helped me stay on track for what I need to do. So, and then I pair it with Hyperbaric and it's a win-win.

Oskar: Thank Win-win. Well, some of the most important longevity biohacking health related let's call them that, are usually and sleep is definitely one. You just got to prioritize it. So that's a very good point. Finally, where can listeners find ⁓ you and oxy ⁓ if they were learn more?

Mayur Patel: ⁓ of course, yeah, on our website, oxyhealth.com. We also have an Instagram as well. We put out some content ⁓ they can check out and you'll my face on their Instagram so they'll be very easily able to find me.

Oskar: We can't wait for people to be logging onto Instagram to check out the new slash old Hyperbaric 25 years old that's been kind of refurbished and going to be shown off again with some content today. So very, very awesome. It's not. It's just an old Hyperbaric.

Mayur Patel: Yeah, it's not refurbished actually. We're not touching it. Yeah. So the whole point of the video is to show like this literally was the exact same chamber that they used 25 years ago. It's been used the last 25 years. Let's show you how it works.

Oskar: Fantastic. can't wait to see it. Mayor, it's been an absolute pleasure to have you on the Business of Longevity podcast. Thank you so much for taking the time and I hope that I will follow OxiHealth over the many years success that you guys are going to have ⁓ ⁓ wait to see you again.

Mayur Patel: Likewise, my friend, it was a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Oskar: Thank you.