J.D. Drew Buys Oxygen Chamber

Oh J.D. Drew, you are a wild and crazy guy. No doubt about it.

According to the Boston Herald, Drew has been spending time in an oxygen chamber, in the hope that it will help him stay healthy this season.

From the Herald:

FORT MYERS – J.D. Drew brought plenty of baggage to his first spring training with the Red Sox

There was his history of incomplete seasons. The time spent nursing various wounds. The innuendo about his lack of desire.

There was also the hyperbaric chamber.

Wait . . . the what? You know, a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, the kind that Michael Jackson sleeps in. Drew has one, too, and he’s using it at spring training, seeking the recuperative benefits one hour before he arrives at the ballpark.

“I don’t know what (Michael Jackson) sleeps in,” Drew said before yesterday’s 3-2 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. “I just know there are a few athletes who use it. It’s an oxygen chamber. To be quite honest with you, I just know it works. I don’t know quite how it works, but it works.”

Wow, J.D. is going holistic on us. I always knew he was a spiritual guy, but I didn’t picture him as an oxygen chamber kind of guy. I guess desperate is as desperate does.

Actually, while buying an oxygen chamber is a little nuts, it’s not nearly as crazy as what Wizards point guard Gilbert Arenas did — converting his house to Colorado altitude.

J.D. says he got the idea from John Smoltz, who he says also uses an oxygen chamber.

Turns out, there are a lot of people using oxygen chambers these days: Lance Armstrong, two-time Ironman champ Tim DeBoom, even the dogs who pulled the winning sled in the Iditarod.

What are the benefits of spending time in an oxygen chamber? From Outside Online:

Lower oxygen levels stress the cells, causing them to produce higher levels of hemoglobin—the red blood cells that carry oxygen to muscles—and more enzymes to extract the oxygen from the blood, so the body can convert it to energy. The result? More oxygen for your body to use as energy, which means more power, endurance, and speed.

Of course, we could all use more power, endurance and speed (we’re looking at you, Dmitri Young), but J.D.’s problem has never been performance, it’s been durability. And oxygen chambers don’t necessarily make you more durable. In fact, prolonged exposure to high oxygen environment can cause muscle to break down.

So be careful, J.D. Just look at what those things did to Michael Jackson.