The Big Bang Theory's Mayim Bialik Shares Update On Her Health Journey

Mayim Bialik, who starred on "The Big Bang Theory" from 2010 to 2019, just revealed that she's trying a new medical treatment to help with ongoing issues — and she posted plenty of photos of the experience on Instagram.

Bialik, as it turns out, is using a hyperbaric chamber to help combat what she refers to as "inflammation and autoimmune issues," and in the post's caption, she thanks the International Hyberbaric Association for their help in finding this solution. (The association also put up an Instagram post with the caption, "Look who has added hyperbaric oxygen therapy to their toolkit! Former 'Jeopardy' Host and 'Big Bang Theory' actress, Mayim Bialik, shares her excitement of using hyperbarics over the next several months for personal health reasons.)

Bialik has been open about her health issues over the years — in 2022, she revealed that she struggles with Grave's disease, which is characterized by an overactive thyroid. So what's going on with the hyperbaric chamber? Per an explanation from The Mayo Clinic, "hyperbaric oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized environment," and it can help with a laundry list of issues including infections, "bubbles of air in blood vessels," and wounds and injuries that aren't healing due to other complications. "This extra oxygen helps fight bacteria," the article adds. "It also triggers the release of substances called growth factors and stem cells, which promote healing."

Fans of "The Big Bang Theory" know that while Mayim Bialik wasn't a regular on the show from the very beginning, her character Amy Farrah Fowler quickly became a major staple of the series after her introduction in Season 3. After Sheldon Cooper's (Jim Parsons) friends make him a dating profile and find Amy, it's clear that the two are, perhaps, almost too compatible; they're both intense academics who prioritize their careers and aren't necessarily looking for a romantic future. Still, the two are drawn to each other and, when Amy goes on a date with comic book store owner Stuart (Kevin Sussman) in Season 5, Sheldon realizes he really does have feelings for her — and they make their relationship official.

This doesn't mean that everything goes smoothly for Amy and Sheldon from that point on, though. Sheldon doesn't really have much interest in physical intimacy, whereas Amy's desire to be intimate with Sheldon only increases as the show continues (and unfortunately, it's constantly played for laughs that Amy wants to sleep with her own boyfriend). Things do work out in the end — Sheldon and Amy get married at the end of the show's eleventh season, carve out time for physical intimacy (once a year, but still), and even win a Nobel Prize together for their joint work on super asymmetry in the show's series finale "The Stockholm Syndrome." So what has Bialik been up to since playing Amy?

After "The Big Bang Theory" came to an end in 2019, Mayim Bialik briefly led another CBS sitcom (produced by "TBBT" head honcho Chuck Lorre, as well as Jim Parsons) called "Call Me Kat," but unfortunately, the series was canceled after three seasons in May of 2023. Two years before "Call Me Kat" got the axe, though, Bialik served as a guest host on "Jeopardy!" in May of 2021, and as the show searched for a permanent replacement in the wake of Alex Trebek's passing, Bialik started appearing more and more frequently as a guest host on the long-running game show.

By July 2022, Bialik was splitting hosting duties with former "Jeopardy!" champion and friend of Trebek, Ken Jennings, though her time on the show eventually came to an end due to the writer's strike in 2023. Bialik, who supported the striking writers of the WGA, stepped away from hosting duties as a result, leaving the job to Jennings — and she permanently parted ways from the show in December of that year. Aside from "Jeopardy!," Bialik also wrote, directed, and starred in the movie "As They Made Us," which also featured Dianna Agron, Dustin Hoffman, Candice Bergen, and Bialik's former "Big Bang Theory" co-star Simon Helberg.

"The Big Bang Theory" is streaming on Max now.