Some of the medical conditions for which hyperbaric oxygen therapy is helpful include air embolism, decompression illness, burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, cerebral edema (brain swelling), closed head injuries, sickle cell anemia, gangrene, near drowning, severed limbs, smoke inhalation, spinal cord injury, organic brain syndrome, stroke, coma, multiple sclerosis, hearing loss, peripheral neuropathy, radiation myelitis, crush injuries, soft tissue injuries, osteomyelitis (both acute and chronic), non-healing fractures, tendon and ligament injuries, delayed wound healing, soft tissue ulcers from arterial or venous insufficiency, decubitous ulcers, frostbite, diabetic retinopathy, migraine headache, cluster headache, myocardial infarction, chronic fatigue, post-polio syndrome, Crohn's disease, Bell's palsy, Lyme disease, Meniere's disease, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, and osteoradionecrosis (bone degeneration after radiation exposure).
Bell's palsy is a common affliction characterized by the fairly sudden onset of weakness of one side of the face. Typically, patients are offered steroids early in the course of their illness in hopes of reducing swelling of the nerve involved in facial movement. Exciting new research demonstrates that hyperbaric oxygen therapy is significantly more effective than steroids in the treatment of Bell's palsy - both shortening the length of illness as well as increasing the likelihood of full recovery.
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is a catchall term for brain injuries, that occur in utero, at the time of delivery, or in the post partum period. The damage to the brain by trauma or by cutting cerebral circulation produces an AIE (anoxic ischemic encephalopathy). It may be months before spasticity develops and the characteristics of lack of physical coordination, involuntary movement, and often mental retardation. One of the primary causes of CP is poor oxygenation of the developing brain, which HB4T excels in treating. The greatest improvements have been in young children, as their brains are still in development. Many clinics are seeing their patients have dramatic improvements in all areas of their disabilities.
Loss of function in the brain is due to irreversible tissue destruction and to reversible tissue swelling. People use only up to 20% of their brain capacity throughout their lives. Dormant cells around the destroyed areas can be revived and taught to take over the function of the dead cells. Scientific studies are in the beginning stages for
HBOT treatment of CP. Theoretically, the use of HBOT in CID and traumatic brain injury will actually give the brain a jump-start. Scans indicate the effective blood supply is restored to previously oxygen-restricted brain tissue, as capillary healing occurs, the fluid 'leakage is reduced and swelling recedes. The metabolism of the brain is directly related to oxygen availability. By giving oxygen under hyperbaric conditions, areas of cells that are not dead, but "sleeping" can be awaken.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not a miracle cure, it is simply a way of ensuring the most complete recovery possible. It takes the "stress" off all the cells in the body by providing oxygen, a necessary component of every chemical process, and allows the body to go through healing. About 20-30% of the body's consumption of oxygen occurs within the brain and spinal cord. These areas are extremely sensitive to oxygen, So, it can result in dramatic effects with a deficiency state or benefits gained through Hyperbaric Therapy (Jain 1995).
HBOT should be used with exercise programs, because lack of use in muscles and joints leads to changes that can only be reversed by exercise. The newly awaken cells in the brain need to be retrained to walk, talk, and do meaningful movements. No one currently knows how much repair children are capable of when conditions are optimized in the brain. HBOT has no guarantees and although their will always be some it cannot help, it does offer hope to many.
top
Patients diagnosed with Meniere's disease typically suffer from recurrent attacks of disabling vertigo with progressive hearing loss. Until recently, therapeutic options were limited to either aggressive surgical or medical approaches.
Research published in a recent issue of Audiology confirms usefulness of HBO in Meniere's disease. HBO treated patients experienced significant improvement in attacks of vertigo as well as hearing. These improvements continued when these patients were re-evaluated two years after the hyperbaric oxygen treatment program.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an extremely useful modality in the abortive management of migraine headache. Research at the University of Pittsburgh published in the journal Headache found Mat 900; of migraine patients experienced virtually complete relief of pain when treated acutely with HBO.
top
Multiple sclerosis begins slowly, usually in young adulthood, and continues with progressive deterioration over adult life. Initial symptoms are numbness and/or abnormal sensations in the arms and legs and or on one side of the face. Other early symptoms include slight disturbances such as double vision and partial blindness, muscle weakness and dizziness. Later in the course of the disease blurred vision, loss of muscle control, partial or complete paralysis, abnormal reflexes, slurred speech, loss or irregular control of both bladder and bowel function occur. Multiple sclerosis causes a number of secondary problems, including inflammation of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord. This leads to significant problems of exciting nerves from the spinal cord and cranial nerves from the brain. Advanced MS effects all regions of the body that are dependent upon an intact central nervous system for function and control, Disabilities of mobility and motion, speech, vision, bladder and bowel control are common to all MS sufferers. It can severely cripple and change the quality of life, although it is not considered fatal.
Multiple sclerosis is a condition where the nerve fibers in the brain and spinal cord gradually lose their protective covering, which is made of a fatty substance called ‘myelin'. Nerve impulses are basically electrical impulses, so myelin covers and insulates a nerve in the same way insulation covers an electrical wire. A nerve that is covered with full thickness myelin conducts impulses more rapidly and effectively than a nerve with reduced thickness myelin. When the nerve loses its myelin, signals do not travel through the nerve properly, becoming interrupted and irregular. This leads to altered and dysfunctional messages being conveyed to the region that the nerve is supplying, and back through the nervous system to the brain.
As a result of the demyelination process, MS results in hardened, scarred patches called ‘plaques', which develop in the affected areas of the brain and throughout the spinal cord. These patches of inflammation may eventually scar (sclerosis). Symptoms associated with MS vary from patient to patient and from time to time in the same patient. They depend upon where these plaques occur and how extensive they are. Women tend to suffer from MS more often than men.
Plaques are not the only mechanism that occurs in the multiple sclerosis patient that produce clinical symptoms. MS also causes smelling and edema which leads to a reduction of effective oxygen being delivered to the nerve tissues. This results in a variety of widespread symptoms. In many patients these 'disturbed areas' may heal spontaneously without plaque formation. Because of the spontaneous remissions, a firm evaluation of the patient's condition is difficult and diagnosis is usually reserved for at least a 2-year period (Neubauer 1998).
Multiple sclerosis occurs in one of two patterns. The first pattern is known as 'relapsing remitting' type. This type of MS is the most common form. During a relapse, the disease is active and the nerves are damaged its a result, new symptoms may appear or existing symptoms may worsen. The relapse can last for a few days or may continue for several months. In a remission, the disease process is usually quiet, but symptoms are still present because of the damage previously done to the nerve cells. The damage may improve, but does not entirely disappear. After each relapse the patient progressively loses more and more ground, with greater residual disability (Neubauer 1998). The second pattern of MS is known as 'chronic and progressive' pattern. This type of pattern is experienced in about 18% of all MS patients. In this pattern, there is a gradual worsening of symptoms over many years, without relapses or remissions.
Symptoms may fluctuate, but in general advance steadily with a continuing worsening prognosis. People with MS sometimes experience impairments in their thinking ability. They are sometimes subject to mood swings and other emotional difficulties. They may feel angry, frightened, worried or beyond hope. Denial - a state where the patient attempts to ignore the disease is common. The patient may think, with some justification, that revealing his or her degree of anger or fear might be more than family or close friends can accept. Family members are frequently desperate for advice on how to best assist the patient. The anxiety is a problem, for both patients and their families.
Oxygen is essential to every one of the tissues in the body and any tissue injury requires oxygen for healing. Recent research at the University of Dundee has shown that, in the inflammation that is typical of MS, the transport of oxygen is severely limited by tissue swelling. Despite the blood flow increasing many times, there may be a severe lack of -oxygen in the affected area so that, just when oxygen is needed most, it cannot reach the tissue in sufficient quantity.
International medical research has demonstrated the HBOT can play an extremely important role in the treatment of MS. It has become an integral part of the MS treatment program in many European countries.
There have been some excellent studies done in England on the response of MS to hyperbaric, oxygen therapy. Over 1 million treatments have been given with out negative side effects. Progress of the disease process was slowed and some had improvements in functioning. One study began with 20 treatments, each 90 minutes long, then 1 treatment every 2-3 weeks from then on. The 14-yr. study showed condition improvements were related to the number of treatments that they continued to take.
An article in the New England Journal of Medicine entitled, "Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment of Multiple Sclerosis, a Randomized, Placebo Controlled, Double blind Study," researchers demonstrated significant objective improvements in a variety of MS symptoms in 70% of patients treated. At one year after treatment, deterioration was noted in 55% of AAS patients not treated as compared to only 12% of patients who underwent hyperbaric oxygen treatment.
Barnes and co-workers publishing in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry, demonstrated a remarkable slowing of cerebellar function (coordination) deterioration. Their report followed 120 MS patients one year following hyperbaric oxygen treatment. Other studies have shown an improvement in bladder function in HBO treated MS patients.
Although many patients report improvements in their symptoms, HBO is not a cure for MS. The main goal is to stabilize the patents condition without the potential side effects associated with many currently used medications.
top