If you’ve only ever taken one environmental science or chemistry course in your life, you could believe that you are an expert on oxygen. It’s the “good part” of air that all living things need to survive, and it’s also the molecule in water that basically creates life.
Its medicinal application, however, may not be something you are as familiar with.
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What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
Envision laying in a cozy cocoon while a comforting layer of oxygen that sustains life slowly envelops you. You’re in for a tremendous treat if you haven’t tried HBOT or hyperbaric oxygen treatment. When oxygen is breathed under pressure, it dissolves in all bodily fluids and is thus more effectively absorbed by all body cells. For this reason, experts advise it to promote immunity and expedite recovery following each laser treatment.
Tissues don’t get enough oxygen, which slows down cellular metabolism and increases the risk of physiological malfunctions.
The hyperbaric pressurized dive chambers, which are used to rescue scuba divers who have suffered the “bends” from resurfacing too soon, are well known to the public. In order to prevent painful and sometimes fatal embolisms from rapidly depressurizing nitrogen in the diver’s blood, the hyperbaric oxygen chamber replicates the underwater pressure. This is the limit of what most of us know.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a wonderful holistic treatment that has been providing patients with many advantages for many years.
What is Hyperbaric?
Increased air pressure is referred to as hyperbaric. Our average pressure at sea level is 14.7 PSI, or pounds per square inch, with the whole earth’s atmosphere of air over our heads.
All bodily tissues, including those with restricted blood flow or blockages, get much higher levels of oxygen when pure oxygen is breathed in a moderately pressurized HBOT chamber.
History of HBOT
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has a long history dating back to 1662, but it wasn’t until the twenty-first century that HBOT started to gain popularity as a major medical treatment that could be used both as a preventative and a therapeutic measure and that would significantly enhance general health.
For more than 50 years, hyperbaric oxygen treatment has been utilized all over the world to prevent and treat terrible illnesses. as well as to improve general health.
HBOT has demonstrated outstanding benefits for a wide range of critical medical diseases in a large number of recorded instances. Additionally, HBOT has been scientifically demonstrated to boost immunological function, promote fast cell regeneration, and function as a very effective anti-aging treatment.
Treatment in the Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber
The shifting pressure in your ears, which is similar to what happens when you fly, might cause a brief popping sound. HBOT treatments are cozy and usually leave one feeling wonderfully refreshed for a while.
A gradual increase in pressure around two atmospheres will be a part of most therapy. The mild and progressive pressurization gives your ears plenty of opportunity to equalize.
FDA Approved Treatments
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been authorized by the FDA to treat the following conditions:
- Bubbles of gas and air in blood vessels
- Anaemia (severe anemia not treatable with blood transfusions)
- Burns (big, serious burns attended to at a burn center)
- Toxicity from carbon monoxide
- Crush wound
- Risk of decompression sickness when diving
- Gas gangrene
- Hearing loss (total loss of hearing that happens all at once and for no apparent reason)
- serious infection of the skin and bone
- radiation harm
- a flap of skin grafted in danger of dying tissue
- Loss of vision (when abrupt and painless, resulting from a blood flow obstruction in one eye)
- Injuries (diabetes foot ulcers that don’t heal)
“Off Label” Treatments
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment has several more “off label” applications. According to studies, HBOT can also be beneficial for:
- Fibromyalgia
- Lyme Disease
- prolonged COVID
- headaches
- Almost drowning
- PTSD, or post-traumatic stress disorder
- recuperation following surgery
- Athletic Injuries
- a stroke
- Brain Trauma
- Addiction
- Autism
- Anoxic Brain Damage
- Acute Vascular Death
- Mental Illness
- Circulation circumstances
- Head injury
- Regional Pain Syndrome with Complexity
The Benefits of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
When you take in oxygen at a higher atmospheric pressure, all of your body’s fluids—including blood, lymph, tissues, and even the fluid around your spine and brain—can absorb it. This oxygen then dissolves in the same manner that carbon dioxide does to form soda.
The oxygen supply to all of the body’s systems and organs is boosted once these fluids are “supercharged” with oxygen. You’ll be at your best in terms of mental clarity, vitality, and well-being. Surgery-related healing will happen more quickly and thoroughly.
Not a Temporary Fix
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment is a long-term solution. Case studies show that the method is cumulative and that, with prolonged use, outcomes become increasingly striking.
Increased Brain Activity
The number of Americans who suffer from traumatic brain injuries each year is over 2 million, which is alarming, to say the least, because these injuries are among the most serious medical conditions. These kinds of injuries are the primary source of brain injury, which can lead to a variety of problems, such as memory loss, psychiatric illnesses, motor dysfunctions, and other problems.
In trauma regions that were previously non-functional, brain scans demonstrate a significant recovery in functional cellular activity. When inhaling pure oxygen, the air pressure rises, allowing the oxygen to enter the damaged cells.
Recent studies conducted by Tel Aviv University have illuminated the advantages that hyperbaric oxygen therapy can offer survivors of brain damage trauma. Fifty-six patients were included in the trial, with half receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy and the other as a control group. After receiving the therapy for two months, the brain activity of those who did get it significantly improved.
Reducing Chemotherapy’s Adverse Effects
According to a recent UCLA research, HBOT treatments are quite successful in reducing the negative effects that chemotherapy and radiation have on cancer patients. According to the findings, “pure oxygen is exposed to patients in a sealed chamber at pressures higher than the ambient atmosphere through HBOT, which increases the amount of oxygen in the body.”
Cancer patients benefit from the treatment, according to UCLA specialists, “by stimulating the development of newly formed blood vessels following radiation-induced damage,” which is a critical physiological component in the regeneration of new, healthy tissue and the repair of injured tissue.
Extensive research from universities throughout the world demonstrates that organs and tissues treated with HBOT undergo a three-phase process that includes cleansing, healing, and the regeneration of healthy tissue.
Extending the Lifespan of Former Smokers
Although choosing to stop smoking might be challenging, it’s a positive move that will significantly enhance the quality of life for those who have smoked.
Having said that, many people who have smoked for a long time struggle with COPD (chronic obstructive lung disease). It basically means that people need more oxygen to breathe correctly; some just during seizures, while others need it all day and all night.
When hyperbaric oxygen treatment is administered to COPD patients with PaO2 levels equal to or below 55 mmHg or SaO2 levels lower than or equal to 88%, the patient’s life expectancy is increased.
The Final Analysis of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has a strong history of effectiveness, and there are several recorded occurrences of such treatments. The list will keep expanding as new hospitals open across the nation and as more physicians learn about its benefits.
The main result of hyperbaric oxygen therapy is three times quicker healing—from skin to bone and from infections to generally healthy tissue. HBOT isn’t a miraculous therapy, but it is safe, noninvasive, and effective when combined with other therapies. Additionally, there is a growing body of research demonstrating HBOT’s benefits, which include improved health and longer, more pleasant, productive lives. It simply lifts your spirits.
