Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, HBOT, is a specialized form of medical treatment administered by delivering 100% pure oxygen to a patient through increased atmospheric pressure greater than 1.3 ATA. in an enclosed hard chamber.
At pressures greater than normal, the body is able to incorporate more oxygen into blood cells, blood plasma, cerebral-spinal fluid and other bodily fluids. The increased oxygen absorption significantly enhances the body's ability to aid in its own healing.
Once a person is in the increased atmospheric pressure the body responds by reducing imflamation. With the imflamation reduced the blood flow increases the delivery of oxygen to oxygen deprived areas.
It's at this point that the healing process is accelerated.
The body's natural healing mechanisms can now function efficiently because the damaged tissues are receiving more oxygen. Even when the blood supply has been compromised, tissues can still receive the healing benefits of oxygen from other body fluids and plasma in the surrounding area.
What does HBOT do to the body?
- Decreased Inflamation
- Saturates the body with oxygen, including the plasma and white cells, increasing the oxygen level by 20-30%.
- Increases the body's ability to fight infection.
- Creates new capillaries and increases blood flow.
- Clears and deactivates toxins and metabolic waste waste from the body.
- Stimulates the body to create new blood cells
- Increases the body's production of stem cells 800% (after 40 treatments)
- Accelerates the rate of healing
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not new.
In fact, the concept of Hyperbaric Medicine has been around since the 1800s. Since then, hyperbaric therapy has been used around the world to successfully treat a wide variety of medical conditions.
In 1937 hyperbaric oxygen treatments were first used for decompression sickness but it was not until 1956 that interest in hyperbaric medicine really heated up. In Amsterdam that year, Dr. I Boerema reported that hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) was a therapeutic aid in cardiopulmonary surgery. Shortly after his colleague's discovery, W.H. Brummelkamp, published a discovery of his own: anaerobic infections were inhibited by hyperbaric therapy.
International interest was rekindled when in 1962, reports of the enormous benefits of HBOT in the treatment of carbon monoxide poisoning were published. These discoveries, and more, pushed hyperbaric medicine into the modern era. Installations of hyperbaric units quickly began at some of the most revered and prestigious medical centers in the United States. A few of these early adopters were Harvard Children's Hospital, New York Sinai Hospital, Duke University, and Good Samaritan Hospital in Los Angeles.
Fast Forward to the Era of Modern Hyperbarics.
The advent of modern imaging technologies such as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) , have provided researchers unprecedented insights into the actions and mechanisms of hyperbaric oxygenation and its effect on tissue. It's no coincidence that the most significant, documented advancements in Hyperbaric Medicine have emerged recently in large part due to pre- and post- hyrperbaric therapy evaluation using these high-tech tools.
As hyperbaric research continues, scientists are finding that neurological conditions, stroke and brain injuries all previously considered to have poor prognoses, respond well to HBOT.
Successful treatment with hyperbarics for conditions as diverse as autism, fibromyalgia, multiple sclerosis, side-effects of chemotherapy and radiation toxicity in cancer patients have growing numbers of researchers, physicians, patients and their families believing in the power and efficacy of HBOT.
Information provided on this site is not intended to replace the advice of a physician.