What Is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
What Is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
People who suffer from diabetic wounds, complications from radiation therapy, strokes, panic attacks, chronic bone infections, non-healing skin grafts or flaps, severed limbs, crush injuries, multiple sclerosis, and numerous other conditions have at least one thing in common: all can be significantly helped by Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). Patients who receive HBOT at our facility breathe pure oxygen in specially designed FDA-approved transparent chambers in air pressure levels 1.5 to 3 times higher than atmospheric pressure. The pressurized chambers force oxygen, the gas that keeps us alive, into the tissues to repair tissues and restore optimal body function.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a noninvasive and painless treatment, the modality of which is nearly 300 years old, and which has been applied worldwide for the past three decades with astonishing results. HBOT involves breathing 100% pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, and it can be used to treat or improve any condition that benefits from making available extra oxygen to the body’s tissues or the brain. During HBOT treatment, your lungs can take in up to 3 times more oxygen, allowing it to be picked up via the bloodstream and transported to damaged tissues throughout the body. Scientific evidence indicates strongly that the extra oxygen delivered through HBOT has remarkable results on the natural healing process of the body and ultimately no ill side effects.
How Does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Work?
How Does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Work?
Healing cannot take place if the tissues don’t receive appropriate amounts of oxygen. When there is damage to tissues due to injuries, strokes, circulatory problems, and other problems, adequate oxygen can’t reach the damaged area, and the body is unable to heal naturally. HBOT treatments allow the patient to breathe pure oxygen under pressure, thereby breaking the cycle of oxygen starvation and tissue death.
During HBOT treatments, the patient enters a special chamber, which is slowly pressurized with 100% oxygen. It forces oxygen into the body in a completely painless manner, causing oxygen to dissolve into all of the body’s fluids, including the plasma, lymph, and the cerebrospinal fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Through this process, damaged areas where circulation is poor or blocked also are trickled and filled with the extra oxygen, allowing the healing to take place.
Why Does HBOT Help Speed The Healing Process?
Why Does HBOT Help Speed The Healing Process?
HBOT helps deliver oxygen-rich plasma to tissue starved for oxygen. The elevated pressure in the chamber increases the amount of oxygen in the blood. It floods the tissues with oxygen, thereby reducing swelling and encouraging the body’s scavengers to seek out the harmful radicals that had been released due to interrupted blood flow.
HBOT helps block the action of harmful bacteria, disabling the toxins. By increasing oxygen concentration in the tissues, the therapy also helps resist infection. The immune system is strengthened and the white blood cells have the ability to destroy invaders.
HBOT also promotes healing by encouraging the formation of new collagen (connective tissue) and new skin cells through new blood vessel formation. It attracts and stimulates the endothelial cells necessary for healing and helps produce substances such as vascular endothelial growth factor.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a proven way to treat a wide range of conditions and injuries, from traumatic brain injuries (TBI) to chronic infection, common sports injuries, diabetic wounds, inadequate blood flow in the arteries, and many more.
Some Background on HBOT
Some Background on HBOT
HBOT has been recommended for various conditions for more than 40 years. Initially, it was used to treat decompression sickness in divers and air embolism. As more doctors are becoming acquainted with its far-reaching applications, HBOT is becoming increasingly popular in general medical practice. HBOT has been approved for a variety of purposes, including carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning, problematic wound healing, delayed radiation injuries, sudden deafness, and other conditions. It can be used to treat numerous conditions and diseases, including brain and nerve disorders, cardiovascular disorders, migraine headaches, AIDS, depression and anxiety, spinal cord injuries, strokes, and others. Good clinical results have gradually increased the use of HBOT for neurological disorders linked with cognitive disturbances as well as conditions related to central nervous system (CNS) damage.