Oxygen is a versatile element essential for life. Therefore, oxygen therapy will increase the light in your cells and thereby facilitate cellular repair. This occurs not just through the chemical, but also oxygen's electrical properties. The chemical versatility of this fundamental component of life is attributed to two unpaired electrons.

The existence of unpaired electrons in a stable molecule is rare and unusual in nature and causes high chemical reactivity. The chemical reactions leading to this are either oxidation or reduction. Oxidation is a loss of electrons, while reduction is a gain of electrons. These reactions always occur in pairs. Highly reactive molecules can oxidize molecules that were previously stable and can lead to unstable molecules, such as free radicals, which in excess, in turn, can lead to accelerated aging.

A certain amount of oxidative function is necessary for proper health. Oxidative processes are used by the immune system to kill microorganisms. Appropriate tissue oxygenation is essential for healthy cellular functioning and is directly related to the energy production in cells. Mitochondrial energy production with high oxygen levels creates higher outputs of ATP than energy production in low oxygen states.

WHAT IS HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY?

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, or as it is commonly referred to as, HBOT, is a treatment that enhances your body’s natural healing processes. It consists of increased pressure and increased oxygen. Oxygen is integral for healing. HBOT can be used to treat a wide variety of conditions, including stroke, cerebral palsy, head injuries, and chronic fatigue. There are several benefits to HBOT and minimal side effects.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a specialized oxygen treatment that enhances your body’s natural healing process just by breathing 100% oxygen in a total body chamber where atmospheric pressure is increased and controlled. HBOT occurs in a hyperbaric pressurized chamber where the patient is breathing pure oxygen. The air pressure is increased about three times higher than normal air pressure. The amount of oxygen that's carried in the blood is increased, and that promotes healing and fights infections. Both the increased pressure and the increased oxygen are bioactive and have independent, overlapping, and interactive effects on our body and disease processes.

The increased oxygen at pressure allows extra oxygen to reach all of the damaged tissues and helps the body in the healing process. The combination of increased atmospheric pressure and increased oxygen in a total body chamber treats a wide variety of health conditions, usually as part of an overall healthcare plan.

For best results, the treatment needs to be repeated, ongoing for a period of time.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF HBOT?

There are numerous benefits of HBOT. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy improves the quality of life for people in many areas in which standard medicine is not working. There are many health conditions that have responded well to HBOT, including strokes, cerebral palsy, head injuries, chronic fatigue, and wounds of many different causes.

There are many indications for HBOT, which include wound healing, burns, infections, and nonhealing wounds like diabetic foot ulcers, carbon monoxide poisoning, and severe anemia. HBOT has also been used for athletic performance enhancement. Many athletes use hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help their recovery times, their healing, and their overall mental acuity. It helps with cognitive performance enhancement. It has antiaging effects. It is used in AIDS and HIV, in allergies, in dementia, arthritis, asthma, autism, and things like traumatic brain injury. It is used as an adjunct in cancer therapy, for cerebral palsy, chronic fatigue syndrome, liver cirrhosis, depression, fibromyalgia, ulcers, heart disease, hepatitis, migraines, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injury, sports injuries, and strokes.

In strokes, there has been a decrease in the infarct size and improved recovery. Hyperbaric oxygen promotes the differentiation of the stem cells into neurons. In traumatic brain injury, it has been used with beneficial effects. In autistic children, there are results of improved overall functioning, better social interaction, better eye contact, and improved sensory and cognitive awareness.

In January 19, 2019, researchers found the first PET scan-documented case of improvement in the brain's metabolism in Alzheimer's disease with HBOT. A SPECT tomography suggested Alzheimer's disease. She underwent forty HBOT sessions five days a week over sixty-six days, with a treatment time of fifty minutes. After 21 treatments, the patient had increased energy and improved level of activity, better mood, improved ability to perform daily activities of living, and improvement in ability to do crossword puzzles.

After forty treatments, she had increased memory and concentration, sleep, conversation, appetite, ability to use the computer, more good days than bad days, resolved anxiety, and decreased disorientation and frustration. There were some other neurological tests, like tremor and tandem gait and motor speed that were also improved. A repeat imaging study showed up to 38% improvement in brain metabolism.

Higher oxygen levels improve the immune system and the ability of white blood cells to kill bacteria. Fracture recovery of bones is accelerated, wound healing is enhanced, and circulating stem cell numbers are increased. Inflammation is decreased with HBOT treatment. Angiogenesis is improved. Blood flow is improved. There is increased hormone production. Energy production is increased. Environmental toxin neutralization is improved. Pain reduction is often reported as well as relaxation of fatigued muscles with benefit for athletes.

Voltage, oxygen, and pH work together. By increasing cellular voltage oxygen therapy is a potential great adjunct in Light Medicine. Abnormal cell operates at a certain pH value, which is a marker for acidity and neutrality. The lower the pH, the more acidic the body is--the higher the pH, the more alkaline the body is--with normal being at around 7.35 up to 7.4. This is equivalent to about -20 millivolts. In order to maintain health, we want to have high oxygen tissue saturation, a pH in the alkaline range, and high cellular voltage. When pH drops, voltage drops and oxygen is lower. The body becomes acidic and hypoxic, and pathogens like bacteria and fungi can start proliferating in the body and cause diseases.

It is very important to maintain a neutral to alkaline environment, as well as to maintain oxygenation in the tissues. Acidity in the body causes accelerated aging. It is associated with all chronic diseases. There is increased free radical damage, aching muscles due to increased lactic acid in the muscles, and reduced stress resistance. When people are achy and tired, they are adversely emotional affected. In the brain, low cellular voltage may cause brain fog, loss of motivation, as well as anxiety and depression.

EXPEDITED HEALING

Healing cannot take place without appropriate oxygen levels in the tissue and cells. Many illnesses and injuries fail to heal because of inadequate oxygen levels. Inflammation, swelling, and reduced blood flow all contribute to non-healing. This means adequate oxygen is unable to reach the damaged area. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy causes increased oxygen under pressure, which provides this extra oxygen to tissue and cells with minimal side effects.

NEW CELL REGENERATION

HBOT encourages the formation of new collagen (connective tissue) and new skin cells. It does this by generating new blood vessel formation. It also stimulates cells to produce certain substances, like vascular endothelial growth factors. These attract and stimulate endothelial cells which are necessary for healing.

HELPS WITH ANTI-AGING

HBOT treats the cumulative wounds of life, or as it is called more frequently, aging.

WHAT IS A HYPERBARIC CHAMBER?

A hyperbaric chamber is a vessel that fully encloses the human body. In a full-body hyperbaric oxygen chamber, the air pressure is increased to allow your lungs to dissolve much more oxygen in your blood than would be possible breathing pure oxygen at normal air pressure outside the chamber. There are basically two different types of hyperbaric chambers: mono-place and multi-place. A mono-place chamber is designed to treat a single person and is generally pressurized with 100% oxygen. A multi-place chamber is designed to hold several people at one time and is generally pressurized with air. The oxygen is delivered to the patient through a mask or a hood.

WHAT DOES OXYGEN DO FOR THE BODY?

Oxygen is known as the substrate of life. It is an integral part of the equation where our body burns fat, sugar, and protein to produce the energy that drives all body functions and keeps us alive. At normal temperatures on Earth, oxygen is 21% of the air we breathe and a gas that our body needs in order to work properly. Your cells need oxygen to make energy. Your body’s tissues require an adequate amount of oxygen to function. Your lungs allow oxygen to be dissolved from the air you breathe directly into your blood. When you are in a hyperbaric oxygen therapy chamber, the increased air pressure helps your lungs move more oxygen in your blood. When your blood carries this extra oxygen throughout your body, it helps fight bacteria and stimulates growth factors and stem cells which promotes healing.

WHAT HEALTH CONDITIONS DOES HBOT HELP?

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can possibly be used for any condition that involves injury, wounding, loss of blood supply, or inflammation. There are more than 100 different conditions treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. These are just a few of the conditions that are frequently treated with HBOT:

• Autism

• Cerebral Palsy

• Drowning and Anoxic Brain Injury

• Migraine Headache

• Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Dementia

• Multiple Sclerosis

• Plastic-Cosmetic Surgery

• Recovery from Surgery

• Sports Injuries and Sports Performance/Recovery

• Stroke

• Traumatic Brain Injury

• And Many More

Please keep in mind that these are just a few examples of conditions that can benefit from Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

Mitochondria, the powerhouse of the cell, make ATP. ATP is our currency of energy. When we have oxygen for this cycle, we can make 38 ATPs for every fatty acid. If there is not enough oxygen, the energy production may take the anaerobic pathway and only produce two ATPS. Your body is like your car, instead of getting thirty-eight miles a gallon, you're only getting two miles a gallon.

It is important for metabolism and for overall health, as well as weight loss, to be on the oxidative side of this biochemical process. Addressing nutrient deficiencies is also very important, because without appropriate nutrients, we are not efficiently metabolizing our foods.

HBOT has antiaging effects. The global gene expression in the human endothelial cells was analyzed in exposure to hyperbaric oxygen. The research revealed an upregulation of antioxidant, cytoprotective, and immediate early genes. This increase coincided with an increased resistance to oxidative stress.

HBOT induces protection against oxidative insults in endothelial cells and provides an easily administered treatment to help promote healthy aging. HBOT increases circulating stem cells, and this is nitric oxide dependent. The population of CD34(+) stem cells in the peripheral circulation of humans doubled in response to a single exposure to 2.0 atmospheres absolute (ATA) O2 for two hours. Over a course of 24 treatments, circulating stem cells increased eightfold and bone marrow nitric oxide concentration also increased.

H BOT mobilizes stem/progenitor cells by stimulating nitric oxide synthesis.

RECOMMENDED READING

The Oxygen Revolution, Third Edition: Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT): The Definitive Treatment of Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) & Other Disorders Paperback – Illustrated, April 26, 2016

by Paul G. Harch MD (Author), Virginia McCullough (Author)