Small changes in Pressure will produce beneficial effects

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy exerts powerful beneficial effects on the human body and is typically prescribed at higher pressures in many hospitals and wound care centers. Lower pressure protocols have advanced this procedure to many other conditions, particularly chronic conditions, reporting positive outcomes. However, there are a small number of patients who cannot even tolerate these lower pressures and are therefore looking at very low pressures. The question occurs, “Are there benefits to very low hyperbaric pressures?” This study may help them feel a little more comfortable, as they show that even slight pressures were able to cause positive changes in blood vessels. This is consistent with many other research publications that have demonstrated giving slight pressure can have positive benefits <view study>

Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Benefits For Diabetics

Now published in the 2018 Journal of Diabetes, research confirms some of the recently noted benefits of mild hyperbaric oxygen (m-HBOT) therapy for diabetics. Specifically, in lowering fasting and non-fasting glucose, HbA1c, and triglyceride levels; all of which are important markers leading to advanced disease states associated with this diabetes. Researchers also focused on skeletal muscle activity and fibers, and found that m-HBOT was able to help the muscle’s natural ability to use oxygen (which is typically compromised in diabetics). By helping to sensitize sugar metabolism and oxygen use within the skeletal muscles, m-HBOT can provide a significant benefit for people with diabetes. It should be noted however, that this protocol provided rats with m-HBOT daily (3 hours per day) for 22 consecutive weeks (about 5 months). <view study>

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Inflammatory Bowl Disease

Many private hyperbaric facilities are are providing HBOT for those inflicted with IBD, most commonly Crohn’s disease and Ulcerative Colitis. This new study demonstrates the usefulness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for these conditions by showing the lowering of inflammatory markers and oxidative stress, alongside the improved clinical outcomes <view study>

Hyperbaric oxygen, more is better right? — Wrong, lower pressure shown to provide stronger effect!

People still believe that hyperbaric oxygen therapy only works at higher pressures. Most of them are only practicing with higher pressure protocols and have not taken the time to go through the steady influx of all the recent data and research making its way into current medical journals and publications. If they did, they would very quickly be able to see that lower pressures can provide very powerful effects, and sometimes even more powerful than those observed with higher pressures; the latter was just the case in a landmark study released in 2013.

This study was published in the UHMS journal (a mainstream, peer reviewed, hyperbaric medical journal) and looked at the difference between 2.4 ATA (higher pressure HBOT) and 1.5 ATA (lower pressure HBOT). The results were stunning in virtually all areas observed. Researchers observed 92 inflammatory genes and this is what they quoted:

“Interestingly, oxygen at 1.5 atm abs affected many genes much more strongly than oxygen at 2.4. The reasons for this effect are unknown, but it does raise questions about the most appropriate treatment pressures for inflammatory conditions”

It was landmark study for lower pressure protocols, because it clearly demonstrated that the lower pressure protocols (1.5 ATA) had much stronger effects in the inflammatory genes observed than the higher pressures (2.4 ATA). <view study>

Hopefully this study will put an end to those that think more is better, and that higher pressures are the only effective means of delivering hyperbaric oxygenation therapy.

Effects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy on inflammatory factors

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy could “significantly affect the expression levels of IL-12p40, MIP-1β, PDGF-BB, and IL-1Ra, indicating that the effects of HBO therapy are associated with the attenuation of inflammatory responses”. <view study>

Hyperbaric oxygen improves disease activity in hospitalized ulcerative colitis patients

This study evaluated 20 Ulcerative Colitis (UC) patients that were hospitalized for moderate to severe flares and treated with either a 3 or 5-day course of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT, at 2.4 atmospheres, 90 minutes with two air breaks) in addition to intravenous steroids.

By Day 3, there were significant reductions in stool frequency, rectal bleeding, and overall inflammation. A more significant reduction in disease activity was observed with 5 days vs 3 days of HBOT. Thus researchers concluded that an optimal clinical response is achieved with 5 days of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. <view study>

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy lowers blood pressure

Preventing the effects of a stroke or an aging brain with HBOT

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been used for treatments of many neurological conditions, and many patients have benefited from this procedure. Recently, a new study titled “hyperoxia preconditioning: the next frontier in neurology?” has expanded on recent literature showing that hyperbaric oxygen can condition the brain. With this latest information, it would make common sense for those wishing to PREVENT the effects of more common neurological conditions like stroke, Alzheimer disease, etc. to have a full course of HBOT. <view study>

The Hyperoxic-Hypoxic Paradox

Hypoxia, low tissue oxygen levels, “is one of the most powerful inducers of gene expression, metabolic changes, and regenerative processes, including angiogenesis and stimulation of stem cell proliferation, migration, and differentiation”.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy causes a dramatic rise in oxygen levels during the procedure followed by a quick drop back to normal levels. As the oxygen levels drop, a temporary state of hypoxia is perceived, which causes the powerful adaptive responses towards hypoxia that was noted earlier.

It takes about 3 hours following hyperbaric therapy for the blood oxygen levels to normalize. This might be why twice daily sessions separated by 4 or more hours may be a better protocol for achieving optimal physiological benefits. In saying that, by controlling the variables of oxygen concentration and pressure, it may be possible to achieve better benefits by fluctuating the oxygen dose through air breaks and adjusting the pressure, respectively, during each hyperbaric session. <view study>

Hyperbaric Oxygen Significantly Reduces Tumour Volume in Ovarian Cancer

A landmark study provided by the Ohio State University in Columbus has just been published in the Journal of Cancer Biology &amp; Therapy and the results are consistent with the latest research validating the use of HBOT in Cancer therapy. It has already been well established that solid tumours are low in oxygen (hypoxic) and it is this factor that limits conventional therapy like chemo and radiation, and allows for resistance to congenital treatments. In this study, the addition of HBOT (90-minute sessions daily for up to 21 days at a dose of 2.0 ATA)corrected the hypoxic tumour and leading to enhancement of chemotherapeutic regimen for ovarian cancer. In addition and of extreme significance is that the application of HBOT alone caused a significant reduction in tumour size. This study confirms recent literature supporting the use of HBOT with and without conventional therapy <view study>

Hyperbaric Pressure helps improve Lung Cancer Treatment

More research is demonstrating the importance of combining hyperbaric oxygen therapy with conventional drug therapy for cancer for sensitizing the cancer cells, ultimately leading to more cancer death. Here, this study showed us that just elevating the pressure and combining a promising anticancer agent caused more destruction to the cancer cells <view study>

Hyperbaric Oxygen & Temozolomide for Glioblastoma

Temozolomide is currently being used for aggressive brain tumors, among other cancers. The effectiveness of this treatment is reduced with tumor hypoxia (low oxygen levels). Hyperbaric oxygen therapy was shown in this study to reduce tumor hypoxia and thus help to increase the effectiveness of Temozolomide against the glioma, producing a much more powerful anti-tumor activity. This research is consistent with many recent studies showing the added effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy with conventional therapies like chemotherapy, in helping to increase the effectiveness of these therapies <view study>

New Implications for Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and Colorectal Cancer

Hyperbaric oxygenation therapy is being researched for many conditions and their pathophysiological effects. In this study, the anti-inflammatory effects of HBOT showed benefits in reducing the carcinogenesis of colorectal cancer following induction. In today’s pro-inflammatory world, this could have huge impacts on reducing the rates of pathogenic inflammatory-related tumors <view study>

Ketogenic diet & hyperbaric oxygen prolongs survival in metastatic cancer

Researchers found a significant anti-cancer effect when mice with systemic metastatic cancers were exposed to the combination of a ketogenic diet alongside hyperbaric oxygenation therapy. Recently hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been receiving a lot of attention for it’s beneficial effects when combined with chemo and radiation therapy. Now, it’s being looked at how natural therapies can also be enhanced <view study>

Combined Radiation therapy and Hyperbaric therapy for Malignant tumors

Hypoxic tumors (tumors with low oxygen levels) are noted as one of the main reasons for failure to control malignant tumors with radiation therapy. Since hyperbaric oxygen improves oxygen supply to hypoxic tumors, thus increasing their levels, hyperbaric oxygen has sound clinical grounds for being used alongside radiation therapy. This study published in the International Journal of Clinical Oncology goes over the rationale for using this combination in more detail <view study>

New Roles for Hyperbaric Oxygen therapy in brain tumors

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is now being used in conjunction with both chemotherapy and radiotherapy for it’s ability to help increase the sensitivity of both treatments for malignant brain tumors. The authors go over some of the new protocols being deployed, with one of them being radiation therapy given within 15 minutes from hyperbaric exposure. This allows more oxygen into the brain, thus making the radiation therapy more effective. In addition, carboplatin-based chemotherapy combined with hyperbaric oxygen show a significant advantage in survival for recurrent malignant brain tumors <view study>

Chemotherapy drug enhanced by hyperbaric oxygen therapy

The chemotherapy drug Gemcitabine, is used for treating certain cancers, including advanced pancreatic cancer. It delivers oxygen to the tumors and thus makes the chemo drug more toxic to the targeted cancer, allowing a greater cancer killing effect. This results of this study (published in the anticancer research journal) confirmed this effect, and showed a significant enhancement of Gemcitabine’s cancer killing effect when hyperbaric oxygen therapy was applied concurrently <view study>

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy suppresses cancer growth

Low oxygen levels within tumor cells (tumor hypoxia) is a major signal for these cancer cells to produce more blood vessels (angiogenesis) and rapidly grow. Not only does that make them much more aggressive, but it also makes them much more resistant to both chemotherapy and radiation therapy. This is truly a dangerous combination and why there has been so much attention in the medical field (and with oncologists) to reduce tumor hypoxia. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is one of the most effective, and most practical, ways to alleviate tumor hypoxia.

The protocol used in this study was a high pressure protocol at 2.5 ATA for 90 minutes, with treatments performed every 3rd day. The results were extremely promising and researchers concluded, “HBOT significantly suppressed tumor growth in both the triple positive and negative tumors…&nbsp; Despite the fact that behavior and prognosis of the triple positive and negative subtypes of cancer are different, the HBOT had a similar suppressive effect on tumor growth, indicating that they share a common oxygen dependent anti-tumor mechanism. Furthermore, HBOT significantly reduced the number and area of metastatic lesions in the triple negative model.”

We have come a long way in our understanding of tumor growth, in relation to hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). Since HBOT stimulates angiogenesis (new blood vessel growth), the long-standing concern was that this mechanism may stimulate the growth of new cancer cells through the same mechanism. Over, the last 2 decades, not only has this hypothesis clearly been refuted, but solid evidence, as demonstrated in this and many other studies, are making us shift our attention toward utilizing HBOT within many current cancer treatment programs <view study>

29 year old female with stage 4 breast cancer responds successfully to combination therapy involving hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is considered to be one of the more aggressive types of breast cancer and is typically treated with chemotherapy. Cancers like these that are able to rapidly grow and spread are a major concern and need to be treated with an equally aggressive solution.

This is why we are seeing more research and clinical trials utilizing combination therapies in order to help intensify the cytotoxic effects of chemotherapy in an aggressive measure to counteract these highly metastatic cancers.

This report followed a 29-year-old female that was put on an aggressive combination of chemotherapy, hyperthermia therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and a ketogenic diet. The results were remarkable and “present evidence of a complete clinical, radiological, and pathological response following a six-month treatment period using this novel combination therapy in a patient with stage IV TNBC” <view study>

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy helps reduce lymphedema (breast cancer-related)

A prospective observational study was conducted on 10 patients with lymphedema (breast cancer related — BCRL). Bioimpedance spectroscopy (a relatively new diagnostic tool for evaluating the severity of the lymphedema) confirmed the benefits of Hyperbaric oxygen therapy alongside conventional therapy <view study>