Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy revolutionizing medical field
April 6th 2008 Gino Troiani
Hyperbaric oxygen treatment (HBOT) is the medical use of pure oxygen at higher than atmospheric pressure. Its concept is simple. Increased pressure enables higher amounts of oxygen to enter the blood stream, therefore, jumpstarting the healing process. Red blood cells are the most common type of blood cell in the human body. They are responsible for delivering oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body via the blood stream. In many cases, increased oxygen can be key to many recovery processes. According to Michael Neumeister, M.D. in an article published in 2005, the first hyperbaric chambers date back to the late 1600s. These chambers were used in the treatment of ailments such as inflammations, scurvy, arthritis, and rickets, but due to a lack of technology, minimal effectiveness was recorded. Still, throughout the years, many scientists kept playing with the idea, hoping one day for a medical breakthrough. That breakthrough came in the early 1900s when Dr. Orville Cunningham discovered that patients with cardio vascular disorders improved significantly when moved to lower altitudes with denser air. With this finding, Cunningham took it upon himself to design a modern electric hyperbaric chamber, standing eight feet in diameter and thirty feet long. Cunningham used his chamber to treat multiple patients who suffered from the Spanish flu, and experienced tremendous results. However, because of the great depression in the 1930s, he was no longer able to continue his research. In the 1970s, similar chambers were designed and used by the armed forces to treat many diving and decompression illnesses such as the bends and caisson disease, suffered by Navy and Air force soldiers. Today these illnesses only represent three percent of all of the total uses for HBOT. In the last 35 years, curiosity has led many doctors and scientists to conducted experiments on the effectiveness of hyperbaric therapy. Many studies have proven to show significant recovery increases in head injuries, myasthenia gravis, myocardial infarction, free skin grafts, sudden deafness, burns, glaucoma, leg ulcers, heart attacks, strokes, cerebral palsy, and carbon monoxide poisoning. HBOT is also commonly used to help treat autism
