A new study just published on Feb 2011 in the journal of cancer makes a strong argument for applying hyperbaric oxygenation therapy (HBOT) for those patients who have had either surgery or radiation therapy for brain tumors. The study followed patients who had been treated with HBOT and there was a marked improvement in cognitive [...]
» Click Here to Read the full ArticleIn an eight week study performed on rats, hyperbaric oxygen therapy effectively improved blood pressure parameters and repressed hypertension. Though this phenomenon has been observed in clinical practice, this is the first study of its kind to demonstrate the not only the link between the two, but also the possible mechanisms that may be playing the key roles.
To View Full study << click here >>
It is well researched that diabetics can benefit from hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a primary treatment for foot wounds, ulcers, and other hard to heal injuries. However, the major complication to diabetics is in cardiovascular disease and coronary events (CE) like sudden heart attacks, strokes, etc. The main contributing factors to this elevated risk are poor glycemic control, elevated inflammatory markers and atherosclerosis. In this study, they monitored these factors in diabetics being treated with HBOT for diabetic foot wounds. With no surprise, all parameters including fasting blood sugar, haemoglobin H1C, CRP, and lipid profiles were statistically significantly improved. The researchers concluded that the application of HBOT caused better glycemic control and had beneficial effects on atherosclerosis. With this, HBOT may be the answer in reducing risk of CE’s and therefore reducing both debilities and mortalities that are commonly observed in the diabetic population.
To View Full study << click here >>
Life Sci. 2010 Jun 28. [Epub ahead of print]
Khan M, Kwiatkowski P, Rivera BK, Kuppusamy P.
Davis Heart and Lung Research Institute, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA.
Abstract
Myocardial infarction (MI) is caused by deprivation of oxygen and nutrients to the cardiac tissue due to blockade of coronary artery. It is a major contributor to chronic heart disease, a leading cause of mortality in the modern world. Oxygen is required to meet the constant energy demands for heart contractility, and also plays an important role in the regulation of heart function. However, reoxygenation of the ischemic myocardium upon restoration of blood flow may lead to further injury. Controlled oxygen delivery during reperfusion has been advocated to prevent this consequence. Monitoring the myocardial oxygen concentration would play a vital role in understanding the pathological changes in the ischemic heart following myocardial infarction. During the last two decades, several new techniques have become available to monitor myocardial oxygen concentration in vivo. Electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) oximetry would appear to be the most promising and reliable of these techniques. EPR utilizes crystalline probes which yield a single sharp line, the width of which is highly sensitive to oxygen tension. Decreased oxygen tension results in a sharpening of the EPR spectrum, while an increase results in widening. In our recent studies, we have used EPR oximetry as a valuable tool to monitor myocardial oxygenation for several applications like ischemia-reperfusion injury, stem-cell therapy and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The results obtained from these studies have demonstrated the importance of tissue oxygen in the application of stem-cell therapy to treat ischemic heart tissues. These results have been summarized in this review article. Copyright © 2010. Published by Elsevier Inc.
Hyperbaric clinic to open
Thursday, June 3, 2010
By MICKY PIETKIEWICZ ~ micky@t-g.com
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not a new technology in the medical field — but it’s about to take off in Bedford County.
The Advanced Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center will open in July at Heritage Medical Center. The center will feature two state-of-the-art hyperbaric chambers, costing about $350,000 each.
“Hyperbaric medicine has been around for a long time. The initial invention was created for dives, during which scuba divers would come up to the surface too fast, and get the bends,” said Dan Buckner, CEO of Heritage Medical Center.
However, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is now being used to treat wounds which, in order to heal, need a critical supply of oxygen.
“Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a natural way for wounds to heal from the inside out. It forces the blood to flow,” said Kristi Lane, director of Advanced Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine.
The hyperbaric chambers, which weigh a couple thousand pounds each, are set at a specific level of atmospheric pressure for the therapy. Level 1 is like being under 30 feet of water and level 2 compares to being under 60 feet of water. The chamber is filled with 100 percent oxygen, which supersaturates the patient’s plasma, therefore increasing blood flow.
“For the most severe wounds, a patient would be in the hyperbaric chamber for a two-hour period of time, every day for four to six weeks,” Lane said.
“Wounds and scabs require a lot of oxygen for healing,” Buckner said. “During hyperbaric therapy, the plasma in your body carries enough oxygen so that you could survive without your red blood cells.”
The center’s staff is well-equipped to serve patients, whether they need hyperbaric therapy or not.
“If a patient comes in to our facility for wound care, we can accurately predict the healing of the wound. We sit down with the patient and give them an assessment and a treatment plan,” Buckner said.
If the protocol doesn’t do the job within the expected time period, the patient will most likely receive hyperbaric therapy.
“Between 10-15 percent of our patients are expected to receive hyperbaric therapy,” Lane said. “We have about 25 different techniques we use for hyperbaric patients.”
Tennessee is rated among the top five states with the highest diabetes, obesity and vascular disease rates.
“This is exactly why we’ve invested $2 million in capital. We’re expecting the center to really take off,” Buckner said.
Diabetic wounds are the most common type of wound that is treated by hyperbaric therapy.
“There is a high incidence of a diabetic developing a non-healing wound,” said Dr. Frederic Seifer, medical director of hyperbarics at the clinic.
“Most diabetics’ wounds will heal without hyperbaric support, but 10-20 percent of diabetic wounds will not heal without hyperbaric support. When a diabetic develops a wound, the white blood cells and antibiotics in the body do not work if the body does not have a very high level of oxygen. With hyperbarics on board, white blood cells and antibiotics in the body receive oxygen, and therefore begin to work.”
The Advanced Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center is working closely with home health and nursing homes to provide service to patients.
“We are as, or more, competitive than other non-healing wound centers in the country,” Buckner said.
The Advanced Wound Healing and Hyperbaric Medicine Center can be reached by calling the hospital switchboard and asking for Lane.
“We are not about transferring files, or taking patients away from their primary care physicians,” Lane said. “We will treat the patients’ wounds and then send them back to their regular physician. We want to support the primary care physicians of this community.”
In an eight week study performed on rats, hyperbaric oxygen therapy effectively improved blood pressure parameters and repressed hypertension. Though this phenomenon has been observed in clinical practice, this is the first study of its kind to demonstrate the not only the link between the two, but also the possible mechanisms that may be playing the key roles.
<< Click here >> to view study
Mar 25, 2009
The Chambers Are Used For A Number Of Conditions, Including Anti-Aging
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) was initially used to treat divers suffering with decompression sickness, but is gaining popularity in treating some medical conditions, such as circulatory problems, infections and wounds. The chamber releases 100 % oxygen to damaged tissues. According to the Beverly Hills Center for Hyperbaric Medicine, the oxygen then allows the body to heal itself naturally. Other conditions treated by HBOT are: sports injuries, anti-aging, asthma, allergies and Lyme Disease, the Malibu Hyperbaric Medicine Center said. To find out more about the chambers and the treatment, click on related links or call the Beverly Hills Center for Hyperbaric Medicine at: (310) 551-1375. They are located at: 1125 S Beverly Dr # 405: Los Angeles, CA 90035
A Study done at the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery in Castle Hill Hospital in the UK has just been released and the results are extremely encouraging. The researchers noticed that when HBOT was applied before coronary artery bypass graft surgery (CABG), the surgery went much better. Bypass surgery is the most common type of open heart surgery in North America. For those individuals with severe blockages in the arteries of their heart, CABG can be life-saving, particularly from sudden heart attacks. As good as it sounds; bypass surgery does have its risks and can cause major complications including infections and sometimes even death itself. Normally, following bypass, the patient is monitored in the hospital for around one week, with one or two of those days being in intensive care. It’s during this time that the benefits of HBOT are noticed. With the addition of HBOT, the heart muscle had greater strength and was able to pump stronger following the surgery. More importantly, the post-op complications were greatly reduced allowing for a much shorter hospital stay. This can be of particular interest due to the high costs associated with extended hospital stay, particularly in the intensive care.
Click her to see this study in full. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20129356
Anyone who is considering bypass surgery, or surgery of any kind in that matter, should seriously consider adding hyperbaric oxygen therapy, not only to enhance the surgical procedure, but also to reduce any complications.
CALL NOW AND ASK ABOUT OUR PRE AND POST HBOT PROTOCOL SPECIFIC TO YOUR CONDITION.
08-03-2007 06:07; by Rebecca L. Sandlin
Mark Merrell was at his wits’ end. His young daughter, Maddie, was diagnosed as profoundly autistic. “We tried a number of therapies and been to a number of different places, and my kid’s pretty sick, and you accept that, and there’s just nothing anybody can do for her,” Merrell explained. “So we basically had to become our own advocates.” After investigating alternative therapies for his child, Merrell wound up in Florida, where he learned that hyperbaric medicine is being used to treat autism. “Many people like myself who are all right here in this Fishers-Carmel-Zionsville area, many of our doctors are not in Indiana,” he said. “Our backs are against the wall. We need help, and we can’t wait another six months for this study or another year for that drug. We need help now.” After using the hyperbaric chamber about 4 to 5 days per week, Merrell said the results of the treatments on Maddie have been astounding. “We can go out in public with our daughter now and nobody notices us … nobody looks at us. The change has been amazing,” he said. Merrell believes in the treatments so much he not only installed a hyperbaric chamber in his home, but also left his job as a police officer to open Oxyspa, a salon located at 11559 Cumberland Road in Fishers that features hyperbaric oxygen treatments. Oxsyspa is one a few locations in the Midwest that offers the treatments, using an FDA-approved hyperbaric chamber. When hyperbaric chambers were first installed in some Indianapolis-area hospitals, they were mainly used for treating burn victims or those who had carbon monoxide poisoning. Hospital chambers use a much greater pressure than what can be found at Oxyspa, but Merrell said the lighter pressure, non-invasive and non-pharmaceutical treatments are beginning to come into their own as an alternative therapy. David Darbro, M.D., the medical director who provides medical oversight at Oxyspa, became a believer in hyperbaric treatments after he changed roles and became a patient when he suffered a stroke three years ago. The stroke affected his speech. “You would not have been able to have understood me, were we speaking three years ago,” he said. Darbro drew a picture of a hyperbaric chamber to get his wishes across. After undergoing the pressurized oxygen treatments, he no longer takes medications and has no difficulty communicating. “It just made sense, that when you check people’s oxygen, especially with chronic degenerative disorders, they seem to be low on oxygen and didn’t have any energy,” he said. Darbro said mild hyperbaric therapy is indicated in treatments of several illnesses and conditions, including migraine, heart problems and diabetes. It is also used to treat wounds, sports injuries, osteomyelitis, skin grafts, traumatic brain injury, cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis. Darbro, who specializes in holistic medicine, said the treatments benefit the patient by helping to increase the body’s ability to absorb oxygen. “Your breathing is the key to opening the door to energy,” he said. “The idea of pressurized oxygen – putting oxygen under pressure – is the key, because it’s putting more oxygen in the fluid – the plasma – in between the red blood cells.” There are only 13 FDA-approved uses of hyperbaric treatments, so insurance may not cover treatments for other medical conditions. Articles of studies and other findings about the treatments have appeared in the Journal of American Medical Association. One article, published in 1990, calls hyperbaric treatments a controversial therapy. Another article, published in 2004, suggests hyperbaric oxygen therapy improves survival and limb salvage of patients with necrotizing soft tissue infections. A session at Oxyspa costs $80 for a treatment lasting around an hour, with packages available. A doctor’s prescription or order is mandatory before a client can begin therapy. Merrell said physicians from several disciplines including neurologists have referred their patients to the spa for treatments. He added the spa also follows FDA regulations by charting each client’s progress and condition during treatment. Cindy Beuoy, of Indianapolis, has been using the chamber since February and has noticed some benefits from regular visits. “I try to stay as healthy as I can. I’m a real pro-active person on health,” she said. “I found that, using the chamber, it helps me to sleep better. I exercise – I do strength training exercise three times a week and it helps my muscles recover faster from the exercise. I just feel my overall vitality is greater.”
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Extends Survival after Cardiac Arrest
July 25, 2008
Working with pigs, doctors almost double revival time after hearts stopped beating
FRIDAY, July 25 (HealthDay News) — High-dose hyperbaric oxygen therapy shows promise as a way to extend the window of opportunity to resuscitate a person whose heart has stopped during sudden cardiac arrest, a new study shows. Researchers at the School of Medicine at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center in New Orleans report they used the technique to revive pigs up to 25 minutes after their hearts had stopped beating. In humans, if a patient’s heart is not restarted through some means (CPR, medications or electric shock) within 16 minutes, 100 percent of patients die, according to American Heart Association statistics. Sudden cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death of Americans. “To resuscitate any living organism after 25 minutes of heart stoppage at room temperature has never been reported and suggests that the time to successful resuscitation in humans may be extended beyond the stubborn figure of 16 minutes that has stood for 50 years,” study leader Keith Van Meter, a clinical professor of medicine at the LSU center, said in an university news release. The findings were expected to be published in the August issue of Resuscitation. In the study, LSU researchers stopped the heart of laboratory swine kept at room temperature and declared them dead from cardiac arrest. After waiting 25 minutes, they attempted advanced cardiac life support to resuscitate them accompanied by either normal or high doses of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. None of the swine received artificial breathing, CPR, medications, or electric shocks during their cardiac arrest Four of the six animals given high-dose hyperbaric oxygen, a dose one-third greater in strength than what is normally given to humans, were revived after a two-hour resuscitation period. No others survived. “The present study shows that short-term, high-dose hyperbaric oxygen is an effective resuscitation tool and is safe in a small multi-place hyperbaric chamber,” Van Meter said. “A rehearsed team can easily load a patient in cardiopulmonary arrest into a small multi-place chamber in the pre-hospital or hospital setting without interrupting CPR or advanced cardiac life support. Successful resuscitation at 25 minutes suggests that if high-dose hyperbaric oxygen is used at the current ACLS limit of 16 minutes, a greater survival may be achieved in humans and allow application of more definitive treatment such as clot-dissolving drugs.” Future studies are planned to evaluate this technique.
Hyperbaric oxygen induces placental growth factor expression in bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells.
Life Sci. 2008 Jul 4
Shyu KG, Hung HF, Wang BW, Chang H.
Division of Cardiology, Shin Kong Wu Ho-Su Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Clinical Medicine, College of Medicine, Taipei Medical University, Taipei, Taiwan.
The bone marrow is home to mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) that are able to differentiate into many different cell types. The effect of hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) on MSCs is poorly understood. Placental growth factor (PlGF) is an attractive therapeutic agent for stimulating revascularization of ischemic tissue. HBO has been shown to improve diabetic wound healing by increase circulating stem cells. We hypothesized that HBO induces PlGF expression in bone marrow-derived MSCs. The MSCs were obtained from adult human bone marrow and expanded in vitro. The purity and characteristics of MSCs were identified by flow cytometry and immunophenotyping. HBO at 2.5 ATA (atmosphere absolute) significantly increased PlGF protein and mRNA expression. The induction of PlGF protein by HBO was significantly blocked by the addition of N-acetylcysteine, while wortmannin, PD98059, SP600125 and SB203580 had no effect on PlGF protein expression. However, the specific inhibitor of nitric oxide synthase, L-NAME did not alter the PlGF protein expression induced by HBO. HBO significantly increased the reactive oxygen species production and pretreatment with N-acetylcysteine significantly blocked the induction of reactive oxygen species by HBO. HBO significantly increased the migration and tube formation of MSCs and pretreatment with N-acetylcysteine and PlGF siRNA significantly blocked the induction of migration and tube formation by HBO. In conclusion, HBO induced the expression of PlGF in human bone marrow-derived MSCs at least through the oxidative stress-related pathways, which may play an important role in HBO-induced vasculogenesis.
