What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is becoming a major player as a powerful treatment option for various medical conditions. This high-concentration oxygen therapy involves breathing pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber, which allows the body to absorb more oxygen than it would at normal atmospheric pressure. To fully encompass the HBOT conversation, I’ll be writing two blog posts about this topic - this one is for the parents, so it’s easier to understand and communicate to friends, teachers, family members, or nosy aunts at Thanksgiving dinner. The other post will be for clinicians or those wishing for a deeper understanding, where I’ll include research articles and the nerdier mechanisms behind the benefits of HBOT. Regardless, I’ll be discussing the mechanism behind HBOT, its effects on the body, and the wide range of conditions it can treat.
What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy occurs when a patient breathes in 100% oxygen in a pressurized environment, typically at a pressure higher than sea level pressure. Right now, you are breathing normal room air, which is only composed of 21% oxygen, at normal atmospheric pressure, which is 1.0 ATA. Hyperbaric oxygen chambers use 100% oxygen, and can range from 1.2 - 3.0 ATA; the increased pressure enables more oxygen to pack into the patient’s bloodstream, tissues, and organs, leading to a variety of therapeutic effects.
How does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Work?
The therapeutic effects of HBOT stem from two key physiological processes within the body: increased oxygen content within the cells, and enhanced healing, both short-term and long-term. First, let’s run through how our brain uses oxygen.
Some of our organs and systems can metabolize without oxygen. The brain exclusively metabolizes with oxygen, meaning that oxygen is involved in every single pathway, process, and thought that occurs within it. It’s a process called oxidative metabolism, where oxygen combines with glucose (sugar) to create the energy molecule (ATP) that powers all cellular functions in the brain.
Essentially, without oxygen, the brain cannot effectively use glucose to do anything it needs to do, making oxygen vital for every single daily function. Let’s also not forget that the brain controls everything within the body - so if our brains and bodies are short on oxygen, whether it’s due to a medical condition, chronic stress and inflammation, environmental factors, or otherwise, bodily functions are obviously affected as well.
Oxygen is carried in the blood two ways - by red blood cells, and in plasma, which is the clear liquid part of the blood. During HBOT, the increased pressure forces more oxygen to dissolve directly into the plasma, allowing oxygen to reach areas of the brain that might be deprived of it. This boost of oxygen helps the brain heal in multiple ways, and the same principles the brain uses to heal also apply to healing within the body.
How does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Help the Brain?
We see that children with developmental delays, behavioral issues, anxiety, and neurological conditions often have the highest undetected capability of reaching low oxygen levels. Their brains and bodies are working hard to keep up with daily tasks, but they reach a limit. Once they reach that limit, that’s when we start to see a big behavioral change - stimming, hand flapping, meltdowns, lack of interest, sudden refusal in participation, developing a sudden attitude, etc.
We test the oxygen levels of every patient in our office for this exact reason - if their oxygen is low, we know that their brains are struggling to keep up with its task load. The brain is one of the most metabolically active organs in the body, so it’s constantly using oxygen to function.
The brain uses about 20% of the body’s oxygen supply, despite only making up 2% of the body’s total weight.
Imagine only making up 2% of a team, but having to do 20% of the work. That’s 10x the metabolic demand on an organ that’s already responsible for a lot of work. Thanks to a heck of a lot of research, we know that the brain needs two main things to heal - oxygen and energy. Boost the oxygen, the brain begins to heal. Boost the energy (via nutrients, supplementation, light therapy, a whole host of modalities that can do this), and it heals even more.
Short-term HBOT use, meaning a few sessions, helps boost the brain’s oxygen levels acutely, and the effects can last for several days. Long-term HBOT use can increase blood supply to the brain, allowing more nutrients and oxygen to be delivered to the brain anytime it needs. This happens through a process called angiogenesis, or the growth of new blood vessels. These new blood vessels improve blood supply to tissues that require healing - permanently.
Who Can Benefit from HBOT?
Truthfully, most people can benefit from HBOT, particularly children and adults with chronic pain and inflammation, emotional and behavioral issues, developmental delays, neurological conditions, and athletes. Firefighters can use hyperbaric oxygen therapy to treat carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation. Studies have shown that patients treated with HBOT following carbon monoxide poisoning have significantly better outcomes, including reduced risk of neurological damage.
HBOT also reduces chronic inflammation, reduces chronic pain, aids brain injury and neurological recovery, provides immune support, helps wound healing and tissue repair, heals infections and sepsis, and increases sports recovery and performance.
If you’re experiencing any of the following symptoms or diagnoses, you may consider experiencing hyperbaric oxygen therapy as a treatment option:
Overactive / underactive immune system
Wound healing
Chronic or resistant infections
Delayed-onset muscle soreness
Stutters
Motor tics or vocal tics
Post-operative recovery
Sports recovery
Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS)
Fibromyalgia
Cerebral palsy
Brain fog
Anxiety
Depression
Chronic inflammation
Autoimmune conditions
Chronic pain
Brain injury
Smoke inhalation
Carbon monoxide poisoning
Neurodegenerative disorders (multiple sclerosis, myasthenia gravis, Alzheimer’s)
How to Schedule an HBOT Session
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a scientifically supported treatment with a wide range of applications in modern medicine. Its ability to enhance oxygen delivery to tissues, stimulate tissue repair, reduce inflammation, and fight infection makes it a powerful tool for healing and recovery for children and adults.
If you’re interested in scheduling a hyperbaric oxygen therapy session in our office in Northwest Indiana, please click this link to request an appointment, or call our office at 219-786-9596.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who shouldn’t use hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
While HBOT can be highly beneficial for many medical conditions, certain people should avoid or use caution when considering HBOT. People with the following conditions or situations should generally not undergo HBOT: untreated collapsed lung, severe respiratory infections, uncontrolled seizure disorders, congestive heart failure, recent eye or ear surgery, pregnancy, certain types of cancer, bleeding disorders, and people taking certain medications.
Anyone considering HBOT should have a thorough evaluation before starting treatment. In general, while HBOT is safe
for many people when properly managed, an evaluation is key to ensuring that you are a good fit for hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Are there any adverse effects to hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
As long as none of the above conditions apply to you, there are some risks to hyperbaric oxygen therapy, most of which revolve around improper breathing, not equalizing pressure while in the chamber, and noncompliance with treatment protocols. The short-term side effects to HBOT can include fatigue, hunger, lightheadedness, and headaches immediately after treatment, which generally resolve on their own. Potential risks to HBOT include damage to the eardrum or sinuses, temporary vision changes, claustrophobia, fluctuations in blood sugar, seizures, and pulmonary edema. While these risks are relatively rare, it is important to use HBOT conducted by a qualified healthcare provider who can monitor for any potential complications.
Does HBOT hurt?
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy shouldn’t hurt. ’Popping’ your ears is truthfully the most important part - chewing gum, moving your jaw from side to side, yawning, and sucking through a straw can help teach these skills to adults or children prior to entering a hyperbaric chamber. You can equate the pressure changes to flying on an airplane. Some areas of the body can become sore after HBOT due to the pressurized oxygenation of injured or damaged tissues. These symptoms will resolve on their own.
