Challenging health issues require innovative treatment methods. One area of medicine in which patient care plans must be carefully constructed is pain management. Within that field and others – such as oncology – hyperbaric oxygen therapy (aka HBOT, hyperbarics, or hyperbaric medicine) has become a popular modality. In HBOT, the patient inhales 100% oxygen within a pressurized atmosphere. The air is set at between 50% and 200% higher than standard pressure.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is often a supplemental approach to other treatments and therapies, but it is not considered “alternative” by the medical establishment. Rather, the American Cancer Society calls HBOT “mainstream.” Though no research proves that hyperbaric medicine can cure cancer, the FDA has cleared the practice for the treatment of numerous illnesses, including gangrene, brain abnormalities, and any physical damage that prevents body tissues from getting sufficient oxygen.
Access to oxygen greatly enhanced
When you utilize hyperbaric medicine for pain management (as by our specialist Dr. Propper) or any other purpose, the increased pressure in the closed environment allows you to access much more oxygen than would be possible in typical air. You can inhale three times as much as you could if you were using an oxygen tank without a hyperbaric room. When your body is infused with this huge amount of oxygen, stem cells and growth factors are generated, flowing through the bloodstream to assist the immune system with recovery.
The Mayo Clinic reports that oxygen is needed in larger amounts when tissue becomes damaged. Not only does your body have greater access to oxygen during a hyperbaric oxygen therapy session, but your circulatory system becomes more capable of facilitating its delivery throughout the body. Once the oxygen level is boosted, areas of your body that have been oxygen-deprived get access to stronger quantities of nutrients and the potential activation of healing mechanisms because the tissues can operate normally.
The benefits of HBOT go well beyond the health challenges listed above. Anyone experiencing decompression sickness (also known as “the bends”), tenacious infections, and diabetic wounds can all be successfully treated with hyperbaric oxygen therapy as well.
Expertise with hyperbaric care
Weston Medical demonstrates its dedication to cutting-edge medicine with its hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments. Dr. Propper, a world-renowned specialist in the field of hyperbarics and stem cell therapy, uses the modality because its effects are profound: it allows oxygen to enter the body at as much as 20 times ordinary levels, a quantity that can keep an organism alive without blood or a functional heart.
