Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment: The Safe, Effective Way to Enhance Your Body's Healing Abilities

Human beings must have oxygen to survive. While food and water are vitally important, we can only live for a few minutes without oxygen. Unfortunately, our planet's current atmosphere contains far less oxygen than it once did. Experts estimate that in prehistoric times, the Earth's atmosphere contained 30 to 35 percent oxygen. Today, that figure is closer to 20 percent worldwide. In polluted areas, like the world's ever-growing cities, oxygen content can be as little as 15 percent. Considering that it's not possible to sustain life when oxygen levels are lower than 7 percent, you can see the current low levels of oxygen are anything but health enhancing.

The impact of lack of oxygen on health has been repeatedly demonstrated by mountaineers. At high altitudes, oxygen levels are very low. As a result, even experienced mountaineers have to prepare to deal with the serious fatigue and nausea that result from insufficient oxygen. It is not uncommon for mountaineers to die from oxygen deprivation.

Sadly, mountaineers aren't the only ones suffering from too little oxygen. Poor breathing habits, including shallow breathing and poor posture, excessive abdominal fat, tight clothing, and disorders that inhibit proper breathing, like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), can compromise health by depriving the body of the oxygen it needs.

Inadequate oxygen intake may have serious consequences. Researchers at Kansas State University, for instance, have found a link between certain types of cancer, including breast, colon and eye, and a protein that occurs in the body when oxygen levels are low. Although studies are preliminary at this point, the findings point to enhanced oxygen intake as a new treatment for not only cancer, but heart disease, stroke and glaucoma.

How To Increase Oxygen Intake

One way to correct the situation is with proper deep breathing. Unlike hyperventilating, deep breathing involves slow, steady deep breaths taken in through the nose and exhaled through the mouth. This provides a chance for the nose to warm, filter and humidify the air being taken in. Three daily five-minute-long deep breathing sessions – combined with good posture (shoulders back, spine straight) to help open lungs and the diaphragm – can help the body obtain the oxygen it needs.

Another more efficient way of ramping up oxygen intake is with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). Originally used to treat divers with decompression sickness, HBOT is a simple, non-invasive method of correcting oxygen insufficiency problems. Essentially, HBOT provides the body with pure oxygen in a pressurized chamber. HBOT works by exerting a subtle pressure on the body that forces super-concentrated oxygen to dissolve into all the body's tissues. HBOT allows an individual to take in ten to fifteen times more oxygen than would be available at sea level or under normal atmospheric pressure.

As a result, HBOT provides significant health benefits. These may include a reduction in swelling and inflammation, disposal of toxins and metabolic waste products, enhanced healing and growth of new blood vessels. In addition, HBOT can be used in conjunction with other healing modalities, to increase their effectiveness.

For example, athletes favor HBOT for helping repair damage done to muscle tissue, bones and joints during sporting activities. Similarly, plastic surgery patients find that HBOT can nearly double the rate of healing in skin wounds, while keeping infections from setting in.

U.S. hospitals use HBOT with FDA approval for only thirteen different conditions, including anti-aging, burns and wounds, stroke and other neurological conditions, post-surgical recovery, diabetic complications and more. For example, the FDA only recently approved use of oxygen for treatment of chronic skin ulcers, such as bedsores.

Here at Center for New Medicine, however, we have identified approximately 66 conditions suitable for treatment. These include circulatory difficulties, digestive disorders, emotional issues, vertigo, memory problems, achy and/or weak muscles and a host of other medical woes that may be connected to a lack of oxygen in the body pre and post surgery.

It's safe to say that we will be hearing more about disorders linked to oxygen deficiency in the future. But in the meantime, you can help your body get the oxygen it needs by practicing proper deep breathing techniques or by calling (949) 680-1880 to make an appointment at the Center for New Medicine's Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber.