What Is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) treats pain and other disorders by providing patients with pure oxygen at higher than normal air pressures. HBOT enables the patients’ lungs to absorb oxygen at a much greater rate than simply breathing in air normally. That oxygen flows through the bloodstream and circulates around the body. And since injured and swollen tissues need extra oxygen to function, HBOT’s high oxygen level enables patients to reduce pain, heal better and fight off infections.

In the early 20th century, Dr. Orville Cunningham pioneered the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy when he successfully used pure oxygen to restore health to a patient who was dying from the flu. Throughout the last century, it was given to divers to decompress and to people that had carbon-monoxide poisoning. More recently, doctors have successfully used it to treat those with persistent degenerative health problems that cause or result in poor blood flow and oxygen delivery to the body.

What Are Known HBOT Benefits?

• Significantly increases oxygen flow to tissues in order to boost natural healing processes
• Encourages new growth of blood vessels, bringing vital nutrients to areas with poor circulation
• Saturates organs with oxygen-rich blood so that they function more efficiently
• Increases white blood cell count to fight infections
• Helps produce superoxide dismutase (SOD), an antioxidant that reduces free radicals and decreases inflammation and pain

What Conditions Does HBOT Improve?

Doctors and hospitals use HBOT to successfully treat a variety of medical disorders. Here at the National Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Center, we have treated patients suffering from Lyme Disease, Multiple Sclerosis, Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy (RSD), and other painful nerve-related conditions. In addition, HBOT can improve Macular Degeneration, Acute Hearing Loss, and Diabetic wounds and nerve damage. It also helps to heal the injuries that radiation therapy can cause, known as Radiation Necrosis.

What Is It Like Having Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

You would enter our sealed glass chamber, where we can control the flow of oxygen and air pressure. You may feel a slight pressure in your ears, as people do in an airplane. If that should happen, you’d simply yawn or hold your nose gently and blow until your ears pop. The most important thing is to relax. Our chamber comes equipped with an entertainment system, so you can listen to music or watch TV. Some patients just fall asleep!

If you’d like to know whether hyperbaric oxygen therapy could help you or a loved one, please contact our center at 727-787-7077 to request a personalized assessment.

Our Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Treatment Program Includes:

Neurological Consultation: The first step is to have a one-on-one consultation in which you and Dr. Spiegel will discuss your symptoms and the history of your condition. He will ask you about any past treatments you have tried and how these have worked for you.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy:

Our center’s HBOT machines are designed to treat individuals comfortably one at a time. The units differ from those used at home or in some other practices because their hard shells allow for higher oxygen pressure and infusion. Though the number of treatment sessions varies from condition to condition, most patients with chronic pain syndromes like RSD will require 20 sessions.

If you have questions about HBOT, please call our center today at 727-787-7077. Or to schedule a consultation, simply click here to select a day and time. One of our helpful office staff members will call you to confirm the appointment.