Origins

Oxygen is the basis of life. Man can survive weeks without food, for days without water, but only minutes without oxygen.

It has long been understood that healing cannot be achieved without sufficient oxygen levels in the tissues where most illness and injuries occur and often linger.

"The positive power of the use of hyperbaric oxygen is really a modification of God's gift to man."

- Richard A. Neubauer, MD

Read a detailed history of the power and politics of HBOT by Dr. Neubauer:

The Polemics of Hyperbaric Medicine

In the mid-1800s, an anaesthesiologist theorized that by increasing the levels of oxygen in operating rooms, patients would be able to heal faster. While some modest benefits were achieved, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy became touted as a universal cure-all, and more. This led to “bad press” that HBOT received early on, some of which carries on to this day.

Not until almost the mid-20th century, hyberbaric oxygen therapy in America was applied to saving the lives of SCUBA divers with DC, decompression sickness, or “the bends.”

Eventually HBOT was integrated as part of an overall medical therapy plan for treating various diseases or injuries associated with hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen on a cellular level. It is at the cellular tissue level where new life takes place.

While HBOT is sometimes used as a primary emergency treatment, it is more often applied as a cost-effective adjunctive or enhancement therapy.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Today

HBOT’s popularity is increasing in the United States; it is used much more extensively in Europe and the Orient.

Modern HBOT supplies the patient with pure,100% oxygen under increased atmospheric pressure. The air we normally breathe contains only 19-21% of this essential element; via HBOT, the concentration of pure oxygen dissolved into the bloodstream is dramatically increased (up to 2,000%), with virtually no energy expenditure.

In addition to the blood, all body fluids – including the vital lymph and cerebrospinal fluids – are infused with the healing benefits of this molecular oxygen. This oxygen can then: (a) reach bone and tissue which are inaccessible to red blood cells, (b) enhance white blood cell function, and (c) promote the formation of new capillary and peripheral blood vessels.

The result is increased infection control, and faster healing of a wide range of conditions.

Hyperbaric oxygen provides life-giving oxygen efficiently, naturally and virtually risk-free. When administered by accredited physicians and highly trained technicians, HBOT is extremely safe and effective. So effective as to spawn a new generation of "centers" which often do not have trained technicians or medical physicians on the premises.

HBOT administered at therapeutic levels requires a prescription by a medical doctor.

A patient undergoing HBOT at NHNC spends a physician-pescribed amount of time in one of the Center's cylindrical, body-length chambers where pure oxygen is administered, and atmospheric pressure is increased and controlled under meticulously monitored conditions. A technician is present at all times.

The dosage determines the depth of pressure (one to three atmospheres absolute), length of treatment (60-120 minutes), and frequency of treatment. A prescription after evaluation by an NHNC Center MD is based upon each patient's needs, backed by 40 years of operating clinical experience and innovation in the field of Hyperbaric Medicine.

Glossary

Terms encountered on our website

Anoxia

-Lack of oxygen to the brain.

ATA

- Atmospheres absolute. One ATA is sea level.

Atmospheric pressure

- Pressure caused by the weight of the atmosphere. Mean value is one atmosphere at sea level and reduces with increasing altitude.

Barometeric pressure

- Same as atmospheric pressure.

Decompression sickness DC

- Caused by the release usually of nitrogen as it leaves its dissolved form throughout the body upon a rapid decrease in barometric pressure (rapid ascent of a diver from a deep dive or the rapid ascent of a pilot to high altitudes in a poorly pressurized aircraft) -M-Webster

HBOT

- Acronym for Hyberbaric Oxygen Therapy.

High pressure oxygen

-Hyperbaric oxygen.

Hyperbaric

- Literally, "high pressure."

Hyperbaric oxygen

- Oxygen at a higher than normal atmospheric pressure.

Hypobaric

-Having a specific gravity less than that of cerebrospinal fluid — hypobaric solutions are used for spinal anesthesia.

Hypoxia

-Lack of oxygen to tissues.

Idling neurons

-Metabolicly lethargic, electrically non-functional - but viable in the ischemic penumbra because of critical low tissue oxygen availability. By correcting oxygen deficiencies, idling neurons may be "jump-started" to regain electrical function.

Ischemia

- Limited flow of blood to a body part due to obstruction of arterial blood supply.

Ischemic penumbra

- A surrounding zone of tissue, less affected by hypoxia, where sufficient oxygen is available to these cells to maintain membrane ion pump mechanisms, but not enough for them to generate current and therefore function as neurons.

Neuron

- A nerve cell, the basic unit of the nervous system which sends messages by electrical current from body to brain to body.

Recoverable brain

- Brain cells (neurons) and function recovered after long-term injury, with late intensive neurorehabilitation and high-dose oxygen.

SPECT scan

-Single Photon Emission Computerized Tomography, a type of scan which identifies potential areas recoverable brain tissue and can measure the changes after high-dose oxygen therapy.

TIA

-Transient Ischemic Attack, or ministroke, due to cerebral ischemia. May herald a stroke.

TBI
- Traumatic Brain Injury

Home

Privacy Policy

Contact Us