Various diseases and conditions, such as AIDS complications, chronic fatigue syndrome, RSD and Lyme disease have been treated with the increased oxygen content of hyperbaric oxygen treatments. The hyperbaric oxygen treatment centers use a high pressure environment to deliver increased oxygen to the body, along with therapeutic high pressure compressive effects. The hyperbaric oxygen treatments include entering a pressure chamber and administering 95 to 100 percent oxygen.
Originally, hyperbaric oxygen treatments were used to treat diving accidents, such as decompression sickness, with targeted oxygen therapy. These days the oxygen therapy has proven effective for RSD treatments, brain injuries and radiation necrosis as well as many other conditions. Radiation necrosis is likely to occur at the site of an original tumor, as a potential long term complication from radiotherapy or radiosurgery. As such, the oxygen therapy can be provided as part of an anticoagulation therapy regimen.
In treatmenting RSD, or reflex sympathetic dystrophy, hyperbaric treatments have become a viable option for those that chronically suffer through the pain. The treatments can help to counteract the range of symptoms, such as sensitivity to touch, localized swelling, changes in skin color and temperature, general weakness, abnormal sweating, muscle atrophy, or depression.
One of the main concerns of patients is the hyperbaric oxygen therapy cost since it requires specialized equipment and training to conduct treatment. Depending on the number of sessions required, the therapy may be covered by your insurance provider. Each treatment may be referred to a dive, based on its history as a treatment for diving complications. RSD treatments or various other treatments may require a course of 20 to 40 dives, but individual situations may vary.
In each oxygen therapy session, you are in a chamber or room that has the air pressure raised up to 3 times the normal air pressure. At that point, the pure oxygen gets pumped in to give your body a high concentration of therapeutic oxygen that causes the release of substances called growth factors and stem cells to increase healing. Since tissue can only heal with added oxygen, providing a higher dosage can restore blood gases to a healing range. Generally a session may last from 1 to 2 hours. Regardless of the number of sessions required, you should see some improvements and overall benefits from your hyperbaric treatments. More.