Hyperbaric Oxygen Remedy: What’s All of the Buzz About HBOT?

You’ll have seen the headlines about actor Jeremy Renner and discuss present host Jay Leno used hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to assist heal from extreme accidents. Renner was in a snowplow accident early in 2023 that left him with over 30 damaged bones and in want of a number of surgical procedures. Leno sustained extreme third diploma burns to his face after an an explosion whereas engaged on his basic automobiles late final 12 months. These two fortunately skilled a lot faster recoveries than any physician’s had anticipated with each day HBOT periods. The HBOT improved the therapeutic of Renner’s damaged bones and injured inner organs and Leno’s facial burns and pores and skin grafts.

What’s HBOT?

Serving to to heal crush accidents and pores and skin burns extra rapidly and fully are simply two HBOT makes use of which are the Meals and Drug Administration (FDA) cleared. However what’s hyperbaric oxygen remedy, precisely?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a therapy that includes respiratory pure oxygen inside a pressurized atmosphere. HBOT lets sufferers breathe oxygen in particular chambers at higher than regular atmospheric strain. This creates an atmosphere that may assist generate new capillaries round injured tissues. This could create elevated blood circulation to the injured tissues and facilitate higher therapeutic. HBOT achieves this through the use of a particular chamber the place air strain is often 1.5 to three.0 instances larger than regular. Sometimes, that is repeated throughout a number of periods over the course of weeks or months.

HBOT can also be FDA-cleared for non-healing pores and skin grafts, surgical wounds, diabetic pores and skin ulcers, bone infections, acute trauma accidents, mind abscesses, and bone damage from most cancers radiation therapy—simply to call a few of the extra widespread makes use of. FDA clearance means non-public insurers (together with Medicare) will regularly pay for sufferers to obtain the suitable frequency and size of HBOT for these circumstances.

HBOT and Sports activities Accidents

You’ll have additionally heard about the advantages of HBOT in sports activities. Going again to Philadelphia Eagles receiver Terrell Owens’s 2004 rapid recovery from an ankle fracture, each day HBOT to assist him heal simply weeks earlier than Tremendous Bowl XXXIX. In that game, Owens performed heroically.

Many different prime athletes in skilled sports activities have used HBOT to hurry up restoration from damage and enhance efficiency, together with NBA star LeBron James, prime rating tennis professional Novak Djokovic, and Olympic swimming legend, Michael Phelps.

As we speak the usage of HBOT has develop into fairly widespread within the elite sports activities world to help in restoration from damage. There’s a giant quantity of rising analysis that proves its many advantages in elite athletes:

• A 2018 study in the journal Nature revealed that on a microscopic degree HBOT not solely will increase mitochondrial mass, but in addition reduces irritation, thus aiding in additional environment friendly and fast tender tissue restore.
• A 2019 study in Biomed Research International reported that by growing the supply of oxygen to areas of the muscle tissue and tender tissues the place oxygen is depleted by vigorous train and damage hurries up the restoration and will increase endurance.
• A 2022 study in Sports Medicine Journal discovered that HBOT ends in vital enhancements in mitochondrial respiration and elevated mitochondrial mass, thus growing efficiency of center age athletes.

HBOT for Concussions and Traumatic Mind Accidents

We at Mid-Atlantic Concussion (MAC) Alliance have spent the previous few years following the growing body of research pointing to the benefits of HBOT for concussion and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). The info and analysis present that HBOT can assist enhance therapeutic for sufferers with mind accidents who’ve skilled a plateau of their therapies as they work in the direction of restoration. We invested in our personal Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Center at our Hockessin, Delaware, location, and are very excited to see that HBOT has helped our concussion and TBI sufferers in acute settings, each shortly after the damage and even months or years later.

Read More About the Science Behind HBOT for Concussions & TBIs

Oxygen Boosts Concussion Restoration

Oxygen is likely one of the needed elements for mobile respiration or metabolism of any organ within the physique, together with the mind and spinal twine. If oxygen is in restricted provide to the mind, then fewer nerves can hearth off directly, limiting any restore happening to heal injured tissue. By giving 40 to 60 one-hour periods of HBOT on a schedule of 2-3 instances per week to a concussion affected person doing vestibular, ocular and/or cognitive therapies, total oxygen supply will increase. This further oxygen on the crimson blood cells produced by HBOT helps enhance metabolism, which aids mobile restore and in the end hurries up concussion restoration even instantly after a concussion.

We’ve seen the success reported in medical journals replicated in our personal sufferers. HBOT can assist in concussion and TBI restoration each in our affected person athletes struggling to get better instantly after damage, and in our long-term concussion and TBI sufferers who’ve been injured in falls, motorcar accidents and office accidents. We’ve seen dramatic enchancment in a few of the most troublesome circumstances, months and even years after damage.

MAC Alliance’s Dedication to Concussion and TBI Sufferers

Since the usage of HBOT for concussion and TBI restoration is just not but FDA-cleared, it’s typically thought of an out-of-pocket expense by insurance coverage firms. In contrast to most elite skilled athletes, the price of HBOT to deal with concussions for the typical particular person will be prohibitive: the associated fee for a one-hour HBOT session in a hospital atmosphere will be $350 or extra per hour.

To offer concussion and TBI sufferers and their households entry to HBOT, , MAC Alliance has created our personal in-house HBOT program. We’ve set a extra inexpensive value for periods to open up this useful resource to as many sufferers as potential. This consists of athletes of all ages, in addition to our fall, automobile accident and work damage sufferers.

We’ve created an easy-to-use fee program that:

• Permits our sufferers to do their first three one-hour periods for under $25 every
• If tolerated, sufferers can proceed their periods at $50 every
• Is native, in order that sufferers in our neighborhood don’t have to drive lengthy distances to hospitals with HBOT companies

This self-pay value scale is designed to help concussion and TBI sufferers, athletes recovering from damage and different sufferers who could profit from HBOT. For any FDA-cleared use, we settle for most insurers for HBOT remedies for these circumstances, that are often coated in full.

Please contact us to seek out out extra about receiving HBOT therapy from our educated medical employees below the course of our licensed physicians.

_{—Particular weblog publish from Vincent Schaller, M.D., DABFM, CIC, MAC Alliance Medical Director and Founder}