Hyperbaric without extra oxygen

[Hip]

Looking at Fig. 2, it seems the enhanced oxygen concentration in the HBOT group is maintained for a long time after the treatment session, but in the NBOT group the concentration falls soon after the treatment.

That's very interesting; although again you have to wonder whether this prolonged elevation in cerebral blood oxygen might relate to the interplay of the hyperbaric pressure and the raised intracranial pressure of TBI, which might for example conceivably improve cerebral blood flow. Because of its increased intracranial pressure, TBI is perhaps not the best of conditions to compare hyperbaric oxygen to normobaric (normal pressure) oxygen.

 

[SB_1108]

I've been trying out my new HBOT this week and I have not been using an oxygen concentrator. After the dives, I have felt that I wasn't getting enough oxygen, which is the opposite of what I thought I would experience. The HBOT heats up the air about 10 degrees and it starts to feel really stuffy. I'm considering purchasing the concentrator now to see if this resolves the issue. But concentrators are about $1k and it could just be a simple fix of bringing a battery operated fan into the chamber with me. I will post an update when I figure out a solution.

 

[Jesse2233]

@SB_1108 I find that small fan helps me feel like I'm cooler / getting more oxygen

 

[Jesse2233]

@Hip asked the guy who runs the mHBOT clinic today about the added benefit of pressure

He said that the pressure forces extra oxygen into the blood that hemoglobin can't absorb and thus activates a series of anti-inflammatory biological mechanisms.

 

[Hip]

@Hip asked the guy who runs the mHBOT clinic today about the added benefit of pressure

He said that the pressure forces extra oxygen into the blood that hemoglobin can't absorb and thus activates a series of anti-inflammatory biological mechanisms.

Yes, that's the basis of HBOT; but breathing 100% oxygen also increases the pressure (the partial pressure of oxygen), and also forces extra oxygen into the blood.

 

[Hip]

I am thinking of investing in this Vogvigo oxygen concentrator machine: it pumps out up to 90% oxygen at up to 5 liters per minute. Seems to be a very good price at £230. Does anyone know enough about oxygen concentrators to comment on whether this might be a good choice?


In my case, I am not just thinking in terms of treating ME/CFS, but also in terms of brain repair. I read that after brain injury, strokes and cerebral palsy, areas of the brain at the border of the damaged tissue regions can "go offline". In these areas, the neurons are not dead, but are in a dormant or idling state, because the amount of oxygen these neurons receive is reduced due to decreased blood flow.

The theory is that these dormant areas of "idling neurons" can apparently be brought back to life and "back online" by HBOT — even decades after the brain injury or stroke occurred. This is one article that discusses the "idling neuron" theory and HBOT treatment. Here are two more articles:

Oxygen chamber can boost brain repair years after stroke or trauma -- ScienceDaily

Hyperbaric healing revitalizes brain tissue


In my case, I had a viral brain infection (meningitis and/or encephalitis) in 2005, which appeared to cause some mild brain damage, in that I experienced permanent loss of some mental faculties and some personality change immediately afterwards (as brain infections are apt to cause). Although brain infection is different to stroke, I have always wondered whether these dormant, offline areas might also be sequelae in such brain infections. In which case, then HBOT, or breathing 100% oxygen, might result in some brain healing — even 12 years later.

 

[Jesse2233]

@Hip I've seen some of that literature as well, definitely worth a shot!

Do you think combining it with BDNF inducing substances would act synergistically?

 

[Hip]

Do you think combining it with BDNF inducing substances would act synergistically?

I am not sure. I've tried the supplement 7,8-dihydroxyflavone (7,8-DHF) before, which imitates BDNF in the brain, but in my very short-term tests, my impression was that 7,8-DHF worsened brain fog. Although I guess 7,8-DHF could nevertheless perhaps still manifest benefits in the long term if I committed to taking it for say several months.

There are also the other brain growth factors of NGF and GDNF.

 

[Asklipia]

What about cataracts? This is why I never tried it.

On the positive side I have this little family story:
My grandmother (born 1902) had a terrible time. Genetically not adapted to life in the 20th century. Lost her first baby from crib death (could be from under oxygenation due to thiamine deficiency). She was poisoned early because her husband was a chemist, a specialist in the food industry, she was eating a lot of the new convenience foods. Then she gave birth to one boy, then one girl, then a second girl. She died at 75 years of age, after what I realize now was years of bad fibromyalgia, mastitis, neuropathy, severe anemia, then blindness.
The two girls died young, one from cystic fibrosis at 55 years of age, the other from alcoholism after years of fibromyalgia, neuropathy at 75 years of age.
Note : nobody died of cancer or Alzheimers.

I have always wondered why the boy (still alive, living on his own and kicking with three active mistresses at over 92 years of age) escaped the curse. He was a spitting image of his father so another father could not be the clue. I thought : dietary reasons, because he enlisted in the Marines when he was 16 and stopped eating his mother's food. Then I thought, at that time, he was in the sea a lot, a lot of magnesium all his life, must have helped his thiamine to work for cell oxygenation. Yesterday my brother came and we talked about him. As a consequence last night I just saw the uncle in a dream and he was showing me silently his oxygen mask and his strange aviator clothes. From the age of 25 he was a pilot testing planes and jets for landing on aircraft carriers and supersonic planes. The combination of oxygen through the mask and the pressure on the apparatus for the legs (I am not expert in these things but he showed me his legs repeatedly so I suppose it means they are important) must have been part of the reasons he survived so well.

It could be ascribed to luck, of course. He has been in several wars and his survival is statistically wrong. Maybe luck is a physical thing. Maybe it comes with oxygen?

Be well!

Asklipia

 

[Hip]

What about cataracts?

I think concern about cataracts may be the reason for this suggestion about using eye protection during hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) or normobaric oxygen therapy (NBOT):

Wear swim goggles as eye protection and tape the upper portion of the mask to your face to prevent oxygen escaping and touching your eyes.

Neither the cornea of the eye, nor the eye's crystalline lens (which is where cataracts develop) have a blood supply, so I am not sure how the increased oxygen of HBOT and NBOT will reach the crystalline lens, which is lies behind the cornea.

It's possible that increased oxygen levels in the ambient air might diffuse into the crystalline lens, or that increased dissolved oxygen in the blood might diffuse into this lens (if it is the latter, then wearing goggles is not going the help).

But note that the development of cataracts is only usually reported in individuals receiving prolonged courses between 150 to 850 daily hyperbaric treatments. 1

This article looks at the issue of cataract development during HBOT. It says:

Although exact mechanisms are not fully understood it is believed that cataracts are formed due to oxidative and toxic insults to the crystalline lens. Cataracts are less likely to form under the normal duration of hyperbaric treatment, but unfortunately, when cataracts do form or progress, the changes to the lens are irreversible and may require lens replacement surgery.

Presumably mild HBOT and NBOT are going to pose less of a risk for cataracts than regular HBOT, due to the fact that blood dissolved oxygen levels in regular HBOT can be up to 20 times higher, whereas with mild HBOT and NBOT they will be only around 5 times higher.


It's possible that certain antioxidants may help prevent cataracts. Although this article indicates that vitamin E and vitamin C actually increase the risk of cataracts under normal conditions.

N-acetyl-carnosine eye drops may help prevent cataracts, although the evidence for this appears uncertain.

N-acetyl-cysteine amide eye drops are another attempt to prevent cataracts. These are a source of N-acetyl-cysteine, which increases ocular levels of the antioxidant glutathione. Some info here.

 

[Asklipia]

Thank you @Hip for putting this post together.
Unfortunately the NAC drops do nothing for me. Maybe the NACA will, when and if they become available.

 

[Asklipia]

I look forward to hearing more of your adventures @Hip, with the Vogvigo concentrator, should you decide to go that way.
It is next on my list of things to try.

 

[Asklipia]

Neither the cornea of the eye, nor the eye's crystalline lens (which is where cataracts develop) have a blood supply, so I am not sure how the increased oxygen of HBOT and NBOT will reach the crystalline lens, which is lies behind the cornea.

I think it goes with the lymph. Sorry the 'glymph' since Western science has decided there is no lymphatic activity there.

 

[Jesse2233]

@Hip is there anything in your research you've seen to support the notion that HDOT or mHBOT would be effective against a chronic enterovirus infection (beyond HBOT being broadly anti-viral)?

I'd asked Dr Chia this at our last apppintment, and he said no, but I'm not sure if he's familiar with the HBOT literature

 

[Hip]

@Hip is there anything in your research you've seen to support the notion that HDOT or mHBOT would be effective against a chronic enterovirus infection (beyond HBOT being broadly anti-viral)?

There's nothing I have seen that suggests HBOT might be antiviral for enteroviruses, and could not find anything anything to indicate that HBOT might broadly antiviral when I Google searched just now (where did you read that it has broad antiviral effects?)

I did just find this single patient case study on using HBOT to treat a Lyme patient though.

 

[Jesse2233]

@Hip I believe the anti-viral claims are in part based on a study that showed decreased HIV-load after HBOT

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/8825180/

 

[Hip]

yeah, I saw that study @Jesse2233, but it's an isolated study, and there was no indication that HBOT could increase CD4 cell counts in AIDS patients.

 

[Jesse2233]

yeah, I saw that study @Jesse2233, but it's an isolated study, and there was no indication that HBOT could increase CD4 cell counts in AIDS patients.

Yes that may be it for direct anti-viral HBOT lietrautre

Perhaps its broader effects on mitochondrial action allow for better NK cell function and thus increased activity against viruses, other pathogens, and autoimmunity

 

[Hip]

From a brief bit of Google searching, it seems if anything, HBOT suppresses immune responses, which may explain why its used to treat autoimmune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. A couple papers here and here.

 

[Jesse2233]

@Hip have you ever considered trying NSI 189 or Noopept? These are two neuroprotective compounds (along with other things) @62milestogojoe used to recover