You may have heard about hyperbaric medicine, but what exactly is it? Essentially, hyperbaric therapy allows patients to experience heightened oxygen levels, breathed in through a closed chamber. Typically, air only has about 30% oxygen. If you want to promote better healing, breathing in pure oxygen for a short period of time can help. This is why the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy has proliferated throughout the U.S. as treatment for a wide variety of conditions. Let?s review.

Treatment of Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy

What is reflex sympathetic dystrophy? This is a chronic pain disorder. People with this disorder experience sensitivity to light touch and their symptoms will include everything from sweating to muscle atrophy. People often become depressed, especially because it becomes difficult to lead a normal life. Some people suffering from this have found oxygen to be a treatment of reflex sympathetic dystrophy. Treatment for RSD will not be the same for everyone, but this could potentially be a solution.

Lyme Disease

You may have heard more about Lyme Disease recently, as several celebrities have tried to spread awareness. Though the majority of people experience non-threatening symptoms for a few days (flu-like), in a minority of cases those who contract Lyme Disease (typically from an infected woodland tick) will experience everything from muscle weakness to memory loss. This is a condition known as “chronic lyme disease” and it can continue to appear for years and years. If not treated, the infection can continue to spread to the heart and nervous system. While antibiotics are sometimes successful for treating Lyme Disease, hyperbaric oxygen treatment can also be used to treat symptoms.

Treatment for Radiation Necrosis

Although successful treatment of cancer is a great thing, some of the remaining symptoms are not. Radiation necrosis, for example, can happen at the original tumor site once the tumor is removed. This complication is essentially a focal structural lesion and it can affect the nervous system for the long term. This can cause everything from cognitive decline to personality changes, as it basically takes out a section of the brain by causing ?bubbles.?

Do you think hyperbaric oxygen treatment centers could potentially be useful for the issues you are facing? Let us know!