The application of oxygen under pressure to the body
Oxygen is a vital substance that allows our cells to produce energy and to sustain life. The average person usually has a level of about 98% oxygen in their blood. The highest that level can go is 100%. While breathing pure oxygen the level can only go to 100%. When a healthy patient breathes pure oxygen, it results in a state called vasorestriction, meaning that once the vessel walls and surrounding tissues are saturated with enough oxygen, the vessels restrict to reduce the amount of oxygen that they deliver. This is the reason that only so much oxygen can get through to where it is needed.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) delivers oxygen by other means, not just the blood. Oxygen under pressure is carried to damaged tissue by all bodily fluids. These include plasma, lymphatic fluid, cerebrospinal fluid and the fluid between the cells. These are the methods that oxygen can get to areas shut off by the blood vessels.
The other way is called angiogenesis. This is the actual growth of new vessels. This has been proven by Doppler testing of the blood flow to the damaged area. The growth of new vessels is extremely important in the healing of wounds and damage to the extremities of diabetic patients. Average time to begin this growth is approximately 20 treatments and they become permanent after approximately 40 treatments.
Canadians face hundreds of amputations a year caused by diabetes. HBOT is a viable alternative to that. European doctors routinely use HBOT to vastly reduce such outcomes. The use of HBOT is beginning to be used more often in the U.S.A.
