Treating Autoimmunity Symptoms with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help with the symptoms of autoimmunity that include fatigue, muscle aches and pains, stiffness, brain fog and many others that are associated with inflammation and neurological compromise.
Autoimmunity is a malfunction in our immune system that may lead to Encephalitis, Crohn’s, Ulcerative Colitis, Multiple Sclerosis, Diabetes type I, Rheumatoid Arthritis, or many others. In these conditions our immune system accidentally attacks your body instead of protecting it.
Common symptoms
Autoimmunity can cause a wide range of symptoms, but common symptoms include:
- Fatigue
- Muscle Aches and Pains
- Stiffness
- Brain Fog
- …and many others that are associated with inflammation and neurological compromise
How can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help your Autoimmunity?
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can help with the symptoms of autoimmunity that include fatigue, muscle aches and pains, stiffness, brain fog and many others that are associated with inflammation and neurological compromise. Of particular interest for these conditions is the way in which HBOT can stimulate new blood vessel growth (i.e. in diabetic patients) along with its powerful ability to reduce inflammation. HBOT improves your health by:
- providing abundant levels of plasma-rich oxygen to our tissue for healing
- reducing inflammation throughout our brain and body
- reducing swelling
- increasing fibroblast production which are critical to healing
- reducing scarring (fibrosis)
- increasing stem cell production for tissue repair
- improving detoxification
- increasing collagen production, which is the most abundant protein in the body and is a major contributor to the health of our joints, tendons, ligaments, muscles, bone, and skin.
- increasing flexibility of joints and muscles (by stimulating the hydroxylation of proline and lysine)
- stimulating osteoblasts that are essential for new bone production and repair.
- stimulating release of growth factors such as trophic factor to enhance repair and regeneration at the cellular level.
- stimulating growth of new blood vessels to supply tissue with greater circulation and oxygen to promote repair and regeneration by releasing greater amounts of vascular endothelial growth factor
- balancing our fight or flight and relaxation and digestion systems by strengthening the health of our autonomic nervous system, impacting blood flow within our brain that leads to dizziness, headaches, slow processing, memory changes and many other symptoms
- enhancing cerebrospinal fluid flow
Other benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a quickly evolving science and the full benefits are continually being discovered. HBOT increases the amount of oxygen in our bloodstream and increases circulation to deliver abundant amounts of oxygen to the brain, supersaturating our tissue with energy needed for healing, growth, and repair. This creates a healthier environment for our brain to work and control our autonomic nervous system. Because of this, the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy can be found in all parts of the body and in a wide range of ways. Some benefits can include:
- Faster healing from trauma
- Reduced inflammation
- Increased stem cell release
- Improved brain health
- Detoxification
- Improved autonomic nervous system function
- …and many more
Learn more about the many benefits of HBOT and how it works.
Supporting Research
- Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune disease mainly caused by autoreactive T cells, followed by neuronal demyelination and disabling paralysis (Chiou et al).
- Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) is a well-studied mouse model investigated for the MS pathogenesis and the efficacy of the therapeutic intervention. Conclusively, HBOT attenuated EAE through the modulation of T cell responses in an earlier stage (Chiou et al.).
- Our data demonstrated that HBO(2) therapy attenuated disease severity in NZB/W F1 mice. HBO(2) treatment may be of use in the clinical treatment of lupus patients and would benefit from further study (Chen et al.).
- These results indicate that the conditions of hyperbaric oxygen exposure used in this study are effective for reducing the levels of reactive oxygen species, which are overproduced during arthritis (Nagatomo et al.).
- This preliminary study suggests promising outcomes in treating mold-exposed patients with hyperbaric oxygen (Ezra et al.).
- HBOT remains one of the safest therapies used today (Heyboer et al.).
Sources
- Chiou HC, Huang SH, Hung CH, Tsai SM, Kuo HR, Huang YR, Wang JW, Chen SC, Kuo CH, Wu DC, Huang SK, Hsu SH, Lin MH. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Alleviates the Autoimmune Encephalomyelitis via the Reduction of IL-17a and GM-Csf Production of Autoreactive T Cells as Well as Boosting the Immunosuppressive IL-10 in the Central Nervous System Tissue Lesions. Biomedicines. 2021 Aug 2;9(8):943. doi: 10.3390/biomedicines9080943. PMID: 34440146; PMCID: PMC8391387.
- Chen et al. Early hyperbaric oxygen therapy attenuates disease severity in lupus-prone autoimmune F1 mile. Clinical Immunology, volume 108, issue 2, August 2003, Pages 103-110
- Efrati S, Gall N, Bergan J, Fishlev G, Bass A, Berman S, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen, oxidative stress, NO bioavailability and ulcer oxygenation in diabetic patients. undersea Hyperb Med. 2009; 36(1): 1-12.
- Nagatomo F, Gu N, Fujino H, Okiura T, Morimatsu F, Takeda I, Ishihara A. Effects of exposure to hyperbaric oxygen on oxidative stress in rats with type II collagen-induced arthritis. Clin Exp Med. 2010 Mar;10(1):7-13. doi: 10.1007/s10238-009-0064-y. Epub 2009 Sep 25. PMID: 19779965.
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