Treating Dysautonomia with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Dysautonomia refers to a group of medical conditions that impact the autonomic nervous system (ANS). The ANS controls involuntary functions such as heart rate, blood pressure, breathing, and digestion. It maintains proper blood circulation to the areas of our brain and body when and where we need it. We only have 5-6 Liters of blood, which is not enough to be everywhere at once. If you stood up and didn’t have a functioning ANS, all of your blood would pool in your legs and gut and wouldn’t reach your brain.

Common conditions

• Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS)
• Postural Hypotension
• Orthostatic Intolerance
• Vasovagal Syncope
• Inappropriate Sinus Tachycardia (IST)
• Autoimmune Autonomic Ganglionopathy
• Baroreflex Failure
• Familial Dysautonomia
• Pure Autonomic Failure
• Multiple System Atrophy

Common symptoms

Dysautonomia can cause a wide range of symptoms, but common symptoms include:

• Brain Fog
• Dizziness
• Dizziness Upon Standing
• Lightheadedness
• Fatigue
• Cold Hands, Feet or Limbs
• Anxiety
• Hypertension
• Headaches
• Migraines
• Gastro-Intestinal Disturbance
• Chronic Pain

How can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help with Dysautonomia?

The ANS resides primarily in your brain stem, but receives inputs from multiple areas of our brain and through sensors in our blood vessels, heart, and lungs, known as mechanoreceptors and chemoreceptors, which sense changes in blood volume so that we can pump more or less blood depending on need. A healthy functioning brain is necessary for a healthy autonomic nervous system to maintain proper blood flow to our brain and body systems, which can be improved through hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy specifically works on the autonomic nervous system by exercising this system and balancing our sympathetic and parasympathetic systems to ensure we’re able to handle stress better, reducing fight/flight activity, reducing anxiety, and ultimately providing adequate, long-term blood flow to our brain.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may be helpful due to its ability to improve brain tissue function and signaling within the autonomic nervous system through:

• providing abundant levels of plasma-rich oxygen to our brain tissue for healing
• reducing neuro-inflammation throughout our brain and body
• stimulating release of growth factors such as trophic factor to enhance neuroplasticity for the repair and regeneration of brain cells and their connections (synapses).
• stimulating growth of new blood vessels to supply the brain with greater circulation and oxygen to promote brain 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, which impacts blood flow within our brain that may lead to cardiovascular changes (commonly elevated heart rate), dizziness, headaches, slow processing, memory changes, temperature changes, easily stressed or overwhelmed, and many other symptoms.
• increasing stem cell production for healing
• improving detoxification
• enhancing cerebrospinal fluid flow