Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is the process of breathing in pure oxygen within a special pressurized chamber. The process has been studied to help with those who have suffered from a stroke, have memory loss, and reduced comprehension. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for stroke is theorized to help with brain swelling, protecting brain cells and reducing the risk of further damage. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for strokes is suggested to also increase the likelihood of better recovery.
A Stroke’s Affect on the Body
Blood clots and cerebral hemorrhaging in the brain causes blood circulation to the brain to stop, which results in a stroke. This block from blood flow, which allows oxygen into the brain, causes immediate damage to brain cells and therefore body functions. Strokes cause a number of issues, such as numbness or loss of function within the arms, legs, and face, depletion of basic cognitive understanding, difficulty or lack of verbal communication, and instability that can lead to a lack of balance and coordination.
Why HBOT Makes a Difference
Why is oxygen, the most essential substance the body needs to survive, a treatment for stroke patients? Oxygen for stroke patients floods the cerebrospinal fluid, blood plasma, and lymph fluids with high levels of oxygen that one cannot breathe with normal atmosphere oxygen levels. This therapy brings down the swelling of parts of the brain, bones, and muscles that have been starved of normal oxygen levels. With these increased levels of oxygen, the brain is able to more quickly repair the damaged cells and regain functions lost due to the previous brain damage.
What it Helps With
The brain takes in about 20% of the oxygen you breath in. At normal cognitive functions, this allows your brain to operate a small amount of the brain cells it needs to function. However, these otherwise normal oxygen levels within the brain are not enough when there is neuro damage. For patients suffering from brain injuries, that occur with events such as strokes, their brain cells need even more oxygen to properly function. Oxygen therapy, therefore, helps the brain repair and work its basic functions with additional oxygen levels.
A study of patients post-stroke has been conducted to see which symptoms this oxygen therapy assists with. These patients, who underwent two-hour long treatments five days a week for two months, experienced increased neuronal activity. After these treatments, those suffering from issues relating to their stroke saw improvement in language abilities, increased sensation, and even reversal of paralysis.
What We Know So Far
Those these studies have had profoundly positive outcomes, they have been limited to small groups of patients and therefore are still in the experimental stage. Though proven to help people post-stroke, the long-term affects HBOT has on the brain functions is not yet known. At this time, though it is still an experimental treatment, it has the promise of altering the way stroke patients are treated.
For as long as injuries and maladies have existed, people have been searching for ways to alleviate them.
One sort of treatment that has come to prominence in recent years has been the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for stroke.But before making the choice to undergo this type of treatment, it’s important to understand several aspects of hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
In this article, we’ll look at several key questions:What is hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
What happens during a hyperbaric oxygen therapy session?What sort of effect does hyperbaric oxygen therapy have on the effects of a stroke?Let’s examine each of these in a bit more depth.What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?In short, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a type of therapy that involves being made to breathe pure oxygen in an environment that is more pressurized than usual.
Depending on how your appointment is structured, your hyperbaric oxygen chamber may accommodate only you, or a group of people, with each option producing the same benefits.During the typically two-hour-long session, the air pressure is increased anywhere from two to three times the normal air pressure.
The patient isn’t expected to do any activity during the process, so just relax and breathe deeply.Of course there are risks involved with any procedure, so although you’ll be monitored by a medical team for the duration of the appointment, it’s advisable to check with your GP to determine if hyperbaric oxygen therapy would be right for you based on your medical history.And prior to your appointment, you may want to check with the facility that will be administering the treatment on any specific methodology or preparation they may employ.
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