Stroke Recovery and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

By Sherri Hudson, CT

Holistic Family Health

. http://www.fhtid.com/

Stroke Recovery and Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy

Regardless of the type, all strokes deprive an area of the brain of blood flow and oxygen.  Within the brain, collateral blood supply is limited.  So in stroke, as a blood clot forms or travels to an artery and blocks it, the downstream area of the brain supplied by the artery becomes deprived of oxygen and nutrients.  Overall, about 800,000 strokes occur every year in the United States.  About one third of those patients die as a result, while the remaining two thirds live for years after, suffering from varying degrees of disability.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can be an extremely effective treatment that dramatically improves oxygen delivery to tissues throughout the body, increases levels of rejuvenating stem cells, wakes up damaged brain cells and stimulates production of new blood vessels.

What Is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is medicine’s most efficient method of transporting oxygen to cells throughout the body.  When you breathe oxygen at normal atmospheric pressure, it is transported on the hemoglobin in your red blood cells.  Under “pressure”, however, oxygen dissolves in the plasma, cerebrospinal fluid in the brain and spinal cord, lymph and other body fluids.  It is therefore easily delivered to all tissues and even areas with limited blood flow, which affords the tremendous healing benefits of oxygen.

HBOT also curbs infections by providing a hostile environment to anaerobic bacteria. Which thrive in the absence of oxygen.  It promotes the growth of new capillaries and blood vessels to areas with poor circulation for cardiovascular support and boosts collagen formation for faster wound healing.  It also mobilizes rejuvenating stem cells.

How Can HBOT Help In Acute Stroke?

Since the primary reason a stroke causes injury is oxygen deprivation of the brain, it makes sense that increased amount of oxygen can prevent further brain damage.  Hyperbaric therapy has shown to improve blood flow in areas of the brain thought to have been dead or permanently damaged and showed progressive neurological improvement.

The main target of activity of hyperbaric oxygen is the DNA of the cells.  HBOT is best delivered when a person is still receiving occupational, speech and physical therapy.  If the brain injury result from low blood flow, swelling, low oxygen, inflammation and the related factors that cause ischemic freeze, then it is critically important to reverse the ischemic freeze and reverse damaged neuron connections in the brain and stimulate to growth of new connections.

These statements have not been evaluate by the FDA these products are not intended diagnosis treat cure or prevent any disease.