Oxygen Therapy- The Handbrake for Multiple Sclerosis
Before outlining the benefits of high dosage oxygen therapy for those with the condition of multiple sclerosis it must be understood that this therapy is not a cure for this condition. The main aim is to stabilize the patients condition and improve the quality of life. This is why it is often termed as the ’Handbrake’ for MS.
After HDOT treatment many MS patients report improvement in their overall symptoms and their function ability. Patients have reported improvements with their ataxia, numbness in their fingers and hands, balance, visual fields, concentration, pain, weakness, fatigue and dizziness. It has been shown that most often improvement in bowel and bladder disorders.
HDOT should be initiated as soon as possible as the condition is diagnosed and before irreversible lesions have become established. However this does not mean that patients with a diagnosis longer than 5 years will not benefit.
Oxygen is the healing element in the atmosphere e.g. if you cut your finger the blood vessels are torn, this reduces the flow of blood and the oxygen reaching the tissues slowing down recovery. Wounds that could take weeks to heal may heal many times faster if extra oxygen is given -oxygen speeds recovery.
Recent research in the University of Dundee has shown that with inflammation that is typical of MS, the transport of oxygen is severely limited by tissues swelling. It has shown that there is a severe lack of oxygen in the affected areas during an ‘MS flair’ so that when oxygen is needed most to reduce swelling and help prevent scarring or plaque formation, it cannot reach the tissue in sufficient quantity. With the help of extra oxygen, the bodys ability to heal and limit some of the damage the disease causes is possible. When we breath pure oxygen at normal pressure we take in 100% but expel 80% as we only accept 20% that runs along the blood steam.
A hyperbaric chamber is needed to increase the concentration of oxygen from 5 to 10 times. If we pressurize your body and then give you 100% oxygen the extra oxygen is absorbed into the tissue.Many studies have taken place throughout the world on the benefit of oxygen therapy and reports from four countries including America and Italy found that there was less deterioration of cerebellar function in the treatment groups involved.