Hyperbaric oxygen therapy improves neurocognitive post-Covid functions, symptoms
nature.com
nature.com
Really hope this lives up to what it seems it might.My wife's biggest COVID19 fear is 10 to 20 years from now and a lot of people are seeking medical help because what they called a cold back in the day deposited so many blood clots throughout their bodies that they have organs and muscle tissue all looking like swiss cheese from those clots suffocating tissue areas and have probably had a few strokes between today and their future visit.
However, we must be careful how we interpret them. One key feature of all the studies I've seen with significant positive results is that some subgroup with psychiatric co-morbidity improved. In this article they list many as references 16-19. But I will highlight 14. The title alone should make you think something is up
"Hadanny, A. et al. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy can induce neuroplasticity and significant clinical improvement in patients suffering from fibromyalgia with a history of childhood sexual abuse-randomized controlled trial. Front. Psychol. 9, 2495. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02495 (2018)." [emphasis added by me].
Back to this study, it in particular notes improvement in depression/anxiety/somatization scores, that's the second most significant change, second to pain interference. Depression and anxiety are self explanatory, but somatization is the tendency to experience mental distress as physical symptoms. Pain interference is the degree to-which pain impairs function (working, looking after youself, social interactions etc).
It cites prior studies showing benefits to those with chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyaldia and post-traumatic stress disorder. All conditions with significant co-morbid psychiatric conditions.
So is HBOT a treatment for depression/anxiety, or is it a treatment for a variety of conditions? Is depression the common mechanism of these conditions?
The game was to take patient something like 300' below sea level (hyperbaric) and then a) start the antibiotics and b) turn on the oxygen flow. The high pressure drives oxygen deep into the tissues, where it would otherwise not penetrate at sea level pressures.
He was working with a 14-gurney chamber at an Air Force base, using an experimental discovery system we were co-developing at the time.
Just watched my mom's 98 year old friend get finished off with nasal oxygen (~week ago). Once she'd been on it for a day couldn't go without it. If the goal was to extend her life, they would have incorporated the antidote to oxygen toxicity.
I call it #MedicalHyperventilation [0], but afaik my term hasn't taken off.
[0] https://www.taxiwars.org/2021/06/folly-medical-hyperventilat...
But they are still at atmospheric pressures, this research is on a combination of high oxygen (hyperoxia) and high pressures (hyperbaric), which leads to much higher partial pressures of oxygen within the body according to Dalton's equations[1].