Welcome to the world of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
Texas A+M University Hyperbaric Laboratory Case Study on Lyme Disease
The following is a excerpt from the study: The purpose of this study was to determine if hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) affects Lyme disease caused by the spirochete Borrelia burgdorferi. It is well known that this spirochete is a facultative anaerobic organism which cannot survive in a partial pressure of oxygen much greater than 35 mm Hg. It also is well known that when Lyme disease becomes chronic and the spirochete is sequestered in cells (particularly fibroblasts), the cell may protect the spirochete against the antibiotic which then is not fully effective. If the spirochete is exposed to oxygen at a partial pressure of 160 mm Hg or higher, it does not survive. This can be achieved by exposing the patient in a hyperbaric chamber to a barometric pressure.
We exposed a total of 91 subjects to hyperbaric oxygen therapy 75 of whom completed the study, at the above mentioned oxygen pressure for between 10 and 153 treatments. All except 7 of them experienced a significant improvement or cessation of symptoms, in some cases, lasting up to 6 years.
Based on our findings we believe that HBO is an effective way to treat chronic Lyme disease and that extending HBO treatments may relieve symptoms permanently.
When hyperbaric oxygen therapy was used to treat a 14-year old patient who had developed severe crippling inflammatory arthritis as a result of untreated Lyme disease, the result of hyperbaric oxygen treatment was that all pain disappeared after three weeks and the disease appeared to be halted after several months of treatment.
If you have a patient that needs hyperbaric services, or want more information, please contact us. We welcome the opportunity to consult with physicians and family about the benefits of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.