Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers
Dr. William Fife, a pioneer in undersea medicine first for the Air Force and now at Texas A & M University, has published extensive research demonstrating profound improvements in Lyme disease patients treated with HBOT. These improvements include pain reduction, return of clarity of the mind, and reduction of depression.
Dr. Fife was active with the HydroLab saturation diving research program funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration having spent 28 days in saturation in the habitat performing physiology experiments.
The first uses of hydrox, a gas mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is used as breathing gas in very deep diving are usually attributed to six ocean dive trials by the Swedish engineer, Arne Zetterstrom in 1945. Dr. Fife later showed that hydrox would allow divers to descend and work at great depths.
Dr. Fife also developed the first decompression tables for the use of the mixture. The French engineering company COMEX later applied Fife’s work in developing their HYDRA dive series.
Much of his other diving medical research was focused on women in diving and spinal cord decompression sickness.
Fife’s interest in clinical hyperbaric medicine lead to several research projects to look for new indications for the use of HBOT. It has been estimated that about half of the 2,000 patient treatments done by his lab were for research.
These projects included the treatment of:
- squamous cell carcinoma in mice with hydrox;
- migraine headache;
- Post-polio syndrome.
- Chronic Fatigue Syndrome;
- radionecrosis;
- brown recluse sites;
- non-union fractures;
- closed head injury;
- chronic Lyme disease.
In 1997, just after Dr. Fife retired from the Air Force, he began a year-long study at Texas A & M University about the benefits of treating Lyme disease with HBOT. A number of Chico, CA, Lyme patients traveled to Texas to take part in the study. Five of those patients showed such dramatic improvement after receiving HBOT that a group of Chico residents banded together in an effort to build a HBOT clinic closer to home. The Chico Hyperbaric Center is a result of that effort.
HBOT is a medical treatment that uses the administration of 100 percent oxygen at controlled pressure (greater than sea level) for a prescribed amount of time-usually 60 to 90 minutes. HBO therapy is commonly used to treat conditions such as burns and difficult or stubborn healing wounds.
HBOT increases the amount of oxygen in the body; which in turn causes several physiological changes that can result in accelerated healing. The basis for these changes is the fact that HBO therapy increases the amount of oxygen in the blood by up to 2000 percent, depending on the treatment depth. This, in turn, dramatically increases the amount of oxygen at the cellular level and creates other physiological changes. These changes can be extremely complex. One scientific research study indicates that Lyme bacteria are micro-aerophilic, or debilitated in high oxygen environments.
In the case of Lyme disease, William Fife, Ph. D., a Hyperbaric Medicine specialist at Texas A & M University (now retired), established the protocols for HBO treatment in his Texas A & M research project, to be discussed later. Dr. Fife’s Lyme disease protocol calls for HBO therapy to be administered at 2.36 ATA (Atmospheres absolute), or equivalent to a depth of 45 feet below sea level. Each treatment lasts one hour and two treatments are prescribed each day, five days per week.
The total number of treatments given in each case varies. It is common to administer 30 to 60 treatments in the first phase of treatment. The question of further HBOT therapy is then resolved after the patient’s condition is reevaluated. However, many believe that if the patient has been impacted by the first phase of HBOT, such as by experiencing a Herxheimer reaction (this can help to confirm Lyme bacteria die-off), then a break of three to six weeks should be taken followed by another 30 to 60 HBO treatments. A physician can prescribe more sets of HBOT based on the patient’s individual evaluation.
Working with Dr. Fife is Mitchell L. Hoggard is a pharmacist. He is also President and founder of the Chico Hyperbaric Center.
All three of his children have received HBO therapy for Lyme disease. Mitchell Hoggard’s son Ted was 14 years old when he took part in William Fife’s HBO research study on Lyme disease.
Are there risks?
HBO therapy is a medical procedure and like any other medical procedure, and there can be risks.
However, when HBOT is administered by trained health care individuals these risks are minimal. As with any medical procedure, the evaluation and understanding of the current health status of the patient is of prime importance. It is also critical that patients understand that HBOT does not work for everybody.
Minor ear discomfort is the most common inconvenience related to HBO therapy. It is helpful to remember that the initial stage of each HBO treatment is similar to sitting in an aircraft while it descends. Like the airline passenger, the patient’s ears have to adjust to a change in air pressure. The hyperbaric health care professional works with the patient or parent and teaches them various techniques on how to equalize pressure in the ears, such as swallowing.
If one cannot equalize the pressure in the ears, damage can occur to the eardrum. However, this is very rare. Some individuals who experience ear discomfort may require a procedure called a Myringotomy, or what is commonly called placing tubes in the ears. An ear, nose and throat specialist usually performs this outpatient procedure right in the doctor’s office.
Other complications can occur if a patient has lung abnormalities such as emphysema. However, with proper evaluation prior to HBOT treatment any concerns can be eliminated.
Why does HBO therapy show promise in helping Lyme patients?
First, we are reminded that Lyme bacteria are debilitated in high oxygen environments. Research by F. Austin demonstrated the effect of oxygen on the Lyme organism. The study suggests that the Bb organism is sensitive to high concentrations of oxygen at the cellular level, or what is termed, elevated tissue partial pressures.In other words, the Bb organism doesn’t do well in a biological environment similar to that created in the body during HBOT treatment.
It is also notable that in Dr. Fife’s study, all of the study’s participants were veterans of antibiotic therapy. These were adults and children who had tried and failed antibiotic therapy, including the big gun in the antibiotic arsenal: intravenous antibiotics. It appeared that the study had chosen the most difficult subjects to test. These were Lyme patients with chronic symptoms and most of them probably had nothing to lose. The fact that 85 percent of these Lyme patients showed improvement seems remarkable.
There are other benefits of HBOT that may play a role in treating Lyme disease, but were not mentioned in the Texas A & M study. Some of these benefits are theoretical and not proven; others are well known and considered established fact in Hyperbaric Medicine. Many of these additional benefits are based on the belief that HBO therapy and antibiotic therapy work in a synergistic manner. In this context, synergistic is defined as the combination of both treatments (HBOT and antibiotic therapy) being greater than the effect of either one alone.
Antibiotics and the immune system might not be able to adversely affect (or kill) Lyme bacteria for two distinct reasons.
First, it is believed that the Bb organism is able to switch from an active to a dormant (or sleeping mode) by coating itself in the body’s protein.
Secondly it is believed that the Bb organism can hide in the body’s cells.
Both tactics may result in the immune system failing to react to the Bb organism as a foreign organism that should be destroyed. Some believe that this has the effect of neutralizing the body’s defensive mechanisms and the offensive mechanisms employed by antibiotics.
The benefits of HBOT appear to be promising, although determining the exact mechanism of action that occurs in HBOT remains the most important aspect in the development of a reliable “cure”.
In general, a better understanding of the Lyme bacterium will enable us to develop new and better methods of treating this devastating disease.
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February 12th, 2010 at 1:51 am
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February 12th, 2010 at 7:42 am
Great endeavour. I’ve written a piece myself about Jenna’s Lyme Blog « Hyperbaric Oxygen Chambers Thanks so much for including me!