Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT): General information and discussion of Home Units

Another thing, this 5 days on and 2 days off schedule, is it recommended due to medical reasons or is just because doctors and scientists normally don't work on weekends and patients want their weekends off? Of course, the body needs to recover and you should listen to it, but perhaps it is up to the individual and not a "scientific" fact or recommendation?

Have not seen any article about that in particular, I'll keep looking.
 
Still, she wants to able to do it, but is of course worried. All I could come up with was to go really slow and stay there until it is comfortable, and work her way up.

Any suggestions?
I had the same worries as Carola has. I have congested sinuses and my ears plug up on and off all day already. The first day in the HBOT, I had the person who was in the room there stop the pressure and .45 because of t he pain in my right ear. It would not clear. The next day we only put it up to .4 and I did better. The following day we did .45 again and I was okay, there was still pressure, but no pain. And from there on I've been able to do the .5. I still have ups and downs with the pain but it goes away after a few minutes once the unit reaches .5 so I think your idea of taking it very slow may work for her.

If she can stay at a certain pressure for a few minutes to see if the pain goes away, this could help. The ears seem to begin to become more accustomed to the pressure that way. At least, that's what I have discovered.
 
Ok, thank you all. I will pass it on to Carola. She is determined too.

She remembered that she had 5-6 severe ear infections during a short period of time as a kid (3-4 years old) and the docs decided to remove her adenoids(?) in her noise and then when she was 20 they took her tonsils. Well, maybe she can correct the underlying cause with the HBOT.

Yes, I had chronic ear infections all my life and several occasions where my ear drums ruptured.

I also used a nasal spray to help clear my ears and forgot to mention this. It's called Nasonex and has cortisone in it. I don't use it now, but did for the first few weeks of HBOT. Just one spray in each nostril per day.

Another thing, this 5 days on and 2 days off schedule, is it recommended due to medical reasons or is just because doctors and scientists normally don't work on weekends and patients want their weekends off? Of course, the body needs to recover and you should listen to it, but perhaps it is up to the individual and not a "scientific" fact or recommendation?

Have not seen any article about that in particular, I'll keep looking.

I think it is mainly because the researchers and doctors follow a normal work schedule with weekends off. But we did find that it helped in the beginning to take the two days off to let the body catch up with repair work that was initiated. I guess you could take just one day off or don't take any days off, depending on how you feel.
 
Yes, I had chronic ear infections all my life and several occasions where my ear drums ruptured.

I also used a nasal spray to help clear my ears and forgot to mention this. It's called Nasonex and has cortisone in it. I don't use it now, but did for the first few weeks of HBOT. Just one spray in each nostril per day.
Alright, then we have a few things she can try. I also bought something to clear any wax in the ear, just in case. I will try it myself because my left ear is it little bit wonky, no pain though.
I think it is mainly because the researchers and doctors follow a normal work schedule with weekends off. But we did find that it helped in the beginning to take the two days off to let the body catch up with repair work that was initiated. I guess you could take just one day off or don't take any days off, depending on how you feel.
My guess too, some websites are talking about doing it twice a day, but recommend 5/2 initially. For me it is just a huge change getting in and out of the chamber, so I'm a little achy just from doing that, otherwise I'm pretty ok.
 
During my first and second sessions in the HBOT, my left ear was doing the popping thing and my right ear was fine during the beginning the pressure changes and at the decompression. On the third session during decompression my right ear went nuts! Sharp pains for almost the whole time. I was not successful at accomplishing the hold nose and force pressure maneuver and had resorted to swallowing multiple times - perhaps 40+ per session.

I began to rethink how to accomplish a smoother transition during the up and down sequences. I noticed that I wanted to cup my ears to ease the sharp attacks. So this is now what I do every session:

As soon as the pressure starts I place both hands over my ears - fingers at rest towards the back of my head, elbow out front and my palms lightly resting over my ears. I then gently move my palms out and back (it doesn’t take much) very light suction - out and back - and it makes “wush/wee” sounds. I do not move my fingers just elbows and palms. I do this for the whole way during up pressure and the whole way down pressure. Just this small gentle motion mitigates the symptoms altogether. I do the palm in/palm out about every one to two seconds. I have had NO difficulties, no pain, hardly any ear crinkles - and a lot less swallowing! I hope this ‘technique’ helps others.
 
Another thing, this 5 days on and 2 days off schedule, is it recommended due to medical reasons or is just because doctors and scientists normally don't work on weekends and patients want their weekends off? Of course, the body needs to recover and you should listen to it, but perhaps it is up to the individual and not a "scientific" fact or recommendation?

I think it is mainly because the researchers and doctors follow a normal work schedule with weekends off. But we did find that it helped in the beginning to take the two days off to let the body catch up with repair work that was initiated. I guess you could take just one day off or don't take any days off, depending on how you feel.

For the most part, I've been doing 2 sessions a day with just the occasional day off. So far, I haven't experienced any adverse effects except for a few days of some real fatigue and some muscle soreness in the first couple of weeks, but for the last month or so I've been fine. I don't think I'm overdoing it, or at least I don't feel like I'm overdoing it, but if I start to get some indications that my body is being over taxed and needs more rest, then I'll slow it down. For now, it seems to be working for me.
 
For the most part, I've been doing 2 sessions a day with just the occasional day off. So far, I haven't experienced any adverse effects except for a few days of some real fatigue and some muscle soreness in the first couple of weeks, but for the last month or so I've been fine. I don't think I'm overdoing it, or at least I don't feel like I'm overdoing it, but if I start to get some indications that my body is being over taxed and needs more rest, then I'll slow it down. For now, it seems to be working for me.
Too much oxygen can overload the body's antioxidants and cause cell death especially of the lungs. Please read up on oxygen toxicity. Slower is better since it gives the body time to increase its cellular and tissue antioxidant defenses.

GoodRx Health said:
Signs of oxygen toxicity:

Pain when taking a breath
Coughing
Shortness of breath

These are signs that a person is developing inflammation and damage in their lungs. The signs usually happen when oxygen concentrations are higher than 50% and can usually start within 24 hours.

When someone is receiving hyperbaric oxygen, signs of oxygen toxicity include:


Visual changes
Ringing in the ears
Dizziness
Confusion
Hiccups

These symptoms usually start within a few hours and are more likely to happen when someone is receiving oxygen under higher pressures.
 
Too much oxygen can overload the body's antioxidants and cause cell death especially of the lungs. Please read up on oxygen toxicity. Slower is better since it gives the body time to increase its cellular and tissue antioxidant defenses.
Thank you for the info NewEngland Seeker. I've read the article and I think that it doesn't give enough verifiable information on oxygen toxicity, so I'll do more research about it. As far as the symptoms that they give like shortness of breath and coughing, well, it's the opposite. The shortness of breath and coughing that I had previous to starting HBOT, has greatly diminished and I don't experience any of that after the HBOT sessions, and I've never experienced any pain when taking a breath. As far as the other 5 symptoms, I don't have any of those what so ever. But again, I will research it some more.
 
For the most part, I've been doing 2 sessions a day with just the occasional day off. So far, I haven't experienced any adverse effects except for a few days of some real fatigue and some muscle soreness in the first couple of weeks, but for the last month or so I've been fine. I don't think I'm overdoing it, or at least I don't feel like I'm overdoing it, but if I start to get some indications that my body is being over taxed and needs more rest, then I'll slow it down. For now, it seems to be working for me.
Sounds like a good approach, I will read more about oxygen toxicity.
 
For the most part, I've been doing 2 sessions a day with just the occasional day off. So far, I haven't experienced any adverse effects except for a few days of some real fatigue and some muscle soreness in the first couple of weeks, but for the last month or so I've been fine. I don't think I'm overdoing it, or at least I don't feel like I'm overdoing it, but if I start to get some indications that my body is being over taxed and needs more rest, then I'll slow it down. For now, it seems to be working for me.
Have you tried a two hour session instead of two one hour sessions? I tried a two hour session once near the beginning, at only 1.2 ATA and it wiped me out for the next day, lots of napping. I took another day off to be sure. Lately though I have been doing one and a half hour sessions, and seem to be handling it OK, without Vitamin C beforehand. Have you noticed any physical changes? energy level? hair colour? libido? I have had odd pains/cramps here and there. Once I had a cramp in my left hand for no reason that I could see but it had lessened by the end of the day and was gone the next day. Same occurrence with joint and limb discomfort, transitory.
 
I wanted to provide an update that I have somewhat paused the sessions (done 35 so far) due to the extremely cold weather. Our house gets really cold and heating is expensive. I often wake up these days sneezing with blocked nose or sinus issues as the bedroom gets colder by the morning. We generally use a portable heater to heat up the bedroom and then turn it off before going to sleep.

In the morning, a quick walk to the living room to turn on the central heating is enough to start an episode of sneezing, runny nose etc leading to headaches and my day is pretty much ruined from there on. The HBOT unit blows cold oxygen in the nostrils which doesn't help the immediate condition even though the Oxygen-intake is helping. Overall, I do feel its making a difference and I am missing not doing it regularly. Hopefully, this winter will pass soon and I can get back to a normal routine.
 
Ok, did a quick search. Here is one article with one good (I think) NCBI reference. Second and third reference didn't seem relevant to me, or didn't catch my interest.


The article has the usual vague "may be" and "too much", when I looked at the first reference I didn't find anything to worry about considering the chambers we use and how long we use them in general.


I thought this was the most interesting...

Central Nervous System Toxicity​

CNS toxicity, as described originally by Bert, occurred at oxygen pressures of > 3 ATA. However, lower pressures may result in similar effects if exposure is prolonged, as shown in Fig 1. Early symptoms and signs are quite variable but twitching of perioral and small muscles of the hand is a fairly constant feature. Facial pallor and ‘cogwheel’ breathing are also often noticed, thought to be the result of intense peripheral vasoconstriction due to hyperoxia and diaphragmatic twitching respectively [5, 6]. If exposure is continued, vertigo and nausea, followed by altered behaviour, clumsiness, and finally convulsions result. The convulsions begin with a loss of conciousness and develop in three phases; a tonic phase with a generalized hypertonus lasting for about 1 min, a clonic phase with convulsion for about 2–3 mins and a post critical phase of about 10 mins. The patient has no memory of the crisis. A neurogenic pulmonary edema concomitant with the convulsions has also been reported [1]. CNS toxicity is hastened by factors such as raised PCO2, stress, fatigue and cold [2].
[IMG alt="An external file that holds a picture, illustration, etc.
Object name is gr1.jpg"]https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4925834/bin/gr1.jpg[/IMG]

Fig. 1
Predicted human pulmonary and central nervous system tolerance to high pressure oxygen

Pulmonary Toxicity​

Pulmonary toxic effect of oxygen can arise after prolonged exposure to oxygen > 0.5 ATA. Symptoms appear after a latent period whose duration decreases with increase in PO2. In normal humans the first signs of toxicity appear after about 10 hours of oxygen at 1ATA. Clinical features can be divided into three phases (a) Tracheobronchitis (b) ARDS (c) Pulmonary interstitial fibrosis. Absorption atelectasis due to washout of N2 can lead to collapse of parts of the lung in the event of air trapping.
100% oxygen can be tolerated at sea level for about 24–48 hours without any serious tissue damage. Longer exposures produce definite tissue injury. Oxygen at 2 ATA produces characteristic pulmonary signs and symptoms beginning with mild carinal irritation on deep inspiration 3–6 hours into the exposure, intense carinal irritation an uncontrolled cough after about 10 hours and finally chest pain and dyspnoea. Symptoms subside 4 hours after cessation of exposure in majority of patients [7].
 
Saturated oxygen under pressure is a powerful tool so knowing how this tool can cause harm is important. I have not noticed anyone being harmed by this therapy but being aware of its potential harmful affects will keep us safe. I am sure that taking antioxidants is protecting the body from free radical cell damage, especially of the alveoli and terminal bronchi, were the magic takes place. I also suspect that exercising afterward would flush any free radicals out of the lungs and move the oxygen saturated fluid deeper into the bones.
 
We got our( mine/Seamus) Zoy-tech 1.5 unit with external pressure gauge ( for 110V) and I was testing the unit and observed some things which other people who ordered similar configuration (@Thor , @aimarok and may be more ) to be aware.

  • @sid and @liam1310 has 1.5 ATA unit for ( 220V and no external pressure gauge ) and their unit reaches max pressure in 15 minutes
  • Ours ( 110V and with external pressure gauge) reaches max. pressure in around 22 min's as they told before( 20-25 min). That's OK . I asked for some clarifications of the difference and hopefully we get some.
  • Design Issue with CURRENT external pressure gauge configuration:
    • They put the external pressure gauge at the same port as that of internal pressure gauge. ( Vertical photo is Laims, horizontal one is ours).
    • seek10_seamus_unit.jpgLiams_unit.jpg
    • I don't know how these gauges work, but when I connect both the guage's (external and internal) , I need to SUM UP both the readings to get actual pressure. This is not practicable for me who is alone. They say I need to put only pressure gauge at a time after the fact.
      • If I put external pressure gauge alone, it reaches max in around 22 min. But I can't see reading as I am inside.
      • If I put internal pressure gauge alone, it reaches max in 30 minutes and can see. But they say, I need to replace the cap (without hole for external pressure guage) outside. But they didn't include cap without hole in the shipment. They say they will send separately.
  • Well, I ended up testing different configurations of pressure gauges ( Internal/external) and air cooler( with or with out ) burning lot of midnight oil ( China is 12 hrs ahead of usa). It took some time to find out my air cooler is not working as intended. So I was hoping they will send a replacement for it.
@Thor , @aimarok

You may want to insist on testing, share the results before they ship. This is to avoid the mistakes they did on ours and possible disappointment for you. I These issues are not show stoppers ( given the price competitiveness) , but can be avoided.


On the other side I had 5 Approx. 40 minute sessions as I was still in Testing of the unit mode. They have default time settings of ( 60 min, 90, 120 min). It actually doing some thing
  • I have some oven burns that still in wet pinkish stage when I started therapy. I was pleasantly surprised how fast they are healing.
  • I observed being very calm after few sessions. I had been in anxious state with ruminations of list to do for a year, which changes all the time. Some how anxiety part dramatically reduced.
  • tiredness and lots of sleep ( as every body else observed).
 
We got our( mine/Seamus) Zoy-tech 1.5 unit with external pressure gauge ( for 110V) and I was testing the unit and observed some things which other people who ordered similar configuration (@Thor , @aimarok and may be more ) to be aware.

  • @sid and @liam1310 has 1.5 ATA unit for ( 220V and no external pressure gauge ) and their unit reaches max pressure in 15 minutes
  • Ours ( 110V and with external pressure gauge) reaches max. pressure in around 22 min's as they told before( 20-25 min). That's OK . I asked for some clarifications of the difference and hopefully we get some.
  • Design Issue with CURRENT external pressure gauge configuration:
    • They put the external pressure gauge at the same port as that of internal pressure gauge. ( Vertical photo is Laims, horizontal one is ours).
    • View attachment 62710View attachment 62711
    • I don't know how these gauges work, but when I connect both the guage's (external and internal) , I need to SUM UP both the readings to get actual pressure. This is not practicable for me who is alone. They say I need to put only pressure gauge at a time after the fact.
      • If I put external pressure gauge alone, it reaches max in around 22 min. But I can't see reading as I am inside.
      • If I put internal pressure gauge alone, it reaches max in 30 minutes and can see. But they say, I need to replace the cap (without hole for external pressure guage) outside. But they didn't include cap without hole in the shipment. They say they will send separately.
  • Well, I ended up testing different configurations of pressure gauges ( Internal/external) and air cooler( with or with out ) burning lot of midnight oil ( China is 12 hrs ahead of usa). It took some time to find out my air cooler is not working as intended. So I was hoping they will send a replacement for it.
@Thor , @aimarok

You may want to insist on testing, share the results before they ship. This is to avoid the mistakes they did on ours and possible disappointment for you. I These issues are not show stoppers ( given the price competitiveness) , but can be avoided.


On the other side I had 5 Approx. 40 minute sessions as I was still in Testing of the unit mode. They have default time settings of ( 60 min, 90, 120 min). It actually doing some thing
  • I have some oven burns that still in wet pinkish stage when I started therapy. I was pleasantly surprised how fast they are healing.
  • I observed being very calm after few sessions. I had been in anxious state with ruminations of list to do for a year, which changes all the time. Some how anxiety part dramatically reduced.
  • tiredness and lots of sleep ( as every body else observed).

Well, it sure takes awhile to pressure up, but as long as it works, that's what counts.

I'm glad ours hits operating pressure at about 9 minutes.
 
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