Re: Oxygen therapy / Myths and Facts/Final Article

Hence, hemoglobin is lousy facilitator of HBOT? And respiration is minor factor.

Studies prove that total concentration of plasma concentrations can double with HBOT, but what does that mean? from 3% to 6% is real but how significant against certain diseases? See this research article:

Introduction

Over the past 40 years hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been recommended and used in a wide variety of medical conditions, often without adequate scientific validation of efficacy or safety. Consequently a high degree of medical scepticism has developed regarding its use. The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society approves use of hyperbaric oxygen for a few conditions for which there is thought to be reasonable scientific evidence or well validated clinical experience. In these conditions early referral is essential.

Hyperbaric oxygen has been shown nearly ineffective in diseases such as multiple sclerosis and dementia, but it continues to be used despite the risks of the treatment. For conditions where its use remains unprovedfor example, Rheumatoid Arthritis , cirrhosis, and gastroduodenal ulcerhyperbaric oxygen should be used only in the context of well controlled clinical trials.


Application

Hyperbaria is based on the concept of the relationship of gas pressure and uptake in liquids (blood, plasma and tissues). Henry’s Law states that “a gas is dissolved by a liquid in direct proportion to its partial pressure.” For example, at sea level, atmospheric pressure is 760 mm Hg, the oxygen concentration is 21% and the body’s oxygen content or partial pressure, pO2, in blood and plasma is ~ 40 mm Hg.

Red blood cells have a limitation as to how much oxygen can bind with hemoglobin. The plasma portion of the blood typically has about a 3% oxygen concentration.

By placing someone in a in a 3 psi pressure hyperbaric environment, the increase in atmospheric pressure at sea level goes from 760 mm Hg to 915 mm Hg. This increase in gas pressure, increases the partial pressure of the oxygen gas and thus forces more oxygen to be dissolved in the plasma. This saturation of oxygen in the blood, due to the Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment or HBOT, allows the extra oxygen to be diffused or transported to the surrounding body tissues, (in theory.)

Thus, oxygen transport by plasma is significantly increased under HBOT. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is designed to boost the supply of oxygen to ischemic tissues or to diseased tissues that respond to increased oxygen levels.

Increasing the volume of oxygen dissolved in the blood plasma produces five basic effects:

Reduction of volume of gas bubbles in the blood
Vasoconstriction, which reduces edema and secondary hypoxia
Restoration of aerobic metabolism to ischemic tissue
Detoxification of poisoned tissues
Enhanced phagocytosis

Henry’s Law- Henry’s law states that for a gas-liquid interface the amount of the gas that dissolves in the liquid is proportional to its partial pressure. So Henry’s law helps to predict how much gas will be dissolved in the liquid. The actual amount also depends on the solubility of the gas as well as its partial pressure.

Dalton’s Law-John Dalton observed that the total pressure of a gas mixture was the sum of the pressures of each of the gases if they were to exist on their own.

Over the past 40 years hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been recommended and used in a wide variety of medical conditions, often without adequate scientific validation of efficacy or safety. Consequently a high degree of medical scepticism has developed regarding its use. The Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society approves use of hyperbaric oxygen for a few conditions for which there is thought to be reasonable scientific evidence or well validated clinical experience. In these conditions early referral is essential. Hyperbaric oxygen has been shown ineffective in diseases such as multiple sclerosis and dementia, but it continues to be used despite the risks of the treatment. For conditions where its use remains unproved for example, Rheumatoid Arthritis , cirrhosis, and gastroduodenal ulcerhyperbaric oxygen should be used only in the context of well controlled clinical trials.

The amount of oxygen dissolved in plasma is roughly 3% of overall total oxygen. Under higher partial pressure blood plamsa levels were seen to increase by 200%.

This seems rather significant until we realize that a 200% increase means plasma now is able to hold 6% of overall available oxygen, still a minimal amount with respect to overall usage.

This figure may help to explain and characterize why HBOT has not more widely accepted applications and would explain why oxygen deficient pathologies respond slowly or not at all to HBOT.

Maximizing plasma O2 to an upper limit of only 6% of total oxygen consumption would seem to explain these mixed outcomes being reported around the world for various diseases.

Conclusion

Our study indicates that increasing blood plasma oxygen using HBOT is certainly achievable, but only to certain and limitted extent.

Reports that oxygen increases plasma oxygen by 1,000 fold could not be substantiated and does not play out with respect to laws of physics and Henry's Law.

Other factors were also seen to affect blood oxygen and plasma concentrations of oxygen. These were Ph, temperature, cardiace output, fat metabolism vs carbohydrate, dissolved metabolites, vitality of lungs, depth of respirations, and hydration, all will all affect the total amount of oxygen that can be dissolved into plasma.

These variables and limitations would explain why theoretical applications have not provided us with expected and consistent results we have hoped for and had once predicted.

The greatest benefit we have seen in our study, by far, is with injury repair, wound repair, cerebral damage and repair, and detoxification. The wounds that were external to the skin, showed greatest the impact and suggests that plasma oxygen is not the only means that HBOT accelerates wound healing.

The overall impact upon chronic illnesses and changing these outcomes of these illenesses was modest affect, (at best.) the results were also inconsistent from one subject to the next, and requires additional research to predict more exact outcomes.

In our animal controlled studies, rabbits that were exposed to varying kinds of stressors and metabolic circumstances did not utilize available oxygen equally.
These animals did not absorb oxygen equally as well, so as to suggest that understandibly several factors will affect Henry's Law.

Under these circumstances, HBOT was seen to have no appreciable impact upon absorbtion and utilization of oxygen and therefore did not impact several illnesses thought to be oxygen sensitive pathologies.

So, while increasing plasma concentrations of oxygen is achievable in most subjects, the process is not consistent between subjects, is not utilize consistently between subjects, and may be limitted by the fact there is an upper limit as to the total amount of dissolved oxygen blood plasma can even transport.

Further study is needed to address these variables and how they impact certain diseases, how we can address these hurdles with new interventions, but more importantly how we can maximize the benefits associated with increased pp O2 in plasma.

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