Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Can Offer Relief for Nerve Damage & Neuropathy
The number of Americans suffering from nerve damage is estimated to be roughly 20 million.
What is nerve damage?
Nerve damage, also called peripheral neuropathy, is a general term for nerve diseases that affect the nerves outside the brain or spinal cord. These nerves are called peripheral nerves, and they send messages from the brain and spinal cord to the rest of the body. Examples of these messages are (1) my feet or cold or (2) move the muscles necessary to walk forward.
When peripheral nerves are damaged, the brain’s ability to communicate with muscles and organs is negatively affected.
What causes nerve damage?
Peripheral neuropathy can occur for many different reasons such as:
- Unmanaged type 2 diabetes
- Excessive use of alcohol, especially over long periods of time
- Autoimmune disorders like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis
- Inflammatory conditions such as Guillain-Barré syndrome
- Deficiencies in certain vitamins and nutrients
- Exposure to medications and toxins like chemotherapy
- Genetic conditions
- Cancerous and noncancerous tumors
- Infections from viruses like Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease
- Injuries and damage from an accident or surgery
Symptoms of Nerve Damage:
Nerve damage can cause a variety of symptoms ranging from mild to severe. The type of and intensity of the symptoms will depend on the number and location of affected nerves. The symptoms of peripheral neuropathy are categorized into:
- Motor such as muscle weakness and paralysis, muscle atrophy, and uncontrolled muscle movements
- Sensory such as tingling, numbness, imbalance, and pain
- Autonomic such as blood pressure changes, excessive or limited sweating, bowel and bladder issues, and sexual dysfunction
How is nerve damage treated?
Nerve damage is treated differently depending on its cause and the patient’s medical history and personal preferences. It’s essential for patients to work closely with their healthcare provider to construct a treatment plan that will heal and manage their pain as effectively as possible. Common treatments for neuropathy include certain medications, surgery, physical therapy, mobility devices and more. Sometimes these medical interventions can successfully relieve neuropathy symptoms. Sometimes they can’t… in the cases of intractable nerve pain or neuropathy there are new innovative solutions – such as Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy!
How can hyperbaric oxygen therapy help patients with nerve damage?
In addition to traditional treatment options, hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can be utilized to help patients with neuropathy. Exposing patients to higher than usual atmospheric pressure and supplemental oxygen can trigger nerve growth and regeneration through enhanced blood flow and oxygenation to the damaged areas. A recent study showed that HBOT alleviated neuropathic pain by increasing spinal autophagic flux, effectively providing pre-clinical evidence that HBOT is a safe clinical treatment for nerve damage.
Specifically these are the neuropathy symptoms that HBOT can relieve:
- Pain relief: HBOT can reduce neuropathic pain by increasing the amount of oxygen in tissues, which can reduce cell death. HBOT can also help with pain conditions that involve deep tissue hypoxia, like chronic regional pain syndrome (CRPS).
- Tissue healing: HBOT can help with tissue damage and wounds that are slow to heal. It can also stimulate the growth of new blood vessels, which helps the body deliver more oxygen and nutrients.
- Nerve conduction: HBOT can improve nerve conduction velocity in the affected limb.
- Blood marker levels: HBOT can lower inflammatory blood marker levels.
The Chill Cryotherapy HBOT is an incredibly comfortable and relaxing experience that can help to not only relieve neuropathy symptoms – but actually reverse nerve damage! We are now offering 60 minute HBOT treatments at 1.3 to 1.5 ATA.. We are seeing incredible results for our patients with neuropathy and many other chronic pain, inflammatory and age-related issues!