Chronic Diseases and Pain

Fibromyalgia (FM) or fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a chronic pain disorder. Symptoms include widespread or localized muscle and joint pain, stiffness, swelling, and tenderness. Most people with fibromyalgia experience fatigue, sleep disturbances, headache, anxiety, and memory problems. Some also report high sensitivity to noises, lights, smells, and temperature changes.
Female sufferers of fibromyalgia outnumber males by about 9 to 1. It is the second most common illness presented to rheumatologists, led only by arthritis. Researchers estimate that 75 percent of fibromyalgia cases go unreported. [ Mayo Clinic Proceedings, 2011 ]
Fibromyalgia has no known cause. Researchers have observed abnormalities of central nervous system processes and imbalances of brain chemicals and growth hormone. People with fibromyalgia may have three times the normal concentration of Substance P, a spinal fluid chemical that amplifies pain signals. Many patients attribute the onset of fibromyalgia to a particular injury, illness, or traumatic event. The condition does not progress and does not damage bones, joints, or tissues.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) has been shown to reduce the pain and tenderness associated with fibromyalgia and other chronic pain disorders. Some researchers believe HBOT also changes brain function associated with chronic pain conditions.

Lupus is a chronic disease with a variety of symptoms caused by inflammation in one or more parts of the body. It is estimated that it affects more than 50,000 Canadians and 1.5 million Americans. Lupus is not contagious and is not related to AIDS or cancer. It belongs in the family of diseases that includes rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, juvenile diabetes, and scleroderma.

Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is an incurable disease of the central nervous system. “Sclerosis” refers to scarring of the white matter of the brain and spinal cord. MS usually strikes young adults and in time can render a person unable to write, speak, and walk. Some 400,000 Americans live with MS, and 200 more are diagnosed every week. About 80% of people with MS experience cycles of remission and relapse.
In multiple sclerosis the body’s own immune system attacks the lines of communication between nerve cells. But scientists don’t know the root cause of this mechanism. Over the past two decades, extensive international medical research has demonstrated that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can play an extremely important role in the treatment of MS. In many European countries, HBOT is now considered an integral part of the MS treatment program – in England alone, over 10,000 MS patients are currently receiving hyperbaric oxygen treatment.
Many MS people report improvements in their overall symptoms and their functional ability. Patients have reported improvements with their ataxia, numbness in their fingers and hands, balance, visual fields, concentration, pain, weakness, and dizziness.
The medical community has been rather slow to accept HBOT as an alternative therapy for multiple sclerosis (MS). However, there is scientific evidence to suggest that oxygen treatment does have beneficial effects for MS sufferers, and increasingly doctors worldwide are recommending it as part of their patients’ care plans.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatments should be initiated as soon as the condition is diagnosed, and before irreversible lesions have become established. This does not mean that patients whose diagnosis was determined more than five years previously will not benefit.
Why is HBOT so effective for MS?
HBOT consists of administering pure oxygen under pressure. There is oxygen in every breath we take, but only 21% of it. In a hyperbaric chamber, you breathe in 100% oxygen at up to 2 times the normal atmospheric pressure.
The heightened pressure conditions allow the extra oxygen to dissolve in the blood plasma, enabling all areas of the body to become flooded with it, including those where circulation is poor or blocked.
Oxygen is essential to all body tissues, particularly injured ones that require oxygen to heal. Extra oxygenation through HBOT is proven to accelerate the healing process and reduce inflammation. Inflammation in the central nervous system is a signature characteristic of MS, which is one of the reasons why HBOT can retard the progression of the illness. HBOT is also known to boost energy, promote faster recovery from fatigue, reduce pain, and improve concentration and mental clarity, thus alleviating many of the symptoms of MS.

Emerging research confirms that neuropathy is primarily caused by a lack of oxygen. This can be the result of poor blood circulation, pinching of sciatic nerve or its local blood supply, too much glucose in the blood, or toxic chemicals (prescription drugs, pesticides, cleaning solvents or substance abuse) creating excessive free radicals that negate available oxygen. When the nerve cell is deprived of oxygen it contracts, making itself smaller to conserve oxygen and this enlarges the gap (synaptic junction) between nerve cells. Nerve cells do not come into contact with one another. A nerve impulse must jump across this gap. When the gap gets too big, the electrical nerve impulse cannot make the transition across this gap, and nerve function is impaired.
Of the estimated 20 million people in the United States with diabetes, 3 million struggle with DPN – and even patients with pre-diabetes and impaired glucose (blood sugar) tolerance may have symptoms. The older the person is, the longer he or she has had diabetes, and the less-controlled the disease, the greater chance of feeling pain because of damaged nerves.
Fifty percent of patients with long-standing diabetes have numbness, burning, electrical sensations, stabbing, or shooting pain in their feet or legs—and it’s usually worse at night. While the pain is uncomfortable, the lack of sensation can have even worse consequences. If a person’s shoes fit improperly, are too tight, have rough spots inside, or rub when the person walks, the blisters, abrasions or cuts may not be felt. Because circulation is not as good as it is for people without diabetes, these wounds can become infected and very difficult to heal.
When prescription pain medications are administered, the primary goal is to numb the nerve roots at the level of the spine. In this way, the pain signals cannot reach the brain thus these dysfunctional nerve signals are not perceived as pain. In time the body becomes resilient to medications, requiring periodic dosage increases. This leads to numbness in the extremities, fuzzy thinking and loss of perception of knowing where your feet are in time and space. These symptoms can mimic Alzheimer’s and compound your medical situation.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy has been known to be effective in controlling and reversing the pain and dysfunction associated with diabetic and non-diabetic neuropathies of the arms, hands, legs and feet. Hyperbaric oxygen promotes healthy nerve function through healing instead of pain cover-up.

Hyperbaric oxygen:

• Reduces swelling, increases energy production for nerve restoration
• Eliminates inflammation, allowing healing to occur
• Improves blood cell health, thus improving oxygen carrying and delivery efficiency
• Greatly enhances white cell killing of unfriendly bacteria and some fungi at high oxygen pressures
• Facilitates elimination of bone infections
• Reduces the number of operations and deaths associated with poor circulation related tissue infections
• Extremely important is its stimulation of new capillary and vessel growth, promoting nerve health
• Finally, it promotes better tissue survival and healing of damaged tissue

Rheumatoid Arthritis is a painful inflammation and stiffness of the joints. A chronic pain disorder afflicting some 19 million adult Americans, arthritis is the leading cause of disability in the US. The most common types are osteoarthritis (OA) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), but arthritis comprises more than 100 other inflammatory diseases and conditions, including fibromyalgia, gout, and lupus.
The definitive causes of arthritis are unknown. In osteoarthritis, or degenerative joint disease, the cartilage, surrounding tissue, and bone may be destroyed by physical wear, infection, or aging. In rheumatoid arthritis, a faulty immune response may cause inflammation that erodes the joint linings called synovial membranes. There is no cure for arthritis. Many people with arthritis successfully manage or improve their quality of life with physical therapy, exercise, weight control, and medications.
International studies are finding that hyperbaric oxygen therapy is markedly superior to the routine treatment of RA. In 1995, the Proceedings of the Eleventh International Congress on Hyperbaric Medicine published the results of one particular study.
These results indicated the following effects of hyperbaric oxygen on the disease:

• Remission: 23.4%
• Obvious effect: 51.4%
• Improvement: 16.2%
• No effect: 8.1%

The total summarized effective rate of hyperbaric oxygen in treating RA was 91.9%. The authors of the study concluded, “In the treatment we find that hyperbaric oxygen is markedly superior to the routine treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.”
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has become a standard of practice for RA in many countries. Clinical practice has proved that hyperbaric oxygen therapy has good effects on analgesia, lowering blood sedimentation rate, stabilizing immunologic function, and strengthening the body’s resistance for eliminating pathogenic factors. It is also beneficial for the repair of the diseased joints.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has actually been found to inhibit the development of the disease process. HBOT can suppress inflammation due either to immune factors or infection. Moreover, daily hyperbaric oxygen therapy suppresses the inflammatory response even if the disease is fully developed; however, the treatment of RA with hyperbaric oxygen therapy is more effective in the early stages of the disease.

​Complex Regional Pain Syndrome, CRPS, formerly known as RSD Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, is a progressive disease of the Autonomic Nervous System, and more specifically, the Sympathetic Nervous System. The pain is characterized as constant, extremely intense, and out of proportion to the original injury. The pain is typically accompanied by swelling, skin changes, extreme sensitivity, and can often be debilitating. It usually affects one or more of the four limbs but can occur in any part of the body and in over 70% of the victims it spreads to additional areas.
CRPS can follow a simple trauma (fall or sprain) a break or fracture (especially wrist and ankle) a sharp force injury (such as a knife or bullet wound), heart problems, infections, surgery, RSI/CTS, spinal injuries/disorders, or major trauma. But the precipitating cause is not always known. The original injury may happen weeks, months, or even years before the proper diagnosis is made, which contributes to this problem. CRPS strikes both men and women, but typically about 75% of patients are women. It strikes victims from 1 to 101, although about 65% of patients contract the disease in their thirties and/or forties.
There are four Main Symptoms/Criteria for a diagnosis of CRPS: constant chronic burning pain, inflammation, spasms-in blood vessels and muscles of the extremities, and insomnia/emotional disturbance (including limbic system changes). Not all four symptoms are required for a diagnosis but most patients do have at least three out of the four at any one time.
CRPS is ranked as the most painful form of chronic pain that exists today by the McGill Pain Index.
Hyperbaric oxygenation decreases inflammation and edema while increasing blood flow to the starved limbs and nerves that are damaged by the course of the disease.