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Vicc · 02-27-2007, 05:44 AM

(Originally posted on another thread by InHisHands)

Hello, Vicc

I appreciate your replies to my various questions. I have a few regarding HBOT, if you wouldn't mind answering them.

I may have an opportunity to access HBOT, at an alternative medicine Doctor's office. My younger brother has autism, and so my family has worked with this Dr. before. If he feels comfortable treating someone with HBOT that has RSD, then I might give it a go.

I understand now a lot better why you feel HBOT is the only treatment for RSD if you are looking at it from an IRI standpoint.

In order to completely heal I understand that you need more than a few treatments. But, approx. how many? And how often? Is it a long term thing (months and months of treatment) or 4 weeks will do the job?

You speak of setting the HBOT chambers at certain depths... how do you tell a Dr. (who knows or at least thinks he knows what he is doing) not to set it at certain depths or to set it at a certain depths?

Since you claim it has been successful in others with RSD, how many others do you know who have had it and are doing better from it? Can you put me in contact with any? Are any here on this board?

Thanks again... I am willing to try just about anything about now... and HBOT sounds hopeful.

Hi again, IHH,

I’m sorry for the long delay in responding to your questions, it’s been a really difficult week but I’m recovering and at least able to type again.

I hope what you read here will be of some use to you, but I don’t think anyone will find it persuasive until you understand more about ischemia reperfusion injury, so I plan to devote most of my time and energy into a series of posts describing what it is and how it explains the signs and symptoms of RSD. I hope that after reading some of them, what I say here will be more useful in making informed decisions about treatment.

As I said earlier, IRI destroys microvascular systems (MVS), the arterioles, capillaries and venules that deliver arterial blood to all of our cells and returned “used” blood to the veins. It doesn’t destroy every MVS; if it did the result would be death by gangrene in a very short time as none of our cell would receive either of those essentials, but it randomly destroys enough to seriously affect cell functioning throughout the affected area(s).

Those areas with the most widespread damage show the most serious symptoms, which explains why some of us experience more pain than others and some of the rarer symptoms (such as hyperhydrosis), can be severe in some and absent in others. The fact that almost all of us are extremely hypersensitive to cold is one of the most significant signs that this is an IRI, and I will explain why in one of the first few posts in my campaign to show why the medical world is wrong.

Now, in response to your questions: the apparent mechanism of action of HBO is stimulation of vascular endothelial growth factor VEGF. This is why it is approved for the treatment of IRI, making it one of a very short list of disorders the FDA and the Dept of Health and Human Services (HHS) will allow hospitals to treat with HBO.

There is no research describing the long term effects of stimulation of VEGF by HBO, but there is enough science to warrant some basic assumptions, among them: The body may not have the ability to create unlimited supplies of VEGF on demand despite intense stimulation, and that artificial stimulation of VEGF could result in an adaptive response to the increased stimulation (the body may not respond to normal stimulation after prolonged artificial stimulation)

It is also likely that the creation of new MVS is limited by the body’s ability to marshal the necessary materials where they are needed and that it is reasonable to view new MVS as similar to new plant growth; that it takes time to mature and become fully functional.

These assumptions are based partly on what is known about the healing process in general, but are also upon the fact that little is known about the long-term effects of HBO in people who have undergone the therapy. We could expect that if the results were overwhelmingly successful the news would have gotten around by now. Some of the successful ones would have taken time out of their restored lives to tell others about their continuing remission.

.Since RSD/IRI, means that millions, or even more that a billion, MVS have been plugged and functionally destroyed, the assumptions I cite mean it will take time to create enough VEGF to begin the process of replacing all of them; time to marshal the necessary material, and; time for the new MVS to fully establish themselves.

This is why I believe that the delivery of 100% oxygen (O2) at 2.5 atmospheres (ATA) for 20 to 30 daily sessions – not an industry standard, but pretty typical for most free standing chambers - may actually be harmful to RSD/IRI patients in the long run: even the most intense stimulation of VEGF would be useless if the body simply can’t produce enough in just 30 days. If the body adapts to require increased stimulation in order to respond, this would mean less VEGF during the time directly following the end of HBOT.

There is an added problem with treating RSD/IRI using HBO: Oxygen free radicals (OFRs).

(OFRs are oxygen molecules that are missing one or more electrons. This makes them highly unstable and the only way to restore stability is to steal the needed electrons from a nearby molecule; turning that molecule into a free radical (FR) that must in turn steal electrons from another molecule.

(This chain reaction of thefts is what damages cells, and it can only be ended by a FR coming into contact with an antioxidant, which can surrender electrons without becoming a FR itself, or by two FRs coming into contact, which results in one being restored and the other becoming an entirely different molecule.

(OFRs always initiate these chain reactions. They are the weapon the immune system uses to destroy cells and pathogens during the non-specific immune response (NSIR) to pathogens and cell debris. In high concentrations, OFRs produce so many chain reactions the target is literally ripped apart. Our cells are attacked by OFRs as many as hundreds of times per day, but the cells are able to repair themselves when this happens. A significant increase of OFRs could destroy newly created MVS’ before they are fully established).

Most of the research into OFRs during HBO reports that as much as 15% of the O2 delivered in this way is or becomes OFRs. This has been recently disputed and is the source of some controversy among HBO researchers, but even if the percentage turns out to be much lower, I believe that the increase in OFRs is directly responsible for reports from many RSD/IRI patients who suffered catastrophic relapses after reporting initial improvement during HBO

This alone is sufficient to demand that the maximum ATA for us be no more than 1.5. I would point out, however, that those people who have undergone HBO after talking to me have taken the antioxidant grape seed extract (GSE) and none have suffered a catastrophic relapse. A sample of five is too tiny to mean anything, but the precaution of taking antioxidants before, during and after HBO seems wise to me.

I don’t think we will ever know the best therapeutic application of HBO for RSD/IRI, I certainly don’t know today. Based on the assumptions I’ve make, however, I can say what I would demand if I were able to access it.

I would begin at 100% O2 at 1.5 ATA for five days, then 50% at 1.5 ATA twice weekly for at least seven weeks (20 sessions) and would be prepared to continue even longer if significant symptoms remained, and to repeat HBOT if I began to show evidence of relapse at any time in the future.

It might be that RSD/IRI requires an even more conservative approach, but if the assumptions I’ve made do apply, a lower O2 percentage at a lower ATA should result in longer periods of remission.

Why would anyone want to consider such a time-consuming and expensive process if relapse is possible or even probable?

The short answer is that if RSD is IRI, the only route to recovery is replacement of those lost microvascular systems, and HBO is the only available treatment that specifically addresses this problem.

Also, compared with other procedures, HBO is relatively inexpensive: prices fluctuate wildly even in areas where several chambers are available, but it can still be obtained for about $350.00 per session. 20 sessions would cost $7,000.00 plus incidental costs of less than $500.00.

When you contrast this with the cost of other procedures, most of which reported significant initial successes that could not be replicated by later clinicians or researchers, 40 sessions for about $15,000.00 is not really that expensive.

This is only true, of course, if RSD really is IRI. You will be better able to judge this for yourself after reading just a few posts in my planned series…Vic