Can using oxygen make PCS worse?
 

I started doing small amounts of oxygen at home a week and a half ago. Haven't done it every day. My sleep has gotten worse (not as deep) and my brain function is noticeably worse. I thought oxygen was supposed to help with PCS.

Has anyone else with TBI or PCS used oxygen? If so, did you feel better or worse?

When people talk of using oxygen in a therapeutic situation, it is in medically supervised Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) This is in a chamber where the air pressure is increased to cause better transfer of oxygen across cellular membranes.

Self treatment with oxygen has never been discussed here. Did you do this under the direction of a doctor or did you just use someone elses oxygen system ?

When do you do this ? During sleep ?

The oxygen was prescribed by my internist. He thought I would be a good candidate for it because I also have chronic fatigue syndrome and haven't been able to exercise. He does have a hyperbaric chamber and said he has had mixed results using it for PCS, but I don't think I could handle the pressure in my head.

I am not surprised. Most of the hype for oxygen comes from those who have a business interest in using it. The patients are paying to be part of this anecdotal research.

Properly done, the pressure should be increased slow enough to not cause a problem. But then, do you have the money to pay for 60 to 80 treatments with a chance of a slight improvement ?

Sorry, I should have been more clear. I haven't tried HBOT. I've been breathing oxygen with a mask and tanks at home. It's very inexpensive (only $40/month) and I don't get it from my doctor.

The functional neurology chiropractor I saw said the two things the brain needs are glucose and oxygen, and recommends that I do the oxygen while doing the vision exercises he gave me to do at home.

I'm starting on a very low dose (2 liters/minute) for a short time period (10-15 minutes/day). I do seem to feel better after the oxygen, but the benefit tapers off after a few hours. Although there seems to be a temporary benefit, I've been feeling worse in general over the past couple of weeks and am wondering if the oxygen could be causing that. So I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried this type of oxygen.

"...I'm starting on a very low dose (2 liters/minute) for a short time period (10-15 minutes/day). I do seem to feel better after the oxygen, but the benefit tapers off after a few hours. Although there seems to be a temporary benefit, I've been feeling worse in general over the past couple of weeks and am wondering if the oxygen could be causing that. So I'm just wondering if anyone else has tried this type of oxygen.[/QUOTE]"

CBS, I am a Respiratory Therapist. It's important to know if you are actually using a mask that fits over your face, and not a nasal cannula that just goes in your nose. If it is a mask, then at 2 liters/minute you are not flushing out your carbon dioxide from the mask when you breathe out, and you are rebreathing back in that same carbon dioxide. The CO2 builds up and WILL cause you to feel worse. You are basically smothering yourself. Run that mask at LEAST 5 l/m. Oxygenation and Ventilation are 2 different actions of the cardio-respiratory system.

Better yet, get a nasal cannula instead of a mask, it's okay to run that at 2 L/M.

Here is a link that gives the range of side effects of CO2 : http://www.livestrong.com/article/21...n-dioxide-gas/

Oxygen is used up by the body's organs and tissues within minutes; just 10 minutes of therapy is unlikely to have lasting effects. Your oxygen tank would probably run out within a few hours, depending on its size and the liter flow, changing that out all the time would be $$$. Use an oxygen "concentrator" (machine that makes it's own O2) if you decide to keep using O2 for your exercises.

So what I'm saying is that the oxygen itself probably isn't hurting, but how you are using it probably is.

I find many people that like to sleep with their blankets over their head; the same effect happens. (Just puttin' that out there for people...) I used to do that, too, when I was a kid but I realized I felt better if I had my nose stuck out. When you are being "smothered" by this, some side effects can be headaches, fatigue, irritability, high blood pressure, some confusion. For years now I just put a very lightweight down pillow over my upper head, blocks out noise and light, works great.

Hope this helps! Feel better soon!

"

CBS, I am a Respiratory Therapist. It's important to know if you are actually using a mask that fits over your face, and not a nasal cannula that just goes in your nose. If it is a mask, then at 2 liters/minute you are not flushing out your carbon dioxide from the mask when you breathe out, and you are rebreathing back in that same carbon dioxide. The CO2 builds up and WILL cause you to feel worse. You are basically smothering yourself. Run that mask at LEAST 5 l/m. Oxygenation and Ventilation are 2 different actions of the cardio-respiratory system.

Better yet, get a nasal cannula instead of a mask, it's okay to run that at 2 L/M.

Here is a link that gives the range of side effects of CO2 : http://www.livestrong.com/article/21...n-dioxide-gas/

Oxygen is used up by the body's organs and tissues within minutes; just 10 minutes of therapy is unlikely to have lasting effects. Your oxygen tank would probably run out within a few hours, depending on its size and the liter flow, changing that out all the time would be $$$. Use an oxygen "concentrator" (machine that makes it's own O2) if you decide to keep using O2 for your exercises.

So what I'm saying is that the oxygen itself probably isn't hurting, but how you are using it probably is.

I find many people that like to sleep with their blankets over their head; the same effect happens. (Just puttin' that out there for people...) I used to do that, too, when I was a kid but I realized I felt better if I had my nose stuck out. When you are being "smothered" by this, some side effects can be headaches, fatigue, irritability, high blood pressure, some confusion. For years now I just put a very lightweight down pillow over my upper head, blocks out noise and light, works great.

Hope this helps! Feel better soon![/QUOTE]

MammaBear, thank you SO much for your helpful and thoughtful post. This is CBS's husband replying, as she didn't sleep well last night and asked me to reply for her.

Your post led us to discovery of a misunerstanding with her doctor - he thought we'd use the cannula and we thought he meant use the mask. Anyway, we found the nasal cannula with the supplies provided by the oxygen supplier.

The doctor's original Rx calls for 2 LPM for an hour/day. The first time she tried it we had to crank it up to 6-8 LPM because she felt she wasn't getting enough air at 2 LPM (and indeed she wasn't, using the mask!), and did it for just 30 minutes. At this higher rate, it did make her head feel better initially, but then after a few hours her brain function slowed way down, making it hard for her to think; she said it felt like she was in a low oxygen environment. This feeling carried over into the next day, so we tried a little more oxygen, thinking it might help, this time at ~6 LPM for just 10 minutes. That seemed to help a little, but again after a couple hours her brain crashed again.

We e-mailed her doctor about this, and he said try just 2 LPM for 10 minutes using some light breathing exercise--but he still didn't know she was using the mask and we didn't know we should be using the cannula. He said sometimes if if you "breathe in too much oxygen and breathe too shallowly... it can lead to a change in carbon dioxide." Anyway, she only did 10-minutes of 2 LPM with the mask a couple of times.

Since starting to work with the oxygen at home (only a few times total in the last 2 weeks), her brain has been feeling much worse, and although she has been able to sleep up to 7 hrs/night, it has not been deep at all so she wakes very tired.

So a couple of questions:

1. Have you ever heard of use of oxygen causing subsequent brain crashing in PCS patients as described that then persists for days? (She still hasn't gotten back to where she was before trying the oxygen.)

2. Have you ever heard of use of oxygen interfering with sleep or depth of sleep?

We are just trying to sort this out before trying any more oxygen. Because she also has underlying chronic fatigue syndrome (pre-concussion), she tends to be more sensitive to things that "normal" people can tolerate. We will of course also follow up with her doctor to get his thoughts, but any insight you can offer will be most appreciated!