What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and what can it do?
By Steve Marmor

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is a natural therapy that was first utilized in the treatment of decompression sickness for deep sea divers.  A Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber is an enclosure which can be pressurized to allow a person inside to safely experience higher than average atmospheric pressure. The result is one of the most natural and effective healing modalities available today.

No Drugs! No Operations! Just lie down and relax while pressurized oxygen saturates your body tissues and improves healing from within.

Why is oxygen so important?

Of all the chemical elements, oxygen is the most vital to the human body. We would survive for only minutes without it. Oxygen is a life giving, life-sustaining element which creates approximately 90% of the bodies energy. Nearly all of the bodies activities, from brain function to the process of elimination, are regulated by oxygen. The ability to think, feel and act is derived from the energy supplied by oxygen.

This oxygen energy cycle has become critically important today, more than at any time in human history, because of the sudden unnatural decrease in atmospheric oxygen. It is estimated that the air breathed by our distant ancestors contained approximately 50% oxygen. Reports suggest that in excess of two hundred years ago, the air was composed of 35% oxygen and 1% carbon dioxide. Oxygen levels measured by Swiss scientists during 1946 were reported to be 22%. Most recently report measurements have fallen to 19% with more than 25% carbon dioxide. In major industrial cities, records indicate levels to be considerably lower, so it is understandable that allergies, respiratory, and asthma related illnesses have increased markedly over the past decade.

In addition, we can become oxygen deprived for reasons such as lack of exercise, overacidification of body tissues, subluxations of the upper cervical vertebrae, occlusions of the vascular system, stroke, and dehydration to name some of the most common reasons. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is helpful in countering or compensating for some of these forms of oxygen deprivation.

In recent years there has been an increase in the amount of research conducted on the medicinal applications for HBOT in modern practice. Published studies in leading journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine document the use of  Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for such indications as:

ADD/ADHD
Asthma
Autistic Spectrum
Burns
Chronic Fatigue
Crohns
Crush Injuries Colitis
COPD
Cystic Fibrosis
Diabetic foot wounds
Edema
Faster tissue healing
Heavy metal detox
Infections
Jet lag
Lyme disease
Multiple sclerosis
Neuropathies
Reynaud’s
Sleep disorders
Stroke
Ulcers
Other conditions

During HBOT the fluids and tissues of the body receive an infusion of readily available oxygen. In fact, even cells and areas of the body with limited circulation become saturated with oxygen. The effect is the uptake of oxygen in the blood, plasma, cerebral-spinal fluids, bone marrow, mitochondrial DNA as well as oxygen crossing over the blood brain barrier into the brain. When this is done safely under pressure, the net effect is more health giving oxygen into cells and metabolic waste departing from cells more efficiently.
Hyperbaric Oxygen is very cost effective, non-invasive, safe, and works well with other treatment therapies.

For more information or to get more oxygen, contact Steve Marmor at Herbs & More—Your Natural Health Center in Encinitas. Herbs and More has served San Diego North County since 1993 and is located at 388 N. El Camino Real, Encinitas, CA. 92024. Call 760-753-7272 or visit www.herbsandmore.org.