How Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Works
Supercharge Bacteria Killing
- Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an effective treatment to enhance the action of certain antibiotics in managing stubborn bacterial infection such as chronic bone infection (osteomyelitis).
- It acts to supercharge the natural bacterial killing function of white blood cells (leukocytes). It does this by using oxygen as a potent fuel which allows the body to supercharge that bacterial killing function.
Tissue Repair
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is delivered through the lungs to the bloodstream and served to fuel oxygen deprived tissues, but more importantly it creates a systemic wide “wake-up call.” This is a biochemical shift affecting all of the cells in the body preparing them to perform tasks which they should be able to, but through various conditions and exposures, they have lost the ability to perform basic repair functions.
Recent scientific work is helping us to understand that oxygen, this very simple 2-atom molecule, has profound messaging and control capabilities affecting numerous biological functions. This is permitting clinicians to more clearly identify cellular signaling and guide exposure to extremely high oxygen concentrations intermittently to achieve health benefit. These are topics of the work of Medical Oxygen Research, the not-for profit organization which fostered the creation of the clinical facility Medical Oxygen Repair.