Diver Dan at Central Florida Hyperbaric

 

Brain cancer cells are nasty little beasts.  They drag themselves through the brain, like “Thing” from the Addams Family, looking for a nice oxygenated spot to hunker down and start growing a big fat tumor.  Unfortunately, as they slink around they create a web of cancer cells that wrap around the areas of the brain that you might find pertinent, like the ability to ask for a cold Guinness or recognize your kids when they bring you one.  The goal is to stop the little monsters from running crazy through your brain, because once they do, it is very hard to control them.  Want to throw some Temodar (chemo) at them? Go ahead!  They just smile and mutate!  How ‘bout some Avastin (another chemo)?  They just creep gleefully deeper into the brain! 

Dan in hyperbaric chamber

HOWEVER, there is one option that seems to help stop them...OXYGEN…LOTS AND LOTS OF RICH PURE OXYGEN!  Now you’re probably thinking, “Isn’t that exactly what the little grim reapers want?”  Why, yes it is…but the greedy oxygen addicts aren’t expecting the overdose that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) can cause.

 Inside a hyperbaric chamber, the body is exposed to air pressure up to three times higher than normal which means your lungs can gather up three times more pure oxygen than when you breath at normal air pressure.  All of this scurries through the brain giving the cancer cells massive amounts of oxygen which stops them from plundering through your grey matter looking for more.  Since the oxygen addicts are satisfied, they sit bloated and happy in one spot making it easier for the radiation and chemo to annihilate them.  

Super oxygen saturation also kills cancer cells in a second manner.  As stated above, they are addicted to oxygen BUT they are totally adapted to thriving in low oxygen environments.  When a brain cancer cell gets too much pure oxygen, because of its damaged mitochondria and adaptations to low oxygen, it basically has an oxygen overdose and dies.

Central Florida Hyperbaric

Interesting Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy facts:

1.     Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is FDA approved for treating 14 conditions in the U.S.  Insurance will only cover the cost of HBOT for these 14 conditions.

2.     A single one-hour treatment at Central Florida Hyperbaric is $135.  The exact same treatment in a hospital would be between $1000-$2500 in the U.S.

3.     HBOT is approved for treating over 80 illnesses in numerous other countries.

4.     Pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. actively lobby against HBOT.

5.     Pharmaceutical companies in the U.S. are successful when they lobby against HBOT.

6.     See number one.