Summary: Low Pressure Hyperbaric (1.3 ATA) ambient air therapy is to start in India with the arrival of our first Oxyhealth Low Pressure Hyperbaric Chamber. It will be used to give the benefits of low pressure hyperbaric air to treat small children with Neuro-developmental disabilities at half the cost of standard HBOT, and free of cost to those children who are certified by Government authorities as "BPL" on the economic scale. Last updated January 21, 2007
LOW PRESSURE HYPERBARICS TO START AT UDAAN |
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A lot of studies are going on worldwide on the effects of Hyperbaric air or oxygen to treat a variety of diseases, disorders or disabilities. The optimum pressure is still to be conclusively established, as is the optimum duration. Current evidence suggests that the optimum pressure may be somewhere between 1.3 to 1.5 ATA and the duration 60 to 90 minutes at pure 100% oxygen. At the moment, the majority of studies are using 1.5 ATA and 60 minutes at 100% Oxygen under pressure. However, there is a growing body of evidence to suggest that ambient air at 1.3 ATA may be sufficient to produce results in cases of cerebral palsy and many other disorders.
A Double Blind Placebo Controlled Study was planned in Quebec, Canada, in late 1990s to see if HBOT works in improving cases of Cerebral Palsy in grown up children aged 5 to 12 years. The plans called for the use of HBOT at 1.75 ATA with 100% Oxygen as per standard protocol, versus "Placebo" therapy using 1.3 ATA and ambient air. The research team considered 1.3 ATA with ambient air as "Placebo" because that is the minimum pressure that could be felt, and was then assumed to have no therapeutic benefit whatsoever. the study had a number of weaknesses:
This HBOT study, as almost ALL such studies in the world are, was conducted by HBOT authorities who were doing HBOT for a lot of causes including Cerebral Palsy. They were NOT planned by Cerebral Palsy centers doing usual therapies, with HBOT as one of the therapies. As a result, most research teams lack a basic understanding of what they were trying to treat.
The post HBOT follow up was only for 3 months. It was evidently too short. The axons arising from the ischemic neurons in the Penumbra area, and going down the spinal cord to the lower motor neurons, get de-myelinated over 4 to 12 months due to the injured state of their neurons. After the revival of some of those neurons by HBOT, these axons need the same 4 to 8 months or more to re-myelinate. AFTER that, the revived neurons, which had never functioned till now and therefore are "experience-less", need another 1 to 2 years to learn how to use the re-innervated limb (the same as any normal new born child). That means that follow-ups must be for more than 6 to 8 months to observe motor benefits, and at least 4 to 6 months to observe benefits in Speech and Cognitive abilities, dependent as they are only on short intra-cranial axons and nerves that need much less time to re-myelinate due to their shorter length.
The children chosen for the study were aged 5 to 12 years, by which time most of the Neuro-development period was already over, significant Leukodystrophy in brain had already occurred, and muscle contractures had already begun.
Both groups improved statistically significantly after the 3 months of follow up, but there was no statistically significant difference between the two groups of 50+ children. Hence the sponsors of the trial claimed in Press that HBOT was equivalent to Placebo. In contrast, the researchers said the opposite. The latter (Dr. P Marois) pointed out that both groups improved 3% in 2 months in contrast to the improvement of only 0.3% seen in similar CP children at similarly treated children (without HBOT) in Canada at similar quality centers: that is, an improvement 10 times greater in less time.
At last, by early 2005, the Quebec authorities were convinced that HBOT does work and that the trial showed that even ambient air at 1.3 ATA had therapeutic potential. Hence, they have now decided to permit some Insurance re-imbursement of HBOT in CP, though when the law will be finally allowed to start functioning remains to be seen.
The Quebec study also showed that 1.3 ATA ambient air was therapeutic. This is understandable if we recall that as per standard Physics laws, the amount of oxygen that dissolves in water under normal circumstances is 0.3 ml/100 ml whereas at 1.3 ATA it increases to somewhere about 0.4%. Even though 0.1% increase seems minuscule, do realize that an increase of 0.1% represents 33% rise in Oxygen delivery over 0.3%. That is why even 1.3 ATA is therapeutic.
Is a change of 33% important for the body? Judge for
yourself:
a) Normal body temperature is 37° Centigrade. If someone has a fever of
40°C, we call it high fever. A reduction of that state by only 10% makes it
normal.
b) Normal Blood Pressure is 120/80 mm of mercury, or so. Someone with the
lower value at 100 mm mercury is said to have high blood pressure. A
reduction of only 20% makes him normal.
c) Here we are observing an increased oxygen perfusion in brain by 33% at
1.3 ATA. No wonder both groups in the Quebec Study showed equally
significant benefits.
Based on such facts, a number of workers have studied the effects of giving 1.3 ATA ambient air to small children with CP (http://www.oceanhbo.com/client/4.html ) and the results seem to be encouraging.
We plan to carry on our parallel studies on small CP children treated as follows:
Standard Therapy only (OT + PT + SPEECH + OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY)
Standard Therapy plus 1.5 ATA HBOT with 100% Oxygen to those parents who want it for their child and can afford it. After completing 4 months, we will add CP Specific Acupuncture plus herbal Neuro-restorative supplements.
Newer batches to be offered Standard Therapy plus the half cost 1.3 ATA Hyperbaric ambient air to those parents who want it for their child and cannot afford the higher cost higher pressure Oxygen based HBOT. After completing 4 months, we will add CP Specific Acupuncture plus herbal Neuro-restorative supplements.
Thus, there will be a 3 way controlled study with 8 months of follow up at least. The results will be presented after all three batches complete sufficient number of children to assess statistically valid results.
Dr. Rashid Buttar at the Dept. of Toxicology, North Carolina
University has done preliminary studies to show that at least some cases of
Autism may be due to a genetic inability in excreting mercury, that encourages
its accumulation in the body including in neural proteins after incorporation
into the body from dental amalgams of mother, child, sea fish, thiomerosal
preserved vaccines, and other sources. he used a Transdermal preparation of DMPS
to chelate the mercury in more than 20 children 9includinghis own son), and has
achieved remarkable degree of normalcy in those children. He believes that
follow up HBOT may aid in a faster rate of recovery.
On our part, we have so far tested 4 children diagnosed as definite cases of
Autism. Their serum mercury levels were 1.5, 10, 15 and 25 times the upper limit
of permissible mercury in body, respectively.
We plan to start mercury chelation using oral formulations of DMPS, followed by
low pressure hyperbaric ambient air, plus usual Standard Therapy, to observe the
degree of improvement over 1 years. However, we are hesitant up to this stage
because DMPS is a blind drug that removes metals, which includes not only
mercury but many vital ones also like Iron, zinc, copper, cobalt, magnesium,,
manganese, sodium, potassium, etc. etc. The costs of quarterly estimations of
these metals and their supplementation by a combined Pediatric Syrup is a
logistic problem which we will have to solve first. As of now, the estimated
overall package cost may run into about Rs.3 lakhs per child for one year of
management (one year of standard therapy + 80 sessions of HBT + five quarterly
detailed metal estimations + one year of stock of syrup of multiple minerals.
God willing, WE WILL DO IT.
With the arrival of our first Hyperbaric chamber, the plans to make an international standard Institute for advanced pioneering research on early medical interventions in small children with Neuro-developmental Disorders (INDIRA Project) has now been initiated.
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