The short answer to this question is, yes, hyperbaric oxygen therapy can treat Lyme disease. Lyme disease is a bacterial disease that is caused by an insect bite from an infected tick that has been carrying the bacterium in its stomach. Lyme disease results in three different phases of symptoms; if it is not adequately treated with antibiotics then the joints, heart, and nervous system can be at risk. However, some people continue to have swollen joints and arthritic symptoms despite receiving adequate antibiotic treatment.
So, while antibiotics are often the first course of treatment for those with Lyme disease, many doctors also recommend hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) to fight off Lyme disease as well. If you’re unfamiliar with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, it is a medical treatment that involves inhaling 100% oxygen in a total body chamber where the atmospheric pressure is safely increased and controlled. By inhaling 100% oxygen, the body’s ability to heal is improved. HBOT is a simple, painless, and non-invasive treatment.
Medical studies have shown that HBOT has significantly improved Lyme disease symptoms, including mental confusion, pain, depression, and fatigue. In the cited study, 70% of patients experienced lasting benefits as well.
To understand how this process works, it’s important to understand how HBOT works. Normally, your body carries oxygen via your red blood cells. However, with HBOT, oxygen enters many different areas of your body, including the central nervous system fluids. In doing so, oxygen is able to reach damaged areas of the body more effectively and improve the healing process. In fact, HBOT delivers oxygen to the tissue up to 25 times more than in normal circumstances. For instance, the increase in oxygen leads to white blood cells killing more bacteria and other healing benefits as well. The reason why HBOT is effective in treating symptoms of Lyme disease is that the bacterium that causes Lyme disease is anaerobic, which means that it can’t survive in oxygen. So, HBOT effectively reduces the number of bacterium in those with Lyme disease (while also improving the body’s natural ability to heal itself).
To learn more about hyperbaric oxygen therapy please contact us or visit our HBOT page.
