The New York Post reports the findings of a study which seems to show that hyperbaric oxygen could stop or reverse the effects of Alzheimer's disease.
A new, small-scale study by researchers at Tel Aviv University suggests that dementia patients may see those symptoms improve, and even reverse, through hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). Their work was published in the journal Aging on Thursday.
The treatment prescribed to the six trial participants included five, 90-minute sessions per week for three months, in which patients inhaled pure oxygen through an air mask while within a pressurized chamber.
With treatment, researchers saw increased blood flow by 16 to 23% in many parts of the brain, indicating a marked improvement in the functionality of participants’ blood vessels. They also scored an average of 16.5% higher on memory tests post-HBOT, showed a 6% better ability to focus and a 10.3% jump in processing new information.
As professor Tom Dening, an expert in dementia at the University of Nottingham, told the Telegraph, “To be useful, the treatment would have to be continued indefinitely, so any patients would have to be very highly motivated and have good transport links to the treatment facility.”
With some 6 million dementia sufferers in the US, “it is hard to see how hyperbaric oxygen could ever be available on this scale,” said Dening. “It’s an interesting idea but a long way off meeting the usual criteria to become a standard treatment.”
Dening is too pessimistic, the treatment is simpler than kidney dialysis and centers to provide that life-saving therapy are widely available. Plus, equipment that extracts oxygen from the air isn't vastly expensive and creating a pressure chamber isn't rocket science.
I am certain people threatened by Alzheimer's would do what it takes to access such therapy. Persons with kidney failure do. If that required moving to a larger town I would do it, wouldn't you?
