As with most innovative treatments, the entrenched medical establishment persistently resists admitting the usefulness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).

We have seen the same kind of elitist arrogance in the past with regard to probiotics, omega-3 fatty acids, natural anticancer compounds, and vitamin C to dramatically reduce septic deaths, as well as a host of other such innovative treatments — all of which are now accepted as beneficial treatments.

The idea of using high concentrations of oxygen under increased atmospheric pressure is not new. In fact, the idea of using compressed air goes back as far as 1664.

But its modern use did not really begin until Frenchman V.T. Junod theorized that compressed air would increase the flow of blood to organs, including the brain. That theory has since been proven correct.

Dr. Paul Harch, an expert in the use of HBOT, cites a 1950s case in his book, “The Oxygen Revolution,” in which researchers in the Netherlands were able to keep a pig that had all of its blood removed and replaced with a saline solution (saltwater) alive simply by putting the pig in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber.1

This demonstrated that oxygen under increased pressure could dissolve in saltwater in concentrations high enough to protect the pig’s vital organs, without the need for red blood cells.

Dr. Harch also cites an interesting observation from the Spanish flu epidemic in 1918. At that time, Dr. Orval Cunningham noticed that infected patients living at higher altitudes (where the oxygen content was lower) had a significantly higher mortality rate than those living at sea level.

Dr. Cunningham also noticed that people living at high altitudes had a higher incidence of other disorders — which he suggested was caused by having less oxygen in their tissues.

Dr. Cunningham’s discovery then attracted the attention of Henry Timken, a millionaire industrialist who in 1928 funded the building of a five story “steel ball” hyperbaric hospital near Cleveland, Ohio. That entire structure was filled with hyperbaric oxygen.

Unfortunately, few understood the process, and eventually the venture collapsed financially.

Predictably, the medical establishment had fought the idea every step of the way.

HBOT treatments finally gained acceptance, first by the military, for treating divers with decompression sickness — commonly called the “bends” — which results from too rapid ascent from deep water (where the pressure is high). When this occurs, air bubbles form in the bloodstream and can damage the brain and/or spinal cord.

In fact, HBOT continues to be used for this condition, and has saved the lives of tens of thousands of divers.

Since these early beginnings, considerable practice and study of HBOT have revealed its value for treating a great number of conditions, including:

• Strokes

• Head injuries

• Male impotence

• Cerebral palsy and other neurodevelopmental disorders

• Autism spectrum disorders

• Neurodegenerative diseases