When you watch TV, you see multiple ads promoting pharmaceuticals as cures for a wide variety of ailments. These are, of course, paid for by pharmaceutical companies. What they don’t tell you is that there are other ways of treating diseases that don’t involve the drugs that they are pushing.

We still see ads pushing statin drugs to treat cholesterol problems, even though it has now been more than two years since the FDA published data showing there was a significant incidence of cognitive defects in patients who used statins. But that information is still not available when you see TV ads or printed ads in magazines and newspapers.

You also hear ads about medications to treat Crohn’s disease, which is an inflammation of the small intestine. These ads list all of the complications of the drug, but don’t tell you that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is also a very effective treatment for Crohn’s. I have had patients whose Crohn’s disease has been completely controlled with that therapy.

Another gastrointestinal complication promoted on TV and printed ads is ulcerative colitis, which is an inflammatory process in the colon that is somewhat similar to Crohn’s disease.

Again, HBOT, which these ads do not mention because they are promoted by the pharmaceutical industry, is very effective in treating ulcerative colitis. I have had patients treated for other HBOT indications whose ulcerative colitis was completely cleared in the process.

For both Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis, it is necessary to give interim HBOT treatments after the disease is controlled in the same way that we use insulin to continue to control diabetes once the blood sugar level has been brought back to normal.

Another disease you’ll hear the pharmaceutical industry promoting drugs to treat is rheumatoid arthritis. And once again, HBOT is very effective in treating the condition.

I had one patient whose blood level for rheumatoid arthritis factor was over 11,000. That went down to normal with a series of HBOT treatments.

It’s unfortunate that the use of HBOT for treating Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, and rheumatoid arthritis is not an approved indication that is routinely covered by insurance and Medicare. However, there are laws saying that if a treatment works, Medicare has to cover it.

In the Florida Courts, I had a patient with multiple sclerosis whose symptoms cleared with HBOT who then sued Blue Cross Blue Shield in the 1950s and won complete reimbursement for her treatment.

In the United States, we have 16 approved indications HBOT, whereas in Russia, there are 74 indications. What’s really interesting is that it is the equine use of HBOT in the U.S. that is confirming all of the Russian indications.

In addition to the those indications noted above, HBOT has been very effective in treating traumatic brain injury, PTSD, and blast exposure. We hope to obtain recognition of the value of HBOT in all of these conditions in the near future.