Alzheimers & Dementia

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Hyperbaric showed improvement in cognition, cerebral blood flow and information processing speed, slowing the progression in Alzheimers and Dementia patients. So patients retain more mental clarity and ability longer.

  • Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is gaining momentum as a potential treatment against the progression of the disease
  • ​A clinical trial of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for 3 months, showed improvement cognition, cerebral blood flow and information processing speed.
  • Dr. Paul Harch's treatment reported, “An 8-week course of HBOT reversed the patient’s symptomatic decline.” 
  • An increase of oxygen to the brain reducing inflammation caused by amyloid plaques and tangles, producing new blood vessels throughout the brain (angiogenesis) and the therapy’s ability to suppress or ignite up to 8,101 genes.
  • ​Hyperbarics has also been shown to support the brain in producing new connections of neurons in damaged areas.

Remembering How to Heal
Dementia is a general term for patients who experience an impairment of at least 2 brain functions, such as memory, judgement, communication, deductive reasoning, visual and spatial abilities and more. While Alzheimer’s Disease is its own separate disease, consisting of a more complex variety of symptoms, it accounts for 60-80% of dementia cases according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Alzheimer’s Disease is a progressive disease in which the brain cells and connections are damaged or killed completely by the presence of plaques (amyloids) and tangles that build up between the cells. Some research suggests that these structures are triggered by a combination of genetics and environmental exposures, aluminum being a common culprit. Other research also suggests that brain injuries may be a trigger for an Alzheimer’s diagnosis later in life. While the exact way these plaques and tangles affect the brain cells is not known yet, it has been shown that these structures grow faster and in a predictable pattern in patients with Alzheimer’s. Typically, the first area of the brain affected is the memory center; from there it spreads to the rest of the brain. Alzheimer’s patients may experience memory loss, inability to learn new skills, confusion, paranoia, anger, and depression. Later symptoms may include loss of fine motor skills, speech, walking, cognition and eventually, death. While Alzheimer’s Disease is most common in patients over the age of 65, there is a subset of the disease that affects younger patients. This is called Young-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease.

There is no known cure for Alzheimer’s Disease but there are therapies and drugs aimed at slowing down the progression and potentially preventing it completely. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is gaining momentum as a potential treatment against the progression of the disease. Dr. Paul Harch has treated patients with Alzheimer’s Disease using a low dose of HBOT at 1.15 ATA. One case study reported, “An 8-week course of HBOT reversed the patient’s symptomatic decline.” Some of the suspected mechanisms of action for hyperbarics against Alzheimer’s Disease is believed to be an increase of oxygen to the brain reducing inflammation caused by amyloid plaques and tangles, producing new blood vessels throughout the brain (angiogenesis) and the therapy’s ability to suppress or ignite up to 8,101 genes. Hyperbarics has also been shown to support the brain in producing new connections of neurons in damaged areas. Some doctors and scientists believe these same mechanisms of action may help prevent an Alzheimer’s diagnosis when used regularly in a healthy person.

See Testimonial Videos Of Patients' Experiences

Recovery For Athletes:
✅ 75% faster recovery from marathons, intense workouts, surgery, illness, weightlifting and more!
✅ Concussions, headaches, amazing for traumatic brain injury
✅ More energy, stamina, go longer, harder
✅ More mental clarity, eliminates brain fog, better focus even for ADD and autism
✅ The edge for athletes, try it a day before and after a big race!

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has helped this patient: 
✅Migraines/headaches, less intense, less of them
✅Pain relief
✅Recovery from exercise and injury
✅Helps with achy joints from aging
✅Boundless energy, feel vibrant!
✅More mental clarity, less overwhelmed
✅Relaxation, less anxious and stressed

Stroke recovery in these ways:
✅Faster recovery
✅Restore feeling and movement in affected limbs
✅Restore connectivity to muscles
✅Hair growth
✅Eliminate Lupus rash
✅Improves natural feeling and sensitivity
✅Improvements in strength
✅Improved mobility
✅Improved brain function and confidence
✅Brain fog

Using hyperbaric made a huge difference for
✅Neuropathy pain, pins and needles
✅Being able to wear shoes again, stand for extended periods of time
✅Sore feet including plantar fasciitis pain (from other patient testimonials)
✅Nerve recovery, restores natural feeling and sensitivity
✅Improved sleep quality, deeper and longer
✅ Improved quality of life

Alzheimers & Dementia: Research Articles & Studies

"It has previously shown statistically significant improvements in all memory measures and indicate that it can lead to significant neurological improvements in post-stroke patients even at chronic late stages.1,2. Now, new data have implied that it may hold promise for those with diseases like Alzheimer and dementia."

"Using our regenerative protocol with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, we were able to demonstrate that angiogenesis in the brain is happening because stem cells are coming up and new blood vessels are generated. More blood vessels are going into the damaged tissue, the tissue is regenerated, and you see the malfunctioning tissue re-activating. Surprise, surprise, the cognitive function related to that issue is improving. Not because we worked on the cognitive function, but because the tissue was regenerated. It’s huge. It’s huge because first of all, we can measure it."

NeurologyLive Interview
Shai Efrati, MD, director, Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research

Shai Efrati, MD

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which has been approved by the FDA for many different indications, was only recently studied for cognitive challenges, with data suggesting that it may offer new hope for cognitive decline.

It has previously shown statistically significant improvements in all memory measures and indicate that it can lead to significant neurological improvements in post-stroke patients even at chronic late stages.1,2 Now, new data have implied that it may hold promise for those with diseases like Alzheimer and dementia. A randomized controlled clinical trial of 63 healthy older adults compared placebo to hyperbaric oxygen therapy for 3 months, showing that the oxygen therapy appeared to induce cognitive enhancements via mechanisms involving regional changes in cerebral blood flow, as evaluated by perfusion magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). A significant group-by-time interaction in global cognitive function was observed compared to control (P = .0017), with the most impressive improvements in attention (net effect size = 0.745) and information processing speed (net effect size = 0.788).3

The research was led by Shai Efrati, MD, director, Sagol Center for Hyperbaric Medicine and Research, Yitzhak Shamir Medical Center; and associate professor, Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Sagol School of Neuroscience, Tel Aviv University. To find out more about how the clinical study of this method of treatment got to this point, NeurologyLive inquired with Efrati.

NeurologyLive: Could you walk through what prompted this work? How did we get to this point with hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
Shai Efrati, MD: Actually, it all started something like 15 years ago. I started a small study and the goal was to prove that neurons cannot be regenerated. That’s was the goal, and I got the opposite results. Since then, things are moving in a completely different direction.

We are working on regenerating brain tissue. The main issue is to refer to the brain as a tissue. The injury that we have in the brain is just like any other injuries we have in other parts of the body. They have common dominant pathophysiology, whether you want to heal a peripheral wound that you have in the leg, or whether you want to heal a wound that is in your brain. The main difference between the one that we have in the leg and the one in the brain is that the wound in the leg is something that you can see. It’s tangible. You can smell it, you can see it, you understand what is happening. With the brain, it’s high tech. We are looking at it through CT or MRI. We’re speaking about the brain in a mystic fashion, about cognitive personality. But, surprise, surprise—it’s a tissue.

First, what we did is evaluate the wound in the brain just like any other peripheral one, meaning we know that there are several degrees of injury. The would can be necrotic, which is completely dead tissue. Unfortunately, for that tissue, we cannot help. But there might be an integral tissue that is not fully dead. We call it metabolic dysfunction tissue in the brain. We call it hibernating, we call it stumbling, but what does it mean? It means that we have an injured tissue that is stuck. It does not heal.

At the beginning, we started with classical cases of brain injury. We started with stroke, traumatic brain injuries and encephalitis, and things like that. The knowledge that we gained from this is that if we can trigger stem cells and we can bring enough energy—enough oxygen to the damaged tissue—then the body can initiate the regenerative process that it is doing in other parts of the body, in the brain. The main issue now, then, is how do we bring the basics that is needed for the wound care so the body can do what is intended to do. Stem cells, we all know it’s cells that in differentiate into different tissues. We had starting to play a lot with stem cells in our research lab—we can take stem cells out, replicate them in the lab, and inject them back. While I’m a great physician for rats and mice, unfortunately, in human beings, it is not so strong.

If we cannot take the stem cells out and inject them, let’s stimulate our own body to generate stem cells. Amazing idea. The main trigger for stem cell proliferation, is hypoxia—a lack of oxygen. So, if we want the human being to stimulate the stem cells, we can take a person, hold his breath and stop his heartbeat, and then you will have stem cells. There is only one problem. It’s not healthy.

What does the body actually sense? Does the body sense absolute values, or does the body sense the delta, the fluctuation? It happens to be that just like, in real life, there is no absolute values. So, let’s trick the body. Let’s take the oxygen to very high level and then do a fast decline. This decline is being sensed by the body as hypoxia, even though we have hyperoxia. We call it the hyperoxic-hypoxic paradox.

We have found the protocol where we take people into a hyperbaric chamber, we increase the blood oxygenation—let’s say from 100 to 2000, a huge increase. Then, every 20 minutes, we ask the people to take the mask off. The oxygen is going from very high level and then back to normal, and then again, and again, by a certain protocol. By doing that, we stimulate the proliferation of stem cells, and the stem cells are going up gradually from one session to the other. After something like 20 sessions, we have huge amount of stem cells that are flying all over and are looking for place to settle down. We have these stem cells with high oxygen, and then we have the 2 crucial elements needed to regenerate tissue.

To summarize, the brain is a tissue; we are evaluating the wound to say that we are not dealing with the necrotic tissues, we are dealing with areas of metabolic dysfunction tissue; we go into a repeated session and according to the fluctuation we generate, stem cells are going up; and then the tissue can regenerate or heal.

This has been studied for patients with stroke previously. How did the idea to assess its potential for cognitive decline come about?
There are many things that happened to our biology. One of the things that happens to all of us is just like if you have the house. You have the pipes in the house, and the house is going along the aging process, so what will happen to the pipes? They will get occluded. The same thing happens in our body, occlusion of the blood vessels—we call it atherosclerosis process. There are never enough blood vessels, and at the end, it may culminate in occlusion. Now, if you have occlusion of large blood vessels in the brain, we call it stroke. If it’s small blood vessels, then we are losing, again and again, additional amounts of tissue. That will be the cognitive decline. It’s not that you are losing it all immediately. You’re losing some tissue, and then its, “Oops, remind me what your name was?” Then the information processing speed is declining and we’re losing more and more tissue, and at the end, we call it dementia.

By knowing that, what we have done in this study is take people who are 65 years old and fully healthy. They are the so-called “good for their age” group. We took them and we were able to demonstrate with high-resolution MRI that they are healthy, they didn’t have stroke, they didn’t have brain pathology. We were able to demonstrate with the high-resolution perfusion MRI the occlusion of the small blood vessel, the decline in the brain functionality. Then, using our regenerative protocol with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, we were able to demonstrate that angiogenesis in the brain is happening because stem cells are coming up and new blood vessels are generated. More blood vessels are going into the damaged tissue, the tissue is regenerated, and you see the malfunctioning tissue re-activating. Surprise, surprise, the cognitive function related to that issue is improving. Not because we worked on the cognitive function, but because the tissue was regenerated. It’s huge. It’s huge because first of all, we can measure it. We can treat the tissue for normal aging, and it’s more exciting because today, the major threat to the Western society that is growing from ear to ear is age-related function and decline.

This is the No. 1 threat to the Western society. When people have Alzheimer, it’s too late. If you are looking at the brain, you see atrophy. Atrophy means that we don’t see a tissue. So, the main issue is to start early, when you have metabolic dysfunction, but still have a tissue and then you can improve this tissue. Once you are improving the tissue, the cognitive function is improving, and then you can keep on monitoring to see if and when you will need additional treatment. By doing that, if you can measure it, and if you can treat it, the goal is to generate Alzheimer- or dementia-free society. This is the way we aim to do it, and this is the goal. This is the goal for us. We want to function, and function is first of all cognitive function.

Transcript edited for clarity.

REFERENCES

1. Efrati S, Fishlev G, Bechor Y, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen induces late neuroplasticity in post stroke patients–randomized, prospective trial. PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53716. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0053716.

2. Boussi-Gross R, Golan H, Volkov O, et al. Improvement of memory impairments in poststroke patients by hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Neuropsychology. 2015;29(4):610-21. doi: 10.1037/neu0000149.

3. Amir H, Malka DK, Gil S, et al. enhancement of healthy older adults using hyperbaric oxygen: a randomized controlled trial. Aging. 2020; 12(13):13740—13761. doi: 10.18632/aging.103571.

"It has previously shown statistically significant improvements in all memory measures and indicate that it can lead to significant neurological improvements in post-stroke patients even at chronic late stages.1,2. Now, new data have implied that it may hold promise for those with diseases like Alzheimer and dementia."

"Using our regenerative protocol with hyperbaric oxygen therapy, we were able to demonstrate that angiogenesis in the brain is happening because stem cells are coming up and new blood vessels are generated. More blood vessels are going into the damaged tissue, the tissue is regenerated, and you see the malfunctioning tissue re-activating. Surprise, surprise, the cognitive function related to that issue is improving. Not because we worked on the cognitive function, but because the tissue was regenerated. It’s huge. It’s huge because first of all, we can measure it."

Here's What I've Learned

New medical research Reveals most powerful treatment yet

From: Dr. AJ Ludlow
Stronglife Physiotherapy

There is a big difference between being alive and thriving.

To me thriving means living a capable, strong, independent and exhilarating life. Thriving means avoiding debilitating illness, aches and pains. This can be a challenge as we age. Wouldn't you agree?

As the owner at Stronglife Physiotherapy I have a rare opportunity to bring revolutionary medical technology to help those working toward this kind of life. This therapy will help my patients have an unfair advantage to living a healthier life. As you'll see below, this treatment offers hope and healing for a wide range of conditions including many that don't have many other treatment options. 

About Our "Stronglife" Hyperbaric Oxygen Clinic

About Dr. AJ Ludlow, DPT

About Dr. AJ Ludlow, DPT

Dr. AJ Ludlow is passionate about finding the most innovative ways to keep his patients from being in pain and struggling with debilitating disease for years. He wants to bring the best medical technology the world can offer to the state he loves and the people he wants most to help.

A California native, but has lived a total of 15+ years in Utah between receiving his undergraduate at Brigham Young University and his doctorate at the University of Utah, he now calls Utah his home!

He has traveled and researched extensively to find the most effective solutions for injury and pain. What someone would have once had to travel outside the US for, is now available right here in Provo, UT. 

Dr AJ Ludlow Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) Provider in Provo Utah, stronglife physiotherapy AJ ludlow doctor of physical therapy physical therapist in provo Orem utah

Frequently Asked Questions

What type of hyperbaric chamber do you use?
We use soft chambers that reach 1.3 atmospheres of pressure. This is considered mild hyperbaric oxygen therapy and has several advantages over hard chambers. When it comes to pressure with HBOT, more is not necessarily better. Most chronic or non-emergency conditions respond better to lower pressures. You still get a healing dose of oxygen and pressure without the higher risks that come with higher pressure chambers. It is much more affordable than hard chamber sessions and it is even available for home use for those who have a hard time coming into the office for the recommended number of treatments.   
 
Am I a good candidate if my Doctor doesn’t think it will help?
A study found that 75% of medical schools offer little to no education on hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Most doctors have very limited understanding of hyperbarics. A practitioner with specialized knowledge of hyperbaric oxygen therapy will be better suited to answer your questions. When you consider how safe, natural and powerful hyperbarics can be, it is worth doing more research and seeking a second opinion from a knowledgeable practitioner. Many doctors who do educate themselves on hyperbaric oxygen therapy end up being very supportive and even change their practice of medicine to offer it. 
 
How does hyperbaric oxygen therapy help? 
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy delivers up to 3x the normal amount of oxygen throughout the body. This helps with healing, reducing inflammation, energy production, digestion, detoxification, concentration, recovery, etc. Many parts of the body do not receive sufficient oxygen, are damaged, or “turned off” because of an illness, or injury. For example tendons do not receive as much blood flow as muscles and are often more likely to be injured or strained. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy gets more oxygen to all parts of the body, reawakening cells, such as brain cells after a stroke, or heart cells after a heart attack. It gives the body a huge advantage to heal, repair and regenerate itself. As a result of the increased oxygen, the part of every cell in your body that produces energy (mitochondria) becomes stronger and more efficient, many negative symptoms from health conditions and aging disappear, and you have more energy and mental clarity. The more sessions you do, the more these changes become permanent. It positively affects your DNA and can turn some negative DNA markers off and turn positive ones on. For example, eliminating many allergic reactions and even putting some diseases into remission.
 
Does insurance cover hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is FDA approved, covered by insurance, for 14 conditions, even though many other conditions benefit from this treatment. It is used for over 200 different conditions in other countries with extensive research supporting its use. If hyperbaric oxygen therapy is used for any condition other than the 14 approved conditions it will be considered “off label’ and therefore not covered by insurance companies. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a regenerative treatment and insurance companies, unfortunately, have a bad track record of covering regenerative medicine. The FDA approved conditions are: air embolism, gas embolism, acute traumatic ischemia, burns, carbon monoxide poisoning, smoke inhalation, diabetic foot ulcers, exceptional blood loss, decompression sickness, gas gangrene, necrotizing infections, severe anemia, skin grafts and flaps and wound healing. If you have one of the FDA approved conditions it is recommended that you seek care at a facility that can bill insurance for the treatment. 
 
Is hyperbaric oxygen safe? 
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is extremely safe, especially the type offered at Stronglife. Our chamber goes to 1.3 ATM which is the equivalent pressure of being 10 feet under water. We also provide supplemental oxygen directly to you through a nasal cannula instead of pressurizing the entire chamber with 100%. This means there is no risk of oxygen toxicity and no risk of a small spark causing a fire or explosion, with higher pressure and higher oxygen levels the risks go up. 
 
The main risk with any form of hyperbaric oxygen treatment is the (small) risk of damage to the ear drums. While the chamber is being pressurized, you will notice pressure building in the ears (similar to when on a plane or when under water). It is important to be able to equalize the pressure in your ears by yawning, pinching your nose and swallowing or pinching your nose while yawning. Most people are easily able to equalize the pressure. We will be standing by the whole time to assist with the process, and can pause the chamber or release pressure for those few who have a difficult time. 
 
While the majority of people notice they feel better after their HBOT session, there is at times a detox reaction also known as a Herxheimer reaction. This can result in flu-like symptoms including body aches, mild fever, fatigue, nausea or other symptoms. This is caused when harmful microorganisms die off and move towards elimination in the body. While this can be an unpleasant experience it is actually a good thing because the treatment is helping the body excrete these harmful mircoorganisms from the body like Lyme bacteria, Epstein-Barr Virus, mold toxins and others. After several treatments these symptoms will fade and are replaced by higher energy levels and a greater feeling of wellbeing. 
 
 
Does hyperbaric oxygen therapy interact with medications: 
Very few medications are of concern (listed below).
Bleomycin
Cisplatin
Doxorubicin
Sulfamylon
Disulfiram
Mafernide Acetate
 
Can I do hyperbaric oxygen therapy if I am claustrophobic: 
Yes, we are standing by the entire time to turn off the chamber and let you out at a moment's notice. We have had many claustrophobic patients do the full treatment reporting afterwards that they had a pleasant experience and felt quite relaxed. The hyperbaric oxygen stimulates a relaxation response in the body, and most just read, use their phones or take a nap. Most are also surprised by how roomy the chamber feels on the inside. 
 
What does it feel like to do hyperbaric oxygen therapy? 
When asked, patients relate that it is a very relaxing experience. Before you get in we recommend using the bathroom. Then you remove any sharp objects from your pockets and remove your shoes. You climb into the chamber, it is on a platform, for those who have a hard time getting down on the floor. You will have an oxygen tube feeding oxygen directly to your nose.You lie down and relax on a thick pad and pillows. In the first 5 minutes the chamber comes up to pressure during which time you clear your ears multiple times, like when you are on an airplane or going over a summit while driving. After that, you’ll hear fresh air coming in and going out, like white noise. Many patients can sit up if they choose, but most prefer to lay down and relax. The last 5 minutes when it is depressurizing, you can feel some mild pressure on your ears, but most don’t even need to clear or “pop” their ears. Once it has depressurized, we unclasp it and you climb out. Most patients say they feel very relaxed afterward, “like walking on a cloud all day, “ chronic pain patients have told us, “it was the first time in months I wasn’t in pain.” There is no downtime, no need to take off work, you can immediately resume your normal activities. 
 
Are there times it is not advised to do hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
For the following situations, it is not recommended.
Untreated Pneumothorax (punctured lung)
Serious sinus congestion
Sickle Cell Anemia
High Fever
Hereditary Spherocytosis
COPD
Pregnancy
 
For any questions not addressed here please call or text us, we are happy to answer your specific questions regarding your unique health concerns.
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