The benefits of HBOT, or hyperbaric oxygen therapy, for the treatment of autism are quite legendary. Brain SPECT scans (Single Photo Emission Computed Tomography) before and after HBOT sessions show dramatic improvements in cerebral blood flow, and this improvement is sustained over time. Plus, there are many testimonies from families that have used HBOT as an autism treatment for their autistic children and the results have been very encouraging.
One study of autistic children, aged 1 to 11 years, found that 93.6 percent of study participants enjoyed benefits of HBOT. In another study, hyperbaric oxygen therapy was found to be remarkably effective in helping children with chemical exposures exhibiting Pervasive Developmental Disorders (PDDs). The children were given 10 sessions of HBOT at 1.3 ATA, for one hour per day, five consecutive days for two weeks.
SPECT scans showed benefits of HBOT in terms of increased blood flow and oxygen to the temporal lobe. Before HBOT, SPECT scans showed a significant amount of dormant activity. After treatment, the benefits of HBOT were obvious, with SPECT scans showing increases in blood flow to the brain, as well as brain activity. Dormant brain regions were replaced with greater functioning tissues. The SPECT scans more closely resembled scans taken from healthy individuals.
Benefits
Parents and doctors of autistic children have reported benefits of HBOT that included:
- Improved sleep
- Children becoming calmer and more affectionate
- Improved focus and attention
- Improved bowel function
- More "Present"
- Less Sensory Disturbance
- Improved Cognition
- More Language
- More "Connected" to Family.
It should be noted, however, that the benefits of HBOT vary with individuals. Not all persons receiving HBOT experience all the same benefits.
Cost-savings
In 2005, Richard A. Neubauer, M.D. and colleagues reported in the Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons that his clinic had, over the past 15 years, successfully treated 350 seriously brain-injured patients, from six months to 14 years after the injury. Patients showed varying degrees of clinical improvement and the cost of their on-going care was substantially reduced.
While a few patients showed remarkable improvement, many regained the ability to communicate, either verbally or with a word board or computer. In addition, about 80 percent of gastrostomy tubes and 70 percent of tracheostomy tubes were successfully removed. Hospitalizations were less frequent, and many drugs, such as anti-convulsants, were discontinued without adverse consequences. These benefits of HBOT resulted in cost savings of up to 90 percent.
Ocean Hyperbaric
The evidence is now quite strong that the behavioral problems associated with autism are due to neurological dysfunctions. In other words, autism is a form of brain damage. The science of hyperbaric medicine has been practised for more than 30 years and there has so far been no reports of HBOT causing brain damage. On the contrary, the scientific evidence shows that the many benefits of HBOT include helping damaged and injured brains to recover.
I (John Yeo) had the privilege of meeting up with Dr. George Daviglus of the Ocean Hyperbaric Neurological Centre in November 2006 when he visited Singapore. Dr. George Daviglus and Dr. Richard Neubauer have been treating brain injury with HBOT for about 20 years.
Edward Teller
During my meeting with Dr. George Daviglus, he told me about one notable personality who experienced the benefits of HBOT – Edward Teller, inventor of the Hydrogen Bomb. Edward Teller suffered a stroke when he was 74 years old and he recovered with HBOT. He was so impressed with the technology that, after his recovery, Edward Teller decided to buy a HBOT unit to use it at home. Edward Teller was said to have faithfully spent an hour in the hyperbaric oxygen chamber every day, until his death in 2003 at age 95!
Benefits of regular HBOT vs. mild HBOT
While some benefits of HBOT start to show after about 20 sessions, we are learning that really significant results may require more than 100 sessions. Because of the costs involved, there was an attempt in Canada to prove that HBOT did not work so that insurance companies would not have to pay for the therapy. This is really bad science! However, that effort produced an unexpected result.
In order to ‘prove’ that HBOT did not work, researchers compared regular HBOT, at 1.75 ATA with 100 percent oxygen as per standard protocol, versus ‘placebo’ therapy using 1.3 ATA and ambient air. As it turned out, both regular HBOT and the ‘placebo’ HBOT produced similar results. Thus, the sponsors of the study declared that HBOT did not work, as it was no better than a placebo. The researchers, however, reached a totally different conclusion. They pointed out that the ’placebo’ worked just as well as standard HBOT.
Both groups of brain injured children enjoyed the same benefits of HBOT. The condition improved by 3 percent over 2 months, compared to other children not on HBOT treatment, who took much longer time just to register an improvement of 0.3 percent. In other words, the benefits of HBOT and mild HBOT were both 10 times greater, within a shorter period.
Thus, in early 2005, the authorities in Quebec, Canada, became convinced that HBOT does work and that there were therapeutic benefits even with ambient air at 1.3 ATA. Hence, Canada now permits some insurance reimbursement of HBOT for sufferers of cerebral palsy.
Conclusion
Like any other approaches in autism therapy, nothing is guaranteed. This makes it really hard for parents to make the right decisions about treatments such as HBOT. However, we have seen sufficient before / after SPECT scans to be convinced that HBOT is probably one of the best ways to recover an injured brain.
