Living Longer: Time Machine Or Crazy Talk Redux?

Undeterred by her unflattering Newsweek cover story and macabre photos of Michael Jackson napping hyperbarically, Oprah today reran her segment on "High-Tech Ways to Extend Your Life." See our March 5 post. This time around we duly noted Dr Oz's final phrase on HBOT's anti-aging power: "Or that's our hope, anyway."

UHMS Las Vegas: Lively Session On "Off-Label" Indications

HyperbaricLink.com and O2.0 congratulate the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society for holding its first plenary session dedicated to "Off-Label" Indications for HBO2 Treatment. The Society has shaped clinical practice and financial reimbursement for HBOT by keeping an iron grip on its 13 "approved" indications, adding just one to the list since 1976.

We were especially taken with Dr Dan Rossignol's autism presentation. Esteemed steward of the HBOT evidence Dr Michael Bennett agreed Rossignol's study was "terribly exciting and important" but needed replication. Bennett's quick take on other neurologic indications for HBOT ranged from "disproven" for multiple sclerosis to "unlikely" for cerebral palsy.

Proper blinding of hyperbaric clinical trials, as explained by Dick Clarke, proved a more difficult and subtle issue than we could have imagined. But it was Dr Jayesh Shah's provocative consideration of off-label ethics that really stirred things up and kept the Q&A going through lunchtime.

Perhaps minds are opening and times are changing. The UHMS moderator caught the true spirit of the session when he said, "If we don't provide leadership, who will?"

UHMS Las Vegas: Rossignol Autism Study Presented

Dr Dan Rossignol acquitted himself well today in presenting his BMC Pediatrics paper (see our March 13 post) to a packed house. Though he claimed no new knowledge of HBOT's possible mechanisms of action in children with autism, he observed interesting connections between cerebral hypoperfusion and neuroinflammation, with marked reductions in C-reactive protein, and between Clostridia bacteria and Crohn's-like lesions in the intestine. Effectively anticipating argument, placing his work in proper context, and calling for others to replicate and expand upon his research, Rossignol surely won more than a few new supporters and future investigators.

Michael Jackson Postscript: Captain EO

Mind if O2.0 starts a harmless urban legend? We're pretty sure the whole sleeping in a hyperbaric thing was a publicity stunt for Captain EO. Michael and producer George Lucas wanted to cultivate a science fiction persona and missed the mark by a light year or two. Very sorry we can't post the clip in the original 3D. Directed by Francis Ford Coppola, no less. Now THAT is funny.

King Of Stop It Already

One of our Twitter followers just asked if it's too soon for jokes about hyperbaric chambers. Too late. Millions already posted, and Michael Jackson has been the talk of the UHMS conference all day, too. Is it just plain Bad or merely Human Nature that people can't help mocking celebrity or thumbing their noses at death?

O2.0 would rather suffer a metric ton of chatroom zingers than abide some of the drivel circulating today in the underground baromedical community. This is the first and last time, for example, we'll ever link to the so-called HBOT Truth blog.

Let's face it. Michael Jackson is all most people know about HBOT. We're totally okay with that. We wish them all long and happy lives. And we're right here when anyone wants the real HBOT truth, without any hidden identities or agendas. Till then we'll retweet any jokes that strike the right balance of irreverence and schadenfreude. Haven't found any yet.

Onsite At UHMS Las Vegas

There's no business like show business. Not a clock or a window to be found in the casino or conference center, and we're taking a big pass on $600-a-day Wi-Fi, but we've landed safely on Planet Hollywood for the Annual Scientific Meeting of the Undersea & Hyperbaric Medical Society. Warm welcomes all around from our fellow exhibitors. Delighted to see the Divers Alert Network and both the Navy and Air Force so well represented. We're here to listen and learn and explain how HyperbaricLink intends to serve HBOT patients, providers, and suppliers alike.

HBOT Cost-Effective For Diabetic Foot Ulcers

Because diabetes impedes circulation, it impedes the normal healing process. That's why chronic wounds, especially foot ulcers, so often threaten life and limb in patients with diabetes. We spend billions every year to reduce amputations and increase quality of life.

A review article published June 1 in Podiatry Today cites an impressive body of evidence that HBOT is a cost-effective treatment for diabetic foot ulcers. In fact, the authors observe:

Data confirm that many wounds remain hypoxic even after revascularization. Healing will not occur unless one corrects the hypoxia. Among all modalities tested over the past 10 years, the currently available research has demonstrated that only HBOT corrects tissue hypoxia.

Italics ours. Patient selection (a key to success) and treatment dosages may someday be guided by transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcPO2) or other in-chamber measurements.

Share Your Radiation Therapy Story With The Times

In today's New York Times, Tara Parker-Pope's Well blog asks readers for stories about radiation therapy for cancer, including experiences with delayed radiation injury. Already one reader (Larry, comment #8) gives a moving HBOT testimonial. Your faithful correspondent's knocking on the door, too, with a link to O2.0's June 16 post on the reimbursement fight for radionecrosis.

Follow O2.0 On Twitter

You can't tweet in the same river twice. So long as one appreciates its Zen flow and odd meanderings, Twitter's turning into a great place to check the pulse of an active and growing HBOT community. We'll also be using Twitter for newsgathering, feedback, word-of-mouth advertising, and live feeds. Follow us here and we'll follow you anywhere.

HyperbaricLink.com Goes Live

So it begins. We believe it's the first healthcare site of its kind, and we intend for it to do some good in the world. With your help and participation, we will:

• Assemble the richest central store of information on hyperbaric oxygen therapy,
• Connect factions and fragments in the hyperbaric medical community,
• Host a new forum for self-guided research and scientific collaboration,
• Stimulate a free exchange of ideas and viewpoints,
• Tap the powerful force of consumer-driven healthcare, and
• Accelerate the advancement of evidence-based hyperbaric medicine.

Welcome. And here's to your health!

Where There's Smoke, Where's The Chamber?

Firefighters and fire victims face really tough odds—a mortality rate of 29%—when they suffer both burns and smoke inhalation. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has become a well-accepted and approved treatment for fire-related burns, thermal lung damage, and carbon monoxide and cyanide poisoning.

One major study had to be stopped early because investigators and statisticians decided patients should not be denied the benefits of HBOT.

O2.0 did a quick review of the clinical evidence on hyperbaric oxygen for treating smoke inhalation injury and preventing neurologic complications. There's a disturbingly common theme. Access to HBOT for fire emergency victims has been slowed not by the clinical evidence, not by the health economics, but by the poor availability of facilities.

That's some catch, that catch-22.

Veterinary HBOT: They Treat Horses, Don't They?

Laugh if you want. A growing body of evidence supports the use of HBOT in veterinary medicine. Now pet emergency and critical care specialist Dr. Tim Crowe adds to the literature a rather impressive review and physics lesson for hyperbaric medical practitioners of all species. But what excites O2.0, besides improving the health of animals, is the possibility of conducting important research that might be impossible in human populations. Giddy up and go.

Radionecrosis: Fighting For RRReimbursement

So often healthcare's more about the pittance than about the patient. The medical literature and UHMS and Medicare support the use of hyperbaric oxygen to treat delayed radiation injury. Yet some major insurers have taken to categorizing HBOT as "experimental-investigational" and denying coverage. Well, the hyperbaric medicine community is fighting back. The American College of Hyperbaric Medicine's Radiation Research Registry

Isle Of Man Chamber Wins By A Nose

Thanks to the eleventh-hour generosity of horse racing tycoon Trevor Hemmings, the Isle of Man will keep its hyperbaric chamber. A trust opened the facility 25 years ago in memory of diver Kevin Gray. We've been following the story all the way up to the BBC and take great pleasure in the happy ending. Not that the fundraisers can rest, but now they can breathe. Local coverage and the photo finish here.

Italian Boy Burned In May 1 Chamber Fire Dies

As the sad news arrives today from Florida, we direct O2.0 readers to the Donation Fund set up by UHMS to support Francesco Martinisi's family. The investigation continues. In the weeks and months ahead we will follow this story and learn all we can from such a tragedy.