Off-Label HBOT: Arthritis

Arthritis is so broad a disease state, with so many treatment options, we can't see hyperbaric oxygen ever gaining any real currency. Yet we find, combined with our reading of the medical literature on other chronic pain disorders, rather promising clinical evidence that HBOT can help reduce the pain and inflammation associated with arthritis. And we suppose any drug-free alternative might be welcome news for many of the 19 million patients with rheumatoid (RA) and osteoarthritis (OA), fibromyalgia, gout, lupus, and more than 100 other forms of this devastating disease—the leading cause of disability in the US today.

Jump to our new arthritis page to learn more and to use our HyperbaricLink Evidence Index to guide your personal research.

Off-Label HBOT: Complex Regional Pain Syndrome

The peer-reviewed clinical evidence on hyperbaric oxygen therapy for chronic pain would be a total wasteland were it not for a single study conducted at our favorite military training hospital in Turkey. (See our Tuesday post, "Living In A World Of Pain.") Complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) includes reflex sympathetic dystrophy (RSD) and causalgia. Patients suffer horribly, and doctors have few treatment options, so it's especially heartening to learn HBOT may help reduce pain and tenderness and improve range of motion. Researchers should waste no time in confirming or refuting these promising findings.

Jump to our new complex regional pain syndrome page to learn more and to use our HyperbaricLink Evidence Index to guide your personal research.

Evidence: Living In A World Of Pain

A word of advice to the aspiring HBOT researcher: Don't swing for the left field bleachers when all the team needs is a solid base hit. Oh, and don't complain about the lack of reimbursement if you haven't published a tight little study in a nice little journal. Which leads us to today's musical question: Why are we finding all the most promising evidence on hyperbaric oxygen therapy for chronic pain coming out of a military training hospital in Istanbul? Don't answer. We'll take it. More here soon, and new HyperbaricLink condition pages, on chronic regional pain syndrome, fibromyalgia, myofacial syndrome, migraine, and cluster headache.