You'll Never Walk Again

Damien, an athletic 24-year-old, was on vacation with his family at Lake Mead, Nevada, when he dove off the back of a pontoon boat, hit the bottom, and broke his neck. He woke up in a hospital 10 days later, hooked up to ventilator and unable to move due to a dislocation of the vertebrae in his neck.

He underwent a number of surgeries, including a spinal fusion. When he left the hospital three months later, his doctors told him that except for a twitch in his left bicep, he would have no movement from the neck down for the rest of his life. They were wrong.

Today, two and a half years later, Damien does wheelies in his wheelchair, leg presses 160 pounds, takes halting steps with a walker, and is 100 percent convinced that he will walk again.

Damien’s road to recovery began after he got out of the hospital and into an intensive rehabilitation program. But it really took off about a year ago, when he came to the Whitaker Wellness Institute for hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT).

HBOT and the Central Nervous System

HBOT is an extensively studied therapy that’s been around for close to 100 years. Although it’s administered in special chambers that look like something out of a sci-fi movie, HBOT is actually fairly low-tech—it simply involves breathing 100 percent oxygen in a pressurized environment. (Hyperbaric means “at pressures higher than normal atmospheric pressure.”) But for disorders of the brain and central nervous system (CNS), it consistently produces better results than any other therapy.

All neurological traumas, whether they’re caused by stroke or an injury to the spinal cord or head, have many things in common. The initial injury triggers swelling and inflammation in the brain and/or spinal column, which hampers blood flow and oxygen delivery. This leads to the accumulation of metabolic waste products, which further aggravate swelling and inflammation, starting a vicious cycle of oxygen deprivation and damage.

Neurons at the site of injury begin to die within minutes, but those in the surrounding areas go into a state of “suspended animation.” These are the cells that can be awakened by HBOT—which is why this therapy can restore almost unbelievable function.

Boosts Circulation and Promotes Healing

Every time you undergo a hyperbaric treatment, your cells, even those with little or no blood supply, are flooded with oxygen. This is because when you breathe 100 percent oxygen under pressure, all of the body’s fluids and tissues are saturated with oxygen. This influx of oxygen is to dormant neurons what rain is to parched plants.

The benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy go far beyond raising oxygen levels during a treatment. The increased pressure in the chamber also facilitates the draining of excess fluid and toxic waste products. It stimulates the growth of new capillaries that restore circulation and oxygen delivery—even after you’ve left the chamber.

Increases Stem Cell Activity

HBOT also signals DNA to “turn on” the production of growth factors and hormones that repair damaged neurons. In addition, it increases stem cell mobilization by an astounding 800 percent. These cells, which we all carry in our bone marrow, are able to differentiate, or transform, into a number of different cell lines. In other words, HBOT promotes the growth of brand-new neurons!

The combination of these mechanisms explains the remarkable recovery and return of function seen time and again in patients with brain and spinal cord injuries, stroke, and degenerative neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s disease.

Scans Show Brains Literally Waking Up

At a recent American College for Advancement in Medicine (ACAM) conference in Palm Springs, Paul Harch, MD, a researcher and associate professor from Louisiana State University School of Medicine reported on his use of HBOT for the treatment of neurological and intellectual disabilities.

Dr. Harch presented dozens of case histories of patients with stroke, head injury, autism, cerebral palsy, muscular dystrophy, and other chronic neurological problems. He documented them with before-and-after SPECT scans, which monitor blood flow through the brain. Prior to treatment, scans of the affected areas were dark, indicating poor circulation and impaired neurological activity. After treatment with HBOT, the brain literally lit up with dramatic increases in blood flow. In virtually every case, SPECT scan changes mirrored clinical progress.

Here at the clinic, we don’t use SPECT scans to track progress in our patients. In my opinion, the expense is unwarranted. It’s like proving that the earth is round over and over and over again. What we’re looking for is functional improvement, and our patients have it in spades.

Wounds, Autism, Parkinson’s, Stroke…

At Whitaker Wellness, the largest HBOT facility in the United States, we treat up to 50 patients a day. Some of them have difficult wounds or ulcers, usually caused by diabetic neuropathy, and for many the healing power of HBOT prevents amputation. Others have burns, surgical incisions, or infections and are looking to speed up healing. HBOT is also extremely effective for these conditions.

However, most of our patients have issues with the brain or CNS. We are currently treating 40 children with autism. When used in conjunction with chelation and other therapies, most of these kids achieve better eye contact, behavior, and sociability. We also see a lot of patients with Parkinson’s disease, who generally experience improvements in gait, mobility, rigidity, sleep, and other symptoms.

We’ve treated hundreds of stroke patients who were told by their doctors that they’d just have to learn to live with slurred speech, a permanent contracture of an arm, or an inability to walk without a walker. Yet after a course of HBOT, in combination with physical therapy, they’re back on the road to optimal health.

Proving Doctors Wrong—Again

The most dramatic recoveries are seen in patients like Damien, who have the most to gain. When Damien first starting coming to the clinic for HBOT, he had so little muscular control that he was unable to sit up and required a reclining wheelchair. At first, progress was measured in terms of twitches—he recalls sitting for hours and hours trying to get a calf muscle to contract. But he stayed motivated; worked very, very hard in physical therapy several hours a day, five days a week; and kept on coming in for regular HBOT treatments. And over time, it all started to come together.

HBOT is not a magic bullet. Some patients come in expecting a miracle with only one to two hours in the chamber. As Damien and hundreds of other patients will tell you, it is often a long process that requires lots of effort and motivation. But with HBOT plus physical therapy, hard work, perseverance, and a good attitude, miracles do indeed happen.

Damien, now 27, has far surpassed all of his doctors’ predictions. He is so inspired by his progress that he is writing a business plan to open a facility where people with spinal cord injuries can receive HBOT, physical therapy, and nutritional therapies in a positive, healing, caring environment. With this young man’s determination and resolve, I have no doubt that he will succeed.

Recommendations

• HBOT’s only downside is its availability and expense. A fair number of hospitals have hyperbaric chambers, but they charge $1,000 to $2,000 per hour of treatment. (We charge just a small percentage what hospitals charge.) Yet even if you could afford hospital-based HBOT, these facilities use it with only a fraction of the patients it could help. They do not and will not use it for any of the conditions discussed above.
• Your best bet is to find a private clinic that offers HBOT. But don’t get your hopes up. This simple, safe, highly effective therapy is still invisible to the overwhelming majority of conventional doctors. To learn more about treatment at Whitaker Wellness, call (800) 488-1500 or click here.

Modified from Health & Healing with permission from Healthy Directions, LLC. Copyright 2007. Photocopying, reproduction, or quotation strictly prohibited without written permission from the publisher. To subscribe to Health & Healing, click here.