Declining cognitive abilities is one of the key concerns for those individuals 60 years and older. Though not limited to this age group, this concern is on the rise and efforts are being made to better understand and treat age-related cognitive impairment. One treatment currently showing great promise is hyperbaric oxygen therapy. In this study, 63 healthy adults were evaluated with a 3 month course of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. During this 3 month time period, each subject was given 60 hyperbaric sessions (90 minutes with 5 min air every 20 minutes) at 2.0 ATA. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy “was shown to induce cognitive enhancements in healthy aging adults via mechanisms involving regional changes in CBF. The main improvements include attention, information processing speed and executive functions, which normally decline with aging”. <view study> Read Less

Currently, there is a great deal of focus and attention being put on hyperbaric oxygen therapy, due to the promising results seen in clinical research and the potential application that this can have for those individuals who have suffered a stroke or TBI. Now, there is strong evidence supporting the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy BEFORE brain trauma or injury, by preconditioning the brain with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. This study shows that HBOT preconditioning stands as a robust prophylactic treatment for sequestration of inflammation inherent in stroke and TBI. Though we can't predict when the brain will be under traumatic stress (unless it's a planned surgical procedure),  hyperbaric oxygen may become one of the best ways to protect our brain from future injuries. The following groups of individuals would be the ones that would most likely benefit:

• Athletes and contact sports affecting the head
• Patients undergoing planned brain surgery
• High-risk stroke patients
• Those who are at risk for neuro-degenerative conditions
• Elderly

The future holds bright for the application of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for being part of both the treatment of brain trauma and for the prevention of the severity of damage that can subsequently occur <view study>     Read Less

This case report followed a 58-year-old woman who had been experiencing cognitive decline for 5 years. After an 8 week course of 40 hyperbaric sessions (1.15 ATA/50 minute sessions), she reported improved memory and concentration, decreased disorientation, less frustration, and her anxiety was gone. These remarkable results were confirmed with brain imaging scans, which showed 6.5-38% improvement in overall brain metabolism <view study> Read Less

We all know how difficult it can be to multitask, whether it’s at work or in the home environment. For some of us, it comes easily and is almost like a natural instinct, while for the majority of us, this simple exercise is one that takes a lot of effort and becomes a continual and constant struggle to perform. The good news is that a new study has just shown us that we can improve both single task and multitask performance through the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). “The study's findings indicate that even for healthy individuals, oxygen at normal conditions is a limiting factor for brain activity. The ability to perform cognitive and/or motor tasks as a single or a combined task (multitask) was evaluated at a normal air/oxygen environment and at HBO, a hyperbaric oxygen enriched environment. Increasing oxygenation using a HBO environment significantly enhanced both cognitive and motor performance. Significant improvements were found for both single tasks as well as simultaneous multiple tasks” <view study> Read Less

The Neurobiology of Aging has just published a study supporting the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for Alzheimer’s disease (AD). In this study, they demonstrated the positive impact of HBOT on many of the commonly-found underlying pathologies that are observed in the AD brain. A key focus of this study was on HBOT’s ability to basically halt and reverse the neuro-inflammatory disease progression involved in AD <view study> Read Less