September 21st
World Alzheimer’s Day

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Hope in Fighting Alzheimer’s?

The drama of Alzheimer’s Disease is real and, unfortunately, it´s a presence in many of the Portuguese families’ homes. It is estimated that around 60 thousand people in Portugal suffer from this disease.
It is one of the most common forms of dementia, emerging mainly after the age of 65, being that half of the population aged 85 and over suffers from this disease. Unfortunately, a cure has not been yet discovered, but many scientific efforts have been made in the search for it.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy has been increasingly studied to fight it and, fortunately, a recent study says that Alzheimer’s disease can be attenuated or even reversed with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy!

According to this study, carried out by the University of Tel Aviv, Israel, and published in the prestigious scientific journal “Aging US”, the researchers claim that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy stimulates the functioning of the human brain and has shown to combat the accumulation of brain plaques associated with the disease, meaning, that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy offers “multifaceted neuroprotective effects” in Alzheimer’s disease and also improves brain and cognitive function in humans.

Specifically, the Tel Aviv University team reports that, after holding the Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Sessions foreseen in the project, the brain blood flow improved by 20% on average and the results of the memory tests showed an average improvement of 16.5%.

Professor Uri Ashery, main author of the study, mentioned that: “Older patients suffering from significant memory loss at the start of the study revealed an increase in cerebral blood flow and improvement in cognitive performance, revealing the mightiness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy to reverse the responsible essentials elements”.

In my opinion further studies are needed but, relying on the science and on the logic of the action of oxygen in our brains, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy could be, from now on, a benefit for all who preventively want and can benefit from this discovery.

The Cascais Hyperbaric Center is exclusively dedicated to Hyperbaric Medicine and registered at the European Association, and to the present date, the first and only private center with mono-place chambers.
Its’ staff is a highly specialized team with competence in Hyperbaric Medicine given by the Medical Association and a vast experience in the several applications of this type of treatment
Today, we emphasize the experience we have with people who come to us, national and overseas, for preventive treatments. General and cognitive well-being results, very promising, have been reported to us.

To end, one more quote from Professor Uri Ashery, an expert in neurobiology at the University of Tel Aviv, to The Times of Israel, which so well sums up this hopeful state of mind that we all find on fighting this very unequal disease:

“I don’t think this can ‘cure’ Alzheimer in humans, but it might be able to significantly slow its progression and severity.”

We hope so!

Maria Luís Gameiro
Direcção Centro Hiperbárico Cascais