Now there is hope for all. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been proven to aid in the recovery of stroke and brain injury. The new thinking is, after a stroke, brain cells are not dead, but dormant. These dormant brain cells have been able to be revived for up to 20 years after a stroke with pressurized oxygen. This therapy will help diminish spasticity and in most cases will enable limbs to move again.
Most people believe that a stroke is due to the death of brain cells.
Brain cells are thought to die as a direct result of the interruption of blood flow and resulting lack of oxygen to a part of the brain. In the acute stroke the affected central core brain tissue may die while the more peripheral tissues remain alive for many years after the initial insult, depending on the amount of blood the brain tissue receives. Hyperbaric oxygen treatments work to improve stroke and brain traumas by repairing and generating new blood vessels to the injured parts of the brain. This does not occur with pure oxygen at normal atmospheric pressures. During the course of treatments, the tissue begins to repair itself and returns to near-normal.