The patient, made comfortable on a cotlike stretcher, is rolled into the chamber, which is then sealed shut. While in the chamber, which is equipped with microphones and speakers, the patient can watch TV, listen to the radio, read, nap, or talk with the chamber operator or whoever is outside. During therapy, usually lasting one hour, the patient is surrounded by and inhales pure oxygen while pressure within the chamber is increased to twice the outside pressure, equivalent to what a diver would experience at approximately 30 feet below the surface of the water. At the end of the treatment, the patient is gradually decompressed to normal pressure. It is only in the last few years that hyperbaric oxygen has come to be used in conjunction with chelation therapy.
Preliminary results are exciting.
Patients with cerebral vascular disease recover from complications of strokes more readily when these two treatments are combined. Senile patients, including those with Alzheimer's type, respond better to both therapies than either one alone. The same holds true for gangrenous legs and feet caused by blocked circulation. Hyperbaric oxygen rapidly relieves pain, helps eliminate infection, and keeps the threatened tissues alive while chelation therapy gradually improves circulation. The main drawback to hyperbaric oxygen is the difficulty of securing treatment due to the extreme shortage of hyperbaric oxygen chambers.