HBOT Conversations Ep 3 | Dr. Harch - Intro to Inflammation

HBOT News podcast host, Edward di Girolamo, talks with special guest and HBOT expert, Dr. Paul G. Harch, MD. This is the first of nine episodes with Dr. Harch examining the God-given miracle of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

In this episode, we dive into how HBOT is a game-changer for inflammation.  Harch explains that inflammation is the driving factor for countless chronic illnesses, but thankfully Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is a natural proven way to suppress inflammation. 

Harch summarizes a fascinating study done in 2008, by Dr. Cassandra Godman. Her team took skin biopsies and extracted the normal tissue, then they examined the cells that lined the tiniest blood vessels in the tissue. Next, they put these cells in a petri dish and put them in a hyperbaric chamber and gave him a single hyperbaric treatment. Afterwards, they did a mass gene array analysis for 48 hours. What happened next was ground-breaking in better understanding the role that HBOT has on inflammation.

At the end of 24 hours 8,101 of our 19,000 protein coding genes in our 23 chromosomes were either significantly turned on or turned off & suppressed. That single HBOT treatment turned on the anti-inflammatory genes and the growth and repair hormone genes, and the largest cluster suppressed were the pro-inflammatory genes.

Our inflammatory reaction is inescapable when an injury occurs. But, when the patient receives hyperbaric oxygen therapy treatment after an injury (the sooner the better), it can have an overwhelming positive influence on the inflammatory reaction at any place along the spectrum. Harch continues to explain that the anti-inflammatory effects of hyperbaric oxygen are wide-ranging.

Harch spoke of the Navy’s experience with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, as the Navy really kind of dominated this field for many years. The Navy reported that if you can get someone in a chamber within one hour of coming out of the water – when they’re symptomatic for decompression sickness – then the first hyperbaric treatment is curative in 90% of cases. Everyone thought that HBOT was treating bubbles in the brain at that point, but the reality is they were treating inflammation. We now know that it’s the inflammatory reaction in the brain after the bubbles passed that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is treating; not the bubbles.

HBOT isn’t new, it dates back well over a hundred years. It’s still misunderstood, because many believe that HBOT therapy is a treatment for diseases. But, the reality is that HBOT is a treatment for disease processes, and it’s these processes that cause the diseases. We treat the inflammation that causes the disease processes, and in turn we treat the disease. That’s the power of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.

Stay tuned for all nine episodes that will be release each Friday for the next eight weeks.