We enroll our children in contact sports everyday and with that bring a risk of injury. Recently, the news has highlighted these injuries that occur; parents know that there are ways to help your child stay healthy as well as avenues to help them heal if they are injured.
School sports definitely have their place in our lives. Sports improve our children’s self esteem, creates innovation, promotes teamwork, and supports strengthening their minds and bodies. The trick is how do you keep your child safe and uninjured while they participate? Some of the more obvious answers are ensuring your child listen to their coaches and stretches effectively, warming up those muscles before heavy exercise; eating a healthy diet with lots of hydration to support them during strenuous activities; and getting the necessary daily vitamins to support strong bone development and muscle repair. The listed suggestions are great to keep your child healthy, but what do you do when your child has an accident and injures them self. As all parents do we rush our kids to the necessary physicians to have them treated, and now we have a whinny child that hates to be cooped up with recovery time while they miss a season of sports and fun. There is a solution! Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is an effective treatment to aid healing and cut down your recovery times. If you child is suffering from minor injuries to something more sever like a concussion the benefits to Hyperbaric therapy is endless. Below is listed clinical information about Hyperbarics as it pertains to concussions, but the repairs to muscle or sports injury are similar.
In 1982 Sukoff and Ragatz demonstrated that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, or HBOT, could reverse the effects of brain damage. This same finding was duplicated in a study by Rockswold and his associates in 2001. According to Dr. Rockswold, “There’s a direct correlation between clinical outcome and the degree to which the brain’s metabolism is restored. In previous research we learned that the brain’s energy production is improved and maintained with hyperbaric oxygen treatment, but this study confirms that hyperbaric oxygen treatment has a major impact in terms of increased energy production.”
At the Eighth World Congress of the International Brain Injury Association, Dr. Paul Harch presented similar findings. Military veterans with brain injuries were given HBOT only, and the results were impressive. On average there was a 15 point increase in IQ within about one month of starting treatment. In addition, there was a 51% decrease in depression, and a 400% improvement in post-concussion symptoms such as headache and sleep disturbances.
Dr. David Amen has recently disclosed the results of research performed with NFL players. More than 100 men were given studies to measure the blood flow and electrical activity of the brain. They were also given a group of tests to measure how well the brain was functioning. The conclusion: football can lead to long term injuries if not treated.
But the good news is that these effects can be reversed or prevented, again duplicating the work presented by other researchers. Dr. Amen used a combination of supplements, HBOT, and mental exercises to help these men improve their brain function by up to 400%, thereby reversing side effects and strengthening the mind and body.
Dr. Theodore Cole, Medical Director of Cincinnati Hyperbarics, has seen similar outcomes: “Over the last ten years we’ve had exceptional results using a combination of nutritional agents, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, and other approaches. Most people don’t realize that even one concussion or sports related injury can produce life-long effects. I suggest that anyone having any type of sports related injury be treated as soon as possible.”
Contact our offices and we would be happy to discuss treatment options.