Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Improves Autism

Post Reply New Topic

Know anything about this? Found the article on my a natural news site and the addy is www.naturalnews.com

Sounds "too good to be true", be careful. I would like to see some real evidence for this treatment. Have you got any other information about this treatment.

I will have to search the literature and then consider this question, but while you are waiting do not hold your breath !

Oh dear, double post. Sorry.

Last edited by Woodpecker on 04 May 2009, 10:54 am, edited 1 time in total.

Don't worry I won't

I wanted to toss it out as there are so many knowledgable people here. I would like to think my daughter will have a better shot with a satisfying life should she have ADD or whatever issues especially in social situations.

I just keep hoping she won't have to face as much descrimination and NT attitude, as the older generation has, as medicine and science only continues to improve.

Last edited by Pook on 04 May 2009, 12:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Shouldn't the control group have had unpressurized air (1atm)?

Also, I think the sample size is much too small, with a age range that is too great, to give meaningful data. I would like to see this study recreated at a greater scale, and perhaps have a child in the control group one day, pressurized group the next, and see if there is a difference within an individual. I would also like to see if there are any long-term benefits. I could say drinking alcohol allows me to be more sociable and make more eye contact, however I can't be drunk all the time. Just as these kids can't go around breathing pressurized air all time.

Hyperbaric oxygen treatment is the latest "fad" circulating in society now...so, why not attempt to use it as a potential "cure"
for Autism?

There is no real "truth" in this current craze...but, if breathing all that extra oxygen appears to make you feel better, do it.
Just bear one thing in mind: a fool and his money are often too easily parted.

The article is in BMC Pediatrics, 2009, volume 9, article number 21.

I have taken a quick look at the text, but I can not make a judgement yet about it.

One problem I see right now is the mechanism of the treatment. If Temple Grandin (thinking in pictures) is right and that autism is caused by the brain being wired differently, then high preasure oxygen will not alter it. I see no way that extra oxygen can make a auties brain change to NT. If I was to place a bet my money would be on the ideas put formward by Temple Grandin

Also the study excluded children with aspergers, I would like to know why as AS is a common form of autism.

Having a fever IMHO is similar to being drunk. I've seen studies about driving impairment of people while being ill.

Look at this and other references to autism and having a fever: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/08/healt ... 8symp.html

I know a couple of people who have tried this with their kids and it didn't improve anything.

I have done some calculations and the oxygen partial pressure is not that high, it is only 0.312 Atm while we normally are breathing is about 0.20 to 0.21 Atm O2. If it is just the p(O2) alone then there is no need to increase the overall value of P.

I would like to know if the people doing the study had considered an oxygen enriched air (31 %) with a total P of 1 Atm. I know that some PET and fNMR work has been reported where the brains of auties and aspies have been found to function differently to NTs. If the oxygen hypothesis is correct then an adult aspie's brain would change its behaviour when p(O2) is changed.

I would like to point out that too much oxygen is toxic to humans, what I do know about humans and air & gases for breathing tells me that I know too little to know at what point p(O2) becomes too high to be safe for humans but I know that the oxygen level used in this treatment does make fire a much more nasty animal. I know that fire takes on a new and nasty life when the O2 level goes up a little. The fire which tore through a US space (Apollo 1) was very nasty becuase of the fact that the oxygen concentration in the space ship was so high.