HBOT in Lyme Disease

Lyme disease soared in the late 1990's as Americans built more and more homes in the woods, bringing people into contact with ticks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it recorded nearly 17,000 cases of Lyme in 1998 and more than 16,000 in 1999, with the vast majority concentrated in the Northeast and Midwest.

Lyme disease causes fatigue, fever and joint pain that can persist for weeks, and some patients develop severe arthritis. Lyme also can badly damage the heart and nervous system if it goes untreated. More than 90 percent of the 1999 cases came from nine states - Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Wisconsin - where deer ticks are most common. Connecticut accounted for one in every six reported cases in 1999. It was in Lyme, Conn., that the disease was discovered in 1975.

If not diagnosed within the first one or two months, the disease can become chronic. At that time, it apparently becomes sequestered in fibroblasts and other cells, which protects it against conventional treatment by all known antibiotics.

The spirochete that causes Lyme disease cannot survive in an oxygen environment of 160 mm Hg (the partial pressure of oxygen in sea level air); however, inspired oxygen at 160 mm Hg only produces 30-35 mm Hg at the tissue level. Thus, breathing ground level air does not cause damage to the spirochete.

Inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber at 2.36 atmospheres, absolute (ata), the partial pressure of oxygen is 1794 mm Hg, and tissue level can be as high as 300 mm Hg which is lethal to the Lyme spirochete. It may require the combination of HBOT and antibiotics together to obtain satisfactory resolution of this disease in certain cases. At present, the use of HBOT for Lyme disease is still investigational, but it is showing a great deal of promise.

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© Copyright 2007 Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico
The information provided by Hyperbaric Medical Center of New Mexico does not constitute a medical recommendation. It is intended for informational purposes only, and no claims, either real or implied, are being made.