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Heart attack, myocardial ischemia

In angina pectoris, you have a literal suffocation of the heart. It simply isn't getting the oxygen it needs because of an insufficient blood supply that ordinarily carries cellular oxygen molecules. This deficiency can be from blocked arteries heading toward the heart, or from a temporary vasoconstriction of those same arteries as occurs in stress. In a heart attack, there is an occlusion, also due to blockage or constriction, but such clogging involves the coronary arteries which actually feed the heart muscle. This lake of nourishing blood to the pumping muscle most commonly leads to "myocardial infarction" (development of a dead part within the heart) and could very well result in the victim's death.

The Long Beach Memorial Hospital's investigation is just one among thousands proving the efficacy of HBO for heart disease. Medical professionals and hyperbaric scientists around the world have proven the benefits of applying HBO for the reduction of actual reversal of most heart disease signs and symptoms. Their presentations are highly significant for furthering heart health. The renowned Russian hyperbaricist Serge I. Rodionov, MD, who practices HBOT in Moscow, told how pharmaceutical agents prescribed for the treatment of cerebrovascular disease, cardiomyopathy, and heart failure are potentiated by hyperbarics. Drug effects increased when the heart patient was placed in a pressure chamber for just one hour per week.

By the date of his 1989 lecture, Dr. Rodionov affirmed there were over 3,000 HBO chambers strategically located around the country, which was then the original Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. And, he said, acceptance of the modality was gaining in the medical community for the treatment of heart disease. Today, just in the newly formed smaller nation of Russia itself, 3,000 chambers have been installed and are functioning. Thirteen Benefits the Heart Receives from Oxygen Under Pressure The nature of heart disease is such that insufficient oxygen is getting to the heart. This results in the various discomforts which affect a patient: difficulty breathing, inability to exert oneself, pressure in the chest, and other problems. Breathing normal air results in a mere 0.3 ml of oxygen dissolving into each 100 ml of blood. Any other oxygen is bound by the hemoglobin attached to red blood cells, and it essentially becomes unavailable. The need in heart disease is to get more oxygen molecules into the body and brain.

Truths about the Heart and HBOT

    From the published scientific papers on HBO, Dr. Steenblock offers thirteen true benefits that the heart receives from exposure to oxygen under pressure. Clinical investigations by prime users of HBO from around the world, especially from Russian exponents, have shown the following heart advantages:

    1. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy applied to the heart during critical loss of oxygen exerts a remarkable defibrillating effect so that tremulous, rapid, ineffectual contractions are prevented; total death of the heart muscle cells is avoided; and abnormal dilation of the blood vessels with subsequent complications is controlled.
    2. Using HBOT in conjunction with various drugs enhances the effectiveness of both the oxygen and the drugs.
    3. Combining HBOT with drugs completely arrests or considerably reduces angina attacks in patients otherwise resistant to prolonged drug treatment.
    4. Patients with cardiac pain from ischemic heart disease experience total relief, along with disappearance of dyspnea (difficulty breathing), when they receive HBOT.
    5. Administering HBOT lowered elevated blood cholesterol in all 220 patients cited in a study conducted by the Russian internist Dr. S.A. Borukhov and her colleagues.
    6. HBOT normalized electrocardiograms in all patients in that same Soviet study.
    7. For diminished muscular power of the heart, HBO exerts long-term normalizing effects for circulating blood through the body.
    8. HBOT exerts antiarrhythmic action on the heart.
    9. HBOT increases heart patients' tolerance to hard work and taking on physical loads
    10. HBO taken at three atmospheres of pressure (a pressure rarely used in the United States) protects any individual's heart from damages due to lack of oxygen.
    11. One's entire heart conduction system functions better from receiving HBO treatment (even when prophylactically administered).
    12. Without taking drugs of any kind, breathing oxygen under pressure stabilizes impaired fat metabolism and improves liver function for someone with ischemic heart disease.
    13. Due to its characteristic of mollifying stress and distress, HBO has long-term and short-term protective effects for a person with a heart problem.

Research References

  1. Dmitrieva, E.M., et al. "Hyperbaric oxygenation in experimental therapy of acute regional hypoxia of the myocardium and brain." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, pp. 276-277.
  2. Glants, B.R. "Therapeutic effects of mercazol in combination with hyperbaric oxygenation in the treatment of acute myocardial hypoxia." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, p. 275.
  3. Kogan, A.H., et al. "The question of the use of antioxidants, beta-adrenergic blockers, and cardiac glycosides in oxygen therapy of acute myocardial infarction." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, pp. 275-276.
  4. Yefuni, S.N., et al. "The use of hyperbaric oxygenation in combined therapy of acute myocardial infarction." In. Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, pp. 264-265.
  5. Zamotaev, I.P. et al. "Hyperbaric oxygenation in the treatment of ischemic heart disease and peptic ulcer of stomach and duodenum." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, p. 269.
  6. Op. Cit. Yefuni, S.N.
  7. Kolomeitseva, S.P., et al. "Hyperbaric oxygenation as an adjunct in the treatment of ischemic heart disease." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, p. 266.
  8. Kuleschova, M.R., et al. "Physical rehabilitation of patients with ischemic heart disease using hyperbaric oxygenation." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, pp. 268-269.
  9. Golyakov, V.N., et al. "Hemostasis in patients with ischemic heart disease during hyperbaric oxygenation." Klin. Med. (Mosk) 64(2): 92-95, 1986.
  10. Borukhov, S.A., et al. "HBO effect on clinico-biochemical blood indexes in patients with ischemic heart disease." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, pp. 271-272.
  11. Ashfield, R., et al. "Severe acute myocardial infarction treated with hyperbaric oxygen. Report on forty patients." Postgrad. Med. J. 45:648-654, October 1969.
  12. Op. Cit. Borukhov, S.A.
  13. Ibid.
  14. Isakov, Y.V., et al. "Hyperbaric oxygenation in combined treatment of paroxysmal tachyarrhythmias, in ischemic heart disease." Kardiologiia 21(4):42-45, April 1981.
  15. Ivleva, V.I., et al. "Effect of hyperbaric oxygenation on the activity of the sympathoadrenal and Kallikrein-Kinin systems of blood in some disorders of cardiac rhythm." Ter Arkh 53(5):66-68, 1981.
  16. Malinovsky, N.N., et al. "The use of hyperbaric oxygenation in cardiac arrhythmia." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, pp. 284-285.
  17. Timchuk, I.D., et al. "Hyperbaric oxygenation in complex treatment of patients with disorders of rhythm and conduction of heart." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, p. 286.
  18. Op. Cit. Kolomeitseva, S.P.
  19. Kulkybaev, G.A., et al. "Functional state of the cardiovascular system and lungs of patients with chronic ischemic heart disease under conditions of hyperbaric oxygenation." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, pp. 269-270.
  20. Kostyukov, V.V., et al. "Coronary circulation and oxygen regime of the myocardium at a low cardiac output and HBO." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, p. 276.
  21. Rugenyus, Y.Y., et al. "The effect of hyperbaric oxygenation on the conductive system of the heart in patients with ischemic heart disease." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, p. 271.
  22. Zhumanov, K.D., et al. "A study on metabolic indexes in patients with chronic ischemic heart disease subjected to hyperbaric oxygenation." In: Abstracts VII Int. Cong. HBO Medicine, Moscow, Sept. 2-6, 1981, pp. 270-271.
  23. Op. Cit. Ashfield, R.
  24. "Hyperbaric unit puts pressure on heart deaths." Medical World News, May 24, 1968.
  25. Tufano, R., et al. "Hyperbaric oxygen effects on pain relief in patients with vascular disease." J. Hyperbaric Medicine, Vol. 3, No. 1, 1988.
  26. Visona, A., et al. "Hyperbaric oxygenation in the treatment of peripheral vascular disease." J. Hyperbaric Medicine, Vol. 2, No. 4, 1987.
  27. Trimble, V.H. The Uncertain Miracle: Hyperbaric Oxygenation. (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), pp. 124 - 127.
  28. Walker, Morton, Hyperbaric Oxygen and Your Heart, Medical Journal