Drowning Risk? Unexpected Effect of Deep Brain Stimulation Surfaces

November 29, 2019    Damian McNamara 

An unexpected, and potentially life-threatening, side effect of deep brain stimulation for Parkinson disease (PD) has surfaced.

A case series of nine PD patients who had been surgically implanted with subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulators (STN-DBSs) shows that although the device improved other movement symptoms, patients' swimming skills deteriorated.

"Awareness is the most important goal" of highlighting these cases, senior investigator Christian Baumann, MD, of the University of Zurich in Switzerland, told Medscape Medical News. "Neurologists treating patients undergoing deep brain stimulation in the subthalamic nucleus should know that this potentially life-threatening side effect might occur on stimulation."

"Until more research is done to determine why some people with deep brain stimulation can no longer swim, it is crucial that people be told now of the potential risk of drowning and the need for a carefully supervised assessment of their swimming skills before going into deep water," study coauthor Daniel Waldvogel, MD, said in a statement.

Deeper Dive Needed

All nine patients had been proficient swimmers even after their having been diagnosed with PD, and some had even been competitive swimmers.

In one instance, a 69-year-old PD patient who was an experienced and proficient swimmer had to be saved from drowning. The man reportedly felt confident about his ability to swim because his STN-DBS device had improved his motor abilities, so much so that he "literally jumped into the lake.

"On dry land, all nine patients in the case series were "highly satisfied" with their motor outcomes and neuropsychological function after DBS surgery. However, in the water, they lost the ability to perform the breaststroke, backstroke, or crawl.

Three of the nine patients turned off their DBS implants and were immediately able to swim. However, because their other movement symptoms worsened, they switched on their devices as soon as possible.

"Swimming is a highly coordinated movement that requires complicated arm and leg coordination. Exactly how deep brain stimulation is interfering with this ability needs to be determined," said Waldvogel.

Previous research has shown that either DBS or levodopa can improve simultaneous task execution in PD patients, and the fact that "several patients lost their ability to swim was therefore unexpected, particularly because the surgical procedure was considered successful, given the improvement in motor symptoms and quality of life," the researchers note.

The investigators used intraoperative microelectrode recordings, macroelectrode test stimulation, and postoperative imaging to rule out electrode migration as a potential cause of the phenomenon.

Baumann said there is a concern that this side effect may not be limited to swimming.

"We have found that complex motor behaviors which have been learnt and are co-regulated by basal ganglia structures may be affected. Apart from swimming, this might, for instance, also include skiing, playing golf, and skating."

"Until the mechanism of the reported deterioration of the ability to swim after STN-DBS is elucidated, it is crucial that we advise patients of the potential risk of drowning and the need for a carefully supervised assessment of their swimming skills before going into deep water," the investigators write.

The research is ongoing. "We have started looking at the interplay between neuronal signaling, different motor behaviors, and deep brain stimulation, and we will follow this route," Baumann said.

Waldvogel noted that the report includes only a few cases and that more research is necessary. "Even though these reports affected only a few people, we felt this potential risk was serious enough to alert others with Parkinson's disease, as well as their families and doctors," he said.

Network Effect? 

Commenting on the report for Medscape Medical News, Leo Verhagen, MD, PhD, Rush University in Chicago, Illinois, noted that this finding echoes a single case report from Australia published in 2016 in which a PD patient was unable to coordinate arm, leg, and trunk movements while swimming.

"As in the present study, this patient had been an excellent swimmer and regained his skills when stimulation was turned off," said Verhagen.

"Apparently in some patients, DBS interferes with the automatic, smooth execution of coordinated movements that are essential in swimming. The fact that this has not been recognized earlier suggests that this issue does not occur universally after DBS," said Verhagen, who is also director of the Movement Disorder Interventional Program, Rush University Medical Center.

Verhagen pointed out that the proficient swimmers in the report represent a subpopulation.

"Not all patients with Parkinson's disease swim, and of those who do, there may have only been a few who considered themselves good swimmers in the past, and even fewer who considered themselves still good swimmers immediately prior to surgery.

"So, it is entirely possible that impaired coordination of limbs and trunk during swimming occurs in many individuals after DBS but has gone largely unnoticed," he said.

He added that the investigators should be "commended for not letting this potential hazard escape our attention."

Also commenting on the findings, Mitra Afshari, MD, MPH, an assistant professor of neurologic sciences at Rush University, said that clinically, the results are "very relevant in terms of the day-to-day care of our patients and the recommendations we make for postoperative care.

"This case series of PD patients with subthalamic nucleus DBS stimulation causing rapid, and reversible, inability to swim is very interesting, and from my perspective reflects the complexity of the subthalamic region," Afshari, who is also affiliated with the Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders Program at Rush, told Medscape Medical News. 

Although people commonly think of the STN as a distinct nucleus, "it is actually a white matter tract containing several diverse axons with varying inputs and outputs, carrying motor, limbic, and associative functions," he noted.

"Another piece that would add to the discussion of these mysterious findings and perhaps provide further clarity" is if future research reveals similar effects when the globus pallidus-interna (GPi), a second target in PD, is stimulated, Afshari said.

Verhagen agreed about looking beyond the STN.

"The DBS target is perhaps less relevant: the earlier case report involved DBS in the caudal zona incerta ― the posterior subthalamic area, not the STN ― and the same study mentions three other, less documented cases of drowning after lesioning and/or DBS of thalamus and GPi.

"This underscores that DBS has an impact on a network rather than just a specific area," he said.

The investigators, Afshari, and Verhagen have disclosed no relevant financial relationships.

https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/921956?src=rss#vp_2

Researchers test Parkinson's disease treatment

Nov. 28, 2019

A Japanese university team has started a clinical trial of a treatment for Parkinson's disease that uses weak ultrasonic waves to burn off abnormal nerve cells.

Parkinson's is a progressive disease in which patients gradually lose their ability to move. Their limbs may tremble and the body becomes rigid. The disease is caused by abnormalities in the cells responsible for the production of dopamine, a brain chemical that sends mobility signals to other parts of the body.

An Osaka University team, led by Professor Hideki Mochizuki, started a clinical trial this month. The experimental treatment involves applying weak ultrasound waves on some of the abnormal nerve cells from about 1,000 directions. The team says the pinpoint method can eliminate the risk of damaging other parts of the brain.

The treatment method has been studied in Spain for patients with relatively slight symptoms. Doctors say it is not able to cure the disease completely but is expected to alleviate the symptoms.

Ten patients will be monitored over the next year to check the safety and efficacy of the treatment.

The team is hoping that the ultrasound wave method will be established as a standard treatment that can be covered by health insurance.

An estimated 150,000 people in Japan have Parkinson's.

To watch video:

https://www3.nhk.or.jp/nhkworld/en/news/20191128_34/

Courage in the Face of Fear

 NOVEMBER 27, 2019     BY "SHERRI WOODBRIDGE"

We all fear something. Some of us fear death. Some of us fear being left alone. Others have a fear of failure. This journey we are on can be full of treks through deep, dark forests, roads full of potholes, and mountains we must climb.

When I hear the word fear, I almost always think of Psalm 23. It is one of the Bible verses kids learn early on in Sunday school. It talks about not fearing what might come: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,” I will not fear.

The shadow of death

What is “walking through the valley of the shadow of death?” I think the shadow of death is anything that casts darkness over our lives. Surgeries, chronic diseases, and heart problems can fall under the shadow of death. The list could also include a dying marriage or a wayward child. Walking in a dark valley can bring a fear to fruition, leaving us to experience undue anxiety, an agitated spirit, and feelings of desperation.

Parkinson’s disease has a way of causing us to fear. But there is a way to deflect it.

When fear immobilizes us, faith can overcome that fear and give us much-needed courage. Faith speaks to our hearts, telling us a better day is coming. Faith walks with us through the valleys, shining a light ahead so our hope does not fail. It keeps us walking when we feel like collapsing and giving up.

Hope

Fear loses its power when we take a deep breath of courage and keep moving forward, refusing to give in. Courage can stand and fight when fear breathes down its neck. Courage faces diseases and refuses to stand down.

Courage refuses to give up. Courage is a state of mind that embraces the here and now and holds out for hope. I have seen people with Parkinson’s disease embrace it with both hands, determined to make the best of it. Do they have a secret that allows them immunity over the fear of Parkinson’s or any other illness? 

No. Instead, they have chosen to ax the fear and live courageously with unrelenting hope. A hope that speaks to their spirit and gives them courage as they choose to believe that change is coming. A hope that says change is possible.

Take heart

When the fear ogre comes to tamper with your courage, know that you have a band of comrades standing (or sitting) with you on the front lines. They are ready to do battle on your behalf.

You may feel as if the load you carry is unbearable. You may wonder whether you will make it another day with the pain and stiffness, the immobility, and more. Embrace the courage within you — no matter how small it may seem — and grab hold of the hope it offers. And don’t let go.

***

Note: Parkinson’s News Today is strictly a news and information website about the disease. It does not provide medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. This content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay in seeking it because of something you have read on this website. The opinions expressed in this column are not those of Parkinson’s News Today or its parent company, BioNews Services, and are intended to spark discussion about issues pertaining to Parkinson’s disease.

https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/2019/11/27/courage-fear-hope/

New Large-Scale Data Portal Will Promote Parkinson’s Treatment Development

NOVEMBER 27, 2019   BY MARY CHAPMAN 

The Accelerating Medicines Partnership (AMP) for Parkinson’s (PD) has opened a data portal with de-identified information from 4,298 Parkinson’s patients and healthy control subjects for use by scientists seeking new treatments for the progressive neurodegenerative disease.

With unprecedented access to a data pool of this scale, investigators now can examine intricate data sets and conduct full-scale genomic analyses.

“AMP PD is a true example of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts,” said Walter Koroshetz, MD, director of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), in a press release. “The combination of many data sets could allow researchers greater power to analyze potential biomarkers for Parkinson’s disease. This effort follows other AMP programs which have the shared goal of changing the way we go about the business of studying disease.”

Launched in 2014, the AMP is a public-private partnership between the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), multiple biopharmaceutical and life sciences companies, and non-profit organizations. Its goal is to transform the current model for developing new diagnostics and therapies by collaboratively identifying and validating promising biological treatment targets. The overarching mission is to develop new diagnostics and therapies relatively faster and at less cost.

Initial projects included Alzheimer’s disease, Type 2 diabetes, and rheumatoid arthritis, and lupus.

Last January, the AMP project on PD was launched. Managed by the Foundation of the National Institutes of Health (FNIH), the project includes the NIH, FDA, the Michael J. Fox Foundation (MJFF) for Parkinson’s Research, Celgene, Verily Life Sciences, Pfizer, Sanofiand GSK.

This project’s aim is to speed therapy development by providing the expertise and support necessary to learn which biomarkers demonstrate the most promise for predicting PD and disease progression. Biomarkers are molecular disease indicators.

“One important part of this platform is that, in addition to providing a place for storing complex data, we are also providing the tools to analyze that data within the platform itself,” said Debra Babcock, MD, PhD, NINDS program director and co-chair of the AMP PD steering committee. “In this way, we are bringing scientists to the data, which will increase opportunities for collaboration.”

Data in the officially named AMP PD Knowledge Portal was collected through the MJFF, NINDS and several other programs, studies and institutions. It includes information from samples of DNA, RNA, plasma, and cerebrospinal fluid, which is the liquid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord. The portal also offers a platform that can assimilate additional types and sources of data. For example, there is an upcoming study involving proteomics, the large-scale study of proteins.

With the longitudinal data in the portal, scientists can study patients’ information throughout the disease course. And, the data have been harmonized, allowing for comparison of information from different programs, and providing best practices for how to incorporate into the platform data from the PD community.

“The AMP model has provided a unique platform for bringing together diverse patient cohorts, advances in technology and scientific expertise to study Parkinson’s disease on a scale that has not been attempted before,” said David Wholley, senior vice president, research partnerships, FNIH. “With the AMP PD Knowledge Portal, we are helping the scientific community worldwide to fast-track discoveries that we hope will ultimately help Parkinson’s disease patients and their families.”

Scientists may visit this site: (https://amp-pd.org/register-for-amp-pd )  to apply for access to the knowledge portal and interact with the data set.

Globally, roughly 7 to 10 million individuals have Parkinson’s, the second most common neurodegenerative disorder after Alzheimer’s disease.

https://parkinsonsnewstoday.com/2019/11/27/accelerating-medicines-partnership-opens-large-scale-data-portal-promote-pd-treatment-development/

Beware of swimming if you use deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's

NOVEMBER 27, 2019   by American Academy of Neurology

A surgical team prepared a patient for deep brain stimulation surgery in Hungary. Doctors warn that several patients who were good swimmers and had an implant to ease their Parkinson’s symptoms were unable to swim when the implants were on.

Researchers have identified nine cases of people who lost their ability to swim after having a deep brain stimulation device implanted to control symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The new research is published in the November 27, 2019, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. All nine people had been good swimmers even after their Parkinson's disease diagnosis. But once they had deep brain stimulation surgery, researchers found while other movement symptoms improved, their swimming skills deteriorated.

"Until more research is done to determine why some people with deep brain stimulation can no longer swim, it is crucial that people be told now of the potential risk of drowning and the need for a carefully supervised assessment of their swimming skills before going into deep water," said author Daniel Waldvogel, MD, of the University of Zurich in Switzerland.

For deep brain stimulation, electrodes are placed in certain areas of the brain to control abnormal movements. The electrodes are connected to a device placed under the skin in the upper chest. The device controls the electrical impulses.

Of the nine documented cases, three are highlighted in the research paper. Each person's movement symptoms improved after deep brain stimulation.

A 69-year-old man who was a good swimmer and lived on a lake jumped into the water after deep brain stimulation. Since his movement symptoms had improved, he thought would be able to swim. But he could not. He told researchers he would have drowned if he hadn't been rescued by a family member.

A 59-year-old woman who was a competitive swimmer and continued to swim after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease was no longer able to swim after deep brain stimulation. Even after practice, she never regained her former ability level.

A 61-year-old woman who swam in competitions crossing Lake Zurich, which is two miles wide, could barely swim two-tenths of a mile after deep brain stimulation. She complained of awkward posture when trying to swim.

Three of the nine people turned off their deep brain stimulation devices and were immediately able to swim. But because their other movement symptoms worsened, they switched on their devices again.

"Swimming is a highly coordinated movement that requires complicated arm and leg coordination," said Waldvogel. "Exactly how deep brain stimulation is interfering with this ability needs to be determined."

Waldvogel noted that the report includes only a few cases. More research is needed in large groups of people to determine the percentage of people with Parkinson's disease who lose their ability to swim with deep brain stimulation.

"Even though these reports affected only a few people, we felt this potential risk was serious enough to alert others with Parkinson's disease, as well as their families and doctors," he said.Journal information: Neurology

Provided by American Academy of Neurology 

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-11-beware-deep-brain-parkinson.html

Researchers have identified nine cases of people who lost their ability to swim after having a deep brain stimulation device implanted to control symptoms of Parkinson's disease. The new research is published in the November 27, 2019, online issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. All nine people had been good swimmers even after their Parkinson's disease diagnosis. But once they had deep brain stimulation surgery, researchers found while other movement symptoms improved, their swimming skills deteriorated.Credit..Bernadett Szabo/Reuters

Screening tech advances early detection of Parkinson's disease

NOVEMBER 27, 2019    by RMIT University

Left to right: Jesse Medical's Chenghong Li (Director) and Jianpeng Zhai (CEO) with RMIT University's Professor Dinesh Kumar. Credit: RMIT University

Screening technology to catch Parkinson's disease in its earliest stages could be available within three years, following an agreement between RMIT University and start-up company Jesse Medical.

The pioneering technology analyses the results of specialised drawing and writing tasks to differentiate between people with and without the condition. More than 10 million people worldwide are estimated to be living with Parkinson's disease.

Many treatment options for Parkinson's are only effective when the condition is caught early but by the time patients show any commonly recognisable symptoms, many nerve cells in the brain have already suffered irreversible damage.

The new tool can spot the disease when there are no obvious symptoms and can also be used to monitor Parkinson's patients after diagnosis, to better manage their condition.

A research agreement with Jesse Medical gives the Australian start-up exclusive rights to commercialise the RMIT-developed technology and will enable further patient trials.

Professor Dinesh Kumar said giving doctors and nurses the tools to screen for Parkinson's would enable patients to receive treatment far earlier than ever before.

"Early detection is critical because we know that by the time someone starts to experience tremors or rigidity, it may already be too late for medication to be effective," Kumar said.

"It's long been known that Parkinson's Disease affects muscle control and habitual activities, so it affects how patients write and draw.

Drawing a spiral by joining dots is one of seven dexterity tasks in the screening test. Credit: RMIT University

"Our technology translates that insight into a reliable assessment tool.

"The agreement with Jesse Medical is an exciting step in bringing this much-needed technology into the hands of clinicians, to benefit the many people around the world affected by this condition."

Focus on dexterity: how the screening tech works

The screening test involves the completion of seven dexterity tasks on a drawing tablet, including simple writing, writing with memory load and drawing a spiral by joining dots.

The test is able to create a patient-specific baseline for the different aspects of complex Parkinson's symptoms.

The data are transmitted over the cloud and customised software records the results and analyses them in real time.

The software is readily compatible with existing technologies, so the only equipment needed to run the screening test is a pen, paper and drawing tablet.

Successful trials demonstrating the efficacy of the screening test have been published in the Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics, Journal of Neurologyand Frontiers in Neurology.

Professor Dinesh Kumar, RMIT University. Credit: RMIT University

The research team has refined an earlier version of the technology, which had an accuracy rate of 93%, to take into account the effects of medication on the disease. This means it can also now be used for monitoring the effectiveness of treatment and the severity of the condition.

The new technology is also able to provide more details to clinicians regarding patient symptoms.

"Parkinson's is a complex multi-symptom disease, with individual patients exhibiting any number of these symptoms," Kumar said.

"The standard multi-modal physical tests carried out by clinicians to monitor its progress inherently carry a level of subjectivity.

"Our technology is completely objective and it's highly sensitive for both improvements and deterioration in dexterity.

"As our population ages, the number of people living with Parkinson's is expected to increase dramatically, so knowing more precisely how the disease is progressing and understanding the effect of different treatments will be crucial in helping them manage their condition."

The technology was developed by the RMIT biomedical engineering research team in the School of Engineering, which specialises in e-health and affordable diagnostic technologies.

Further patient trials are set to start in Australia and China in mid- 2020, with the technology expected to be commercially available by 2022.

More information: Poonam Zham et al. Effect of levodopa on handwriting tasks of different complexity in Parkinson's disease: a kinematic study, Journal of Neurology (2019). DOI: 10.1007/s00415-019-09268-2

Poonam Zham et al. A Kinematic Study of Progressive Micrographia in Parkinson's Disease, Frontiers in Neurology (2019). DOI: 10.3389/fneur.2019.00403

Poonam Zham et al. Efficacy of Guided Spiral Drawing in the Classification of Parkinson's Disease. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics ( Volume: 22 , Issue: 5 , Sept. 2018 ) 10.1109/JBHI.2017.2762008

Journal information:Journal Frontiers in Neurology, Journal of Neurology 

Provided by RMIT University

https://medicalxpress.com/news/2019-11-screening-tech-advances-early-parkinson.htm

IT’S LIKE BEING ALIVE AGAIN’: POCATELLO HYPERBARIC OXYGEN THERAPY CLINIC CHANGING LIVES

November 26, 2019   By Danae Lenz 

POCATELLO — For Sean Ennis, hyperbaric oxygen therapy was a life-changer.

He had fatigue and a variety of health issues that led to him losing his job as an insurance agent and head in a downward spiral. After years of living with those conditions and going through other treatments and prescriptions, he finally tried out hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, and slowly his life got back on track.

“I was dealing with health issues for about six years, and it was kind of on and off just having problems with feeling really tired and not being able to think clearly,” said Ennis, 30, of Pocatello. “It started getting really bad at the beginning of the year. I’d been going to doctors over the years and trying a bunch of different things. Nothing ever helped.”

Finally, his dad told him about HBOT and urged him to try it, saying, “There’s nothing else to lose.”

At first, only his family members saw changes, but then Ennis sprained an ankle and kept going to his HBOT sessions while it healed, and he noticed the injury healed significantly faster than similar injuries he’d had in the past. Then he was hooked.

“I noticed my memory started coming back. I started having more energy,” Ennis said. “I had random pain throughout my body that went away. The light sensitivity I was having — I’d wear sunglasses a lot because it would bother me — that went away. I’m just sticking with it, and I keep getting better and better. Sometimes I have short instances where I feel like I’m all better, and that’s getting longer and longer. It’s like it’s given me my whole life back. It’s a huge difference.”

Now, having done 80 treatments, Ennis feels like he is ready to get a job again.

“As I get better, I can go back to work again,” Ennis said. “I can remember stuff. I can multitask again. I can stay awake. It’s like being alive again.”

Ennis is just one of many success stories that have come out of Idaho Hyperbarics, a privately owned facility at 1125 W. Alameda Road in Pocatello.

HBOT is used to treat a wide variety of injuries, illnesses and diseases — including traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder, wounds, carbon monoxide poisoning, Parkinson’s disease, stroke, chronic fatigue, burns, macular degeneration, cerebral palsy and more. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration only has 13 approved uses for HBOT, but the owner of Idaho Hyperbarics, Jeff Hampsten, says he has seen success stories in more than just people with those 13 approved conditions.

He said HBOT has rare, mild side effects (mainly short-term nearsightedness) and at worst the conditions his clients come in with stay the same instead of getting worse after trying HBOT.

“It’s probably the safest medical treatment you can do that’s effective for multitudes of things, that has pretty much zero side effects,” Hampsten said.

Ennis agreed.

“I don’t really see any downside to it other than you tried it and it didn’t work,” Ennis said. “Every single person I’ve talked to, whether they’ve seen amazing results or just so-so results with the treatment, everyone’s like, ‘I feel happier. My mood is better. Maybe it didn’t cure me, but at least I feel better.’”

The 20-patient hyperbaric chamber at Idaho Hyperbarics looks somewhat like a submarine, and the inside looks like different nature scenes.

Ennis said people do all sorts of things during the 45-minute sessions, during which the patients are wearing clear plastic hoods that circulate oxygen.

“You just sit back and read a book or color something. Some people play cards or talk,” Ennis said. “It’s just kind of whatever you want to do. A lot of people, they read for a bit and then they put their head back and take a nap. It’s very relaxed.”

HOW DOES HBOT WORK?

According to an Idaho Hyperbarics brochure, “HBOT is a non-invasive, painless treatment that helps speed up and enhance the body’s natural ability to heal itself. Studied for over 300 years, HBOT helps alleviate an enormous range of ailments. Historically used for deep-sea divers with decompression sickness, HBOT is used world-wide to help heal patients who suffer from a broad range of illness and disease.”

During HBOT sessions, air pressure is increased to 1.5 to three times the normal level of Earth’s atmosphere, resulting in up to 20 times as much oxygen.

“When they change (the pressure), it’s like when you go for a drive up in the mountains or you go on an airplane flight,” Ennis said. “It’s not very bad.”

Hampsten explained the process like this.

“The simplest way to understand it is it’s like a bottle of pop,” he said. “When you’ve got pressure on a bottle of pop, it holds more dissolved gas. Well, (the human body) is liquid just like the pop, so when you go under higher than normal pressure, instead of just carrying oxygen on your hemoglobin like you normally do, it actually dissolves into the plasma in the lung. From there, it goes out to your body and it profuses. It dissolves into all the tissues in your body. Some faster than others. Lymphatic fluid takes it up very quickly. Muscle tissue takes it up not as quickly. Bones take it up, not as quick as muscle, but all the different tissues in your body absorb more (oxygen). So by changing the pressure you’re actually changing the way your uptake happens.”

Hampsten added, “Your plasma, the majority of your blood, is not necessarily carrying much (oxygen). It carries a little, but not very much. So when you go under higher than normal pressure, your hemoglobin saturation pretty much goes to 100 (percent). So all of your hemoglobin starts carrying (oxygen). But then it dissolves into the plasma. That’s where you get the exponential gain. By doubling the pressure, we don’t get twice as much — we get 15 times as much (oxygen).”

HYPERBARIC SUCCESS STORIES

One of Hampsten’s favorite “wins” with HBOT involves a boy who’d been in a car accident.

A colleague of his, Dr. Paul Harch of Medical Center of Louisiana in New Orleans, treated a teenager who’d been in a horrible car accident. He couldn’t speak. He couldn’t walk. He couldn’t take care of himself. His mother was told he was a lost cause. After receiving hyperbaric treatment, Hampsten said, “He now has a job. He’s an assistant manager for Walmart. He owns his own home. He drives his own car.”

That, to Hampsten, is a huge success story.

“The way he was (prior to receiving HBOT), he was a lifetime patient for the drug companies,” Hampsten said. “He was a lifetime member of the ‘here, you’re gonna take the pill’ (club).”

Hampsten said Idaho Hyperbarics is currently treating a patient with Parkinson’s disease, and the improvement that patient has experienced is remarkable.

“His palsy is almost completely gone, or is gone most of the time,” Hampsten said. “He just got better. He swears by it. He was going downhill fast with Parkinson’s. We started treating him and (the disease) stopped and reversed. Hasn’t completely gone away all of the time, but it’s so much improved that his entire life has been changed.”

On a personal note, Hampsten says HBOT kept him alive when he had an ongoing heart issue a few years back. By the time he went to the hospital, the doctor said he already should have been dead, and Hampsten said that’s because HBOT was offsetting some of his heart condition’s effects.

Plus, he said, it made his recovery time a lot faster.

Hampsten had open heart surgery on July 25, 2017, and he told his doctor he was going to go to a conference out of state three weeks later. The doctor didn’t believe him but said Hampsten could go if he felt up to it.

Recalling a follow-up appointment he had with the doctor, Hampsten said, “He came in for my 30-day checkup and said, ‘Did you go to your meeting?’ and I went, ‘Yeah I did,’ and he went, ‘Really?’ I said, ‘Yeah, really.’ … He said, ‘There might be something to this hyperbaric thing.’ And I said, ‘You bet there is. There’s no question that there is.’”

‘ALL-NATURAL OPTION'

Hampsten wants to get people off of prescription drug treatments — many of which require a lifetime of pills — and into hyperbaric treatment, which only uses oxygen.

When you’re taking drugs, “all you’re doing is treating the symptoms,” Hampsten said. “You’re not healing anything. Hyperbarics triggers the healing. It actually heals brains.”

Ennis said that a lot of younger people are also turning away from drug regimens.

“A lot of millennials, a lot of people (in my) generation, they don’t want the side effects of drugs,” Ennis said. “Meds have their place. If someone has a legitimate hormone imbalance or something like that, it makes sense. They need their medication. But if (HBOT) is an alternative, and it’s just using oxygen and not medication, that’s pretty cool — an all-natural option.”

Hampsten said that one of the biggest problems HBOT can help overcome is traumatic brain injuries.

“Concussions are something that we have in the United States that hyperbarics works extremely well on,” he said. “But the drug companies are bucking it tooth and toenail, and the reason for that is because concussions or brain injuries are in many cases a lifetime of drugs.”

He calls concussions the “new frontier” for HBOT because of its effectiveness in treating that type of injury.

Hampsten believes all sorts of diseases — from ALS to Parkinson’s to fibromyalgia and more — could be related to concussions that were never properly treated.

ON A MISSION

Hampsten took a round-about way of getting to his current career — which he is still all in on despite being 68 years old. He held previous careers as an offshore medic for commercial scuba divers and later was a volunteer ambulance driver in American Falls.

In 1999, he opened the first multi-person hyperbaric chamber in Idaho when he worked for the now-defunct Bannock Hospital in Pocatello. He later owned and operated an independent HBOT clinic for about a year and then brought his hyperbaric treatment to Idaho Doctors Hospital in Blackfoot for several years.

Since 2005, Hampsten has been back on his own with Idaho Hyperbarics.

Having a clinic not affiliated with any larger hospital is just fine for Hampsten, who is on a mission to change how hospitals, health insurance providers and, more pressingly, drug companies operate.

Insurance and Medicare will only cover the 13 approved uses for HBOT, and if you want to use hyperbarics to treat something not on that list, you have to pay out of pocket.

Figuring out which medical issues are covered by insurance is complicated. If you want to find out if your condition can be treated by HBOT and if it is covered by insurance, call Idaho Hyperbarics at 208-237-1151.

Being an independent clinic means Idaho Hyperbarics can charge people a reasonable amount — $150 for a single treatment if it’s something insurance won’t cover.

‘AN UPHILL BATTLE’

Getting any kind of new treatment in the U.S. approved by the FDA is an arduous process, and the same goes for hyperbaric treatment.

“It’s an uphill battle that we’re having,” Hampsten said.

That might be beginning to change, though.

In September, a bill was introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives that would “require the Department of Veterans Affairs to offer hyperbaric oxygen therapy for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury,” according to the military news outlet Stars and Stripes.

The bill is currently in the House Subcommittee on Health.

And in October, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to “three scientists for their research into how cells detect oxygen and react to hypoxia — conditions when oxygen is low in tissues,” according to the magazine Science. “The fundamental physiology work has led to a better understanding of how more than 300 genes in the body are regulated, including the one for the hormone erythropoietin (EPO), which controls the production of red blood cells.”

The research is essentially about how HBOT can help humans.

Hampsten is hoping that as more of this kind of news reaches the public, more people will be willing to try HBOT.

“I find it interesting that this is precisely what hyperbarics practitioners have been saying for 200 years,” he said of the Nobel Prize winning research.

More information about Idaho Hyperbarics can be found at idahohyperbarics.com.

https://www.cdapress.com/article/20191126/AP/311269961