July 27, 2020 - 3m 59s
They affect both men and women and some of them are fibromyalgia, arthritis, osteoarthritis, backaches, and migraines.
Pain can become a great impediment to carry out daily tasks. Although it is considered a symptom of different diseases, it is itself a long-term health problem and can involve not only physical but also emotional complications (depression, anxiety, and sleep problems).
Chronic pain lasts more than six months and hinders good performance at work and household chores. It can even generate problems in social relationships. The stronger the pain, the affected person will have more limitations to perform their routine activities.
Some of the most common pathologies that are associated with pain are:
How is chronic pain treated?
Pain treatment is a complex and variable process according to the patient’s condition. It can be influenced by genetic factors, medical diagnosis, age, etc. For this reason, the therapy indicated for a patient with Fibromyalgia does not necessarily relieve the pain of a patient with migraines.
Going to the doctor is the first step to identify the causes of pain and receive the indication of a treatment that improves the quality of life. Usually, the use of analgesics or physical therapies such as acupuncture is recommended. Other methods include ozone therapy. There are currently new adjuvant treatments to reduce and eliminate pain. One of them is the Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment.
What is Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy?
It is a non-invasive medical treatment. The patient enters the hyperbaric chamber and by placing a mask receives oxygen at high concentrations at a pressure higher than normal atmospheric. It is a safe treatment where the number of sessions and their duration should be indicated by a doctor.
Hyperbaric chamber treatment is indicated for pathologies that occur with pain, such as Fibromyalgia and other rheumatologic diseases, wounds that do not heal well, spinal injuries, low back pain, complex regional pain syndrome, and myofascial pain syndrome, migraines and peripheral vascular disease. However, due to its mechanism of action, it can be used to treat all pain related to inflammation.
Benefits of hyperbaric chamber therapy
Studies on the intensity of pain in patients with Fibromyalgia showed that hyperbaric oxygen therapy improves cerebral blood flow and decreases the lack of oxygen in the muscles of sensitive points. It is proven that hyperbaric oxygen manages to significantly reduce pain points in patients who are treated with respect to those who do not receive treatment. In cases with a very good response, it has been possible to reduce from 17.5 to 5 pain points (19 points are used to diagnose Fibromyalgia). The analgesic effect is sometimes achieved from the first session in a hyperbaric chamber, but it becomes more evident from session 15.
In the case of migraines, researchers compared groups of migraine patients who received hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Improvements were observed in 6 of 7 patients who decreased episodes for 6 months. Hyperbaric oxygen is applied to patients resistant to conventional therapy or to resolve acute migraines that do not respond to analgesic therapy.
For rheumatic diseases, hyperbaric chamber therapy has an analgesic effect and decreases inflammation, so it has excellent results in pathologies such as arthritis. The same goes for backaches and herniated discs with a compromise of neuropathic pain.
In conclusion, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is a non-invasive tool that can be incorporated in the treatment of all the pathologies in which there is a pain, since it produces effective analgesia, reduces inflammation and regenerates damaged tissues.
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