Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy is an exciting medical treatment approved by the FDA and AMA which enhances tissue levels of life giving oxygen. Normally, oxygen is almost exclusively carried by red blood cells. During HBO therapy, there is a substantial increase in the amount of oxygen carried in all body fluids including plasma, cerebrospinal fluid, lymph, and intracellular fluids. This allows increased oxygen levels even in areas with poor or compromised blood supply as well as in areas of tissue damage.Increasing tissue oxygen levels produces several important long term therapeutic benefits including enhanced growth of new blood vessels, increased ability of white blood cells to destroy bacteria and remove toxins, increase growth of fibroblasts (cells involved in wound healing), and enhanced metabolic activity of previously marginally functioning cells including brain neurons. Patients receiving hyperbaric oxygen therapy enter a 1-person clear acrylic chamber where they breathe 100% oxygen delivered to the chamber under increased atmospheric pressure.

According to a recent study published in the American Journal of Physiology-Heart and Circulation Physiology, (http://ajpheart.physiology.org) hyperbaric oxygen treatments increases by 800% the number of stem cells circulating in a patient’s body. Stem cells, also called progenitor cells, are important players in repairing the body after injury and in tissue regeneration. Stem cells exist in the bone marrow and are capable of changing their characteristics to become part of many different organs and tissues. When a body part is injured, stem cells are mobilized and provide the cells necessary for the healing process to occur. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) provides an important trigger or stimulus for this mobilization.It is for this reason that HBOT was utilized and likely responsible, at least in part, for the remarkable recovery Randal McCloy Jr., the only survivor of the recent of Sago Mine accident. (Read my interview about this event here Nutritional Outlook) More information about hyperbarics is found here:

CHEST: Hyperbaric Oxygen Credited for Miner’s Recovery - CME Teaching Brief - MedPage Today

“This is the safest way clinically to increase stem cell circulation, far safer than any of the pharmaceutical options,” said Stephen Thom, MD, Ph.D., Professor of Emergency Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, lead author of the study. “This study provides information on the fundamental mechanisms for hyperbaric oxygen and offers a new theoretical therapeutic option for mobilizing stem cells… We reproduced the observations from humans in animals in order to identify the mechanism for the hyperbaric oxygen effect.”

So in addition to increasing blood supply and reducing the damaging effects of free radicals, this is yet another mechanism explaining the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a variety of brain disorders including head trauma, stroke, multiple sclerosis, hypoxic brain injury, Parkinson’s disease, cerebral palsy and vascular dementia. To learn more about hyperbaric oxygen therapy, visit: About the Hyperbaric Center - perlhealth.com

Medical researchers have noted for decades that women with multiple sclerosis seem to have much less frequent flare ups of the disease during pregnancy, especially during the third trimester. There has been an ongoing effort by scientists to identify the so-called pregnancy factor

which would explain this temporary but meaningful reprieve.

Women produce three kinds of estrogen, estrone (E1), estradiol (E2), and estriol (E3) with the latter increasing substantially during pregnancy. This prompted animal experimentation using a model for multiple sclerosis in mice. Mice treated with estriol actually demonstrated improvements in disability, clinical outcomes and favorable changes in their immune systems. This has prompted human research actually funded by the National Multiple Sclerosis Society to see if administering E3, 8mg per day (widely available from compounding pharmacies in the United States) will be effective in treating women with the disease.

The study will be carried out by Dr. Rhonda Voskuhl at UCLA. “I am excited by the prospect of finding an easily administered treatment for MS based on a naturally occurring phenomenon in pregnancy. At present the only approved treatments are anti-inflammatory drugs administered with injections,” said Voskuhl, a research scientist at UCLA’s Brain Research and Neuropsychiatric institutes. “Our findings also hold promise for finding new treatments for a host of other autoimmune disorders that improve during pregnancy, such as rheumatoid arthritis.”

http://www.scienceblog.com/community/older/2002/C/20025737.html

British researchers have concluded that the climate effects from global warming will be irreversible in 10 years unless there are “serious reductions in carbon emissions,” according to report in todays Times of London.

This week, Britain’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will publish a report this based upon the research of thousands of scientists from around the world. As Richard Betts, the head of a British climate research team stated, “The next 10 years are crucial. In that decade we have to achieve serious reductions in carbon emissions. After that time the task becomes very much harder.”

The catastrophic climatic changes will occur if greenhouse gases continue to increase unabated as temperatures will follow suit. The researchers maintain that if specific changes are not made immediately, the earths once stable environment will likely become increasingly inhospitable and potentially disastrous during the 2040s.

This catastrophic scenario was actually presented in a report recently issued by the Pentagon. In this report, the authors explore how such an abrupt climate change scenario could potentially de-stabilize the geo-political environment, leading

conflict and even wars due to resource constraints such as:

Food shortages due to decreases in net global agricultural production

Decreased availability and quality of fresh water in key regions due to shifted precipitation patters, causing more frequent floods and droughts

Disrupted access to energy supplies due to extensive sea ice and storminess

The report, An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and Its Implications for United States National Security is available in its entirety at: http://www.grist.org/pdf/AbruptClimateChange2003.pdf

Again, this is a report issued by our own Pentagon for reasons that are described therein. While Al Gore is the subject of criticism, his predictions are almost comforting when compared to the scenarios described by leading climate change scientists.

Heres a report thats certain to fan the flames of controversy. A new study was just announced which shows a strong relationship between the lowest levels of LDL (bad cholesterol) and risk for Parkinsons disease (PD). Weve seen for some time a purported link between statin drugs and PD risk, and now there may be a smoking gun.

The study by Dr. Xuemei Huang

at the

University of North Carolina showed that patients with low levels of LDL cholesterol are more than three and a half times more likely to develop Parkinson’s disease than those with higher LDL levels. Wiley InterScience: Journal: Abstract

When asked whether she was concerned by the results of the study, Dr. Xuemei Huang said: “Yes I am very concerned, which is why I am planning a 16000-patient prospective study to examine the possible role of statins.”

Huang goes on to say that if there is indeed

a link with statins, we could expect to see big surges in the number of PD

in the next five years. Huang’s new study, involving some 16,000 patients, will more fully elucidate the possible connection between low LDL, statin use and PD risk and her study will complement another study evaluating a cholesterol link with Parkinson’s risk currently

underway at Harvard.

In the Better Brain Book http://betterbrainbook.com/ I discussed how statin drugs deplete Coenzyme Q10, a vitally important brain protective antioxidant. Further, low levels of Coenzyme Q10 are noted in PD patients and PD patients decline much more slowly when they take a Coenzyme Q10 supplement. So there certainly is plenty of science which could explain this new finding.

The statin drug Lipitor (Pfizer) is the world’s biggest selling drug with $12.2billion in sales in 2005. So we should have anticipated that there would be a response from those with a vested interest in these medications. From Reuters News service we learn: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_43892.html

British heart experts expressed alarm about the report and said heart patients should not stop taking statins. “We are concerned that any suggestion of a link between statins and Parkinson’s disease would unnecessarily scare the millions of people benefiting from statins in the U.K.,” said Dr. Peter Weissberg, medical director of the British Heart Foundation.”There is no evidence to suggest that statins cause Parkinson’s disease. There is, however, overwhelming evidence that statins save lives by preventing heart attacks and strokes.”

But please remember -

above all, do no harm.

Researchers at Columbia University Medical Center in New York have recently demonstrated that higher folate intake is associated with a remarkably decreased risk of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). The study, published in the January, 2007 issue of the journal Archives of Neurology, included a random sampling of 965 non-demented Medicare recipients aged 65 years or older living in Manhattan.

Evaluation of these individuals included an in depth neuropsychological assessment as well as an evaluation of total dietary as well as supplemental intake of folate, an important B vitamin, with the initial examination taking place between 1992 to 1994. Further assessments were made every 18 months for a period of approximately 6.5 years.

The results of the study revealed that those subjects consuming the highest levels of folate, including both from food and a supplement, had a risk of Alzheimers disease 50% lower than the subjects with the lowest consumption of this nutrient. The authors concluded that the likely reason folate consumption was associated with this profound reduction of Alzheimers risk was the fact that folate helps lower homocysteine, an amino acid which profoundly increases Alzheimers risk.

So the take home message

adding folate rich foods including green beans, leek, parsnip, cabbage, green peas, spinach, cauliflower, chick peas, oranges, orange juice, peanuts, oats, wholegrain bread, and taking a folate supplement are important parts of an Alzheimers risk reduction program along with having your doctor check your homocysteine level

a simple blood test. Strive to keep your homocysteine level at 9 or below.

Remember, many drugs can deplete folate as I describe in the Better Brain Book.