Fibromyalgia and hyperbaric oxygen

Fibromyalgia affects 2-10% of the US population, with an overwhelming 9:1 ratio of women to men. The term “fibromyalgia” started popping up in the 1990’s and for a long time was a “throw away” diagnosis. “We don’t know what’s wrong with you, so you must have fibromyalgia”. Unfortunately, that perspective has stayed in the minds of many doctors practicing today.

What do we know about fibromyalgia today? The prominent symptoms are pain in the body, fatigue and sleep disorders. The patient seems to have a heightened pain response as well. What we still don’t understand is what causes it. There are a few theories current today. Some professionals feel like it is on the auto-immune spectrum. Some feel that it started with an infection, like a virus, similar to chronic fatigue syndrome. And some feel that there is a level of brain dysfunction that’s creating an oversensitive perception of pain.

Because of the lack of a concrete cause, there is also concern about whether it is a true disease. The pharmaceutical treatment available today focuses on palliative treatment: reducing pain, addressing sleep and depression.

Luckily, hyperbaric oxygen can help. Hyperbarics help reduce pain by bringing more oxygen to the muscle tissue. It brings more oxygen to the brain which reduces pain and inflammation. Hyperbaric oxygen also stimulates the immune system to help fight back microbes.

A great research study just came out a few years ago. 60 women with fibromyalgia did hyperbaric oxygen treatments for 8 weeks and ALL of them saw some amelioration of their symptoms. What’s amazing about this is the fact that everyone got some relief; obviously some more than others, but they all felt better after the treatment. You don’t see that often where 100% of the research group feels better after a new drug.