Diabetic Complications – Management and Prevention
The benefits of hyperbaric oxygen for diabetic foot ulcers remain medically controversial due to conflicting medical studies.
Despite this, thousands of treatments are taken daily by diabetic sufferers worldwide. A strong indication is that both private and public medical insurance companies in America pay for the use of hyperbaric medicine for the treatment of Diabetic Foot Ulcers (DFU) after 30 days of non-successful standard treatment. OxyGeneration welcomes universities that would like to carry out research with hyperbaric medicine.
The Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic website recommends Hyperbaric Oxygen for:
- Infection of skin or bone that causes tissue death
- Nonhealing wounds, such as a diabetic foot ulcer
The National Hyperbaric Unit at Galway University Hospital
- University Hospital Galway (UHG) and Merlin Park Hospital listed diabetic ulcers as an indication for Hyperbaric Oxygen treatment in its application for funding to the HSE.
- Weight loss – even though you are eating more (Type 1)
- Tingling, pain, or numbness in the hands/feet (Type 2)
How Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy can help it?
The use of Hyperbaric Oxygen by diabetics can be grouped into three categories:
1. As an adjunct to help prevent diabetic complications such as:
Numbness and tingling
Occurrence and progression of wounds
Pain
2. As an adjunct to help improvements in cardiovascular complications and reduce insulin requirements.
Kakhnovskii et al., 1980, noted improvement in cardiovascular complications by using Hyperbaric Oxygen and later reported Hyperbaric Oxygen as an adjunct to diet and insulin in the treatment of moderately severe diabetes in 130 patients. The dosage of insulin was reduced by 4-38 units in 62.3% of the patients after treatment. The authors concluded that the hypoglycaemic effect of Hyperbaric Oxygen is due to inhibition of the effect of anti-insulin hormones by Hyperbaric Oxygen.
3. Wound Healing
- After 30 days of standard treatment when a diabetic wound has not healed satisfactory, Hyperbaric Oxygen is used as a standard protocol in America and is paid for by American health insurers.
- Amputation:
How Many Treatments?
A course of 40 Hyperbaric Oxygen treatments in a concentrated block according to Dr Paul Harsh MD in his book Oxygen Revolution, where he says:
‘…in cases of chronic wounding, 40 Hyperbaric Oxygen sessions in a concentrated block of treatments is necessary to achieve permanent improvement….’
The US Government medical system of Medicare and Medicad, federal and state respectively, managed programs reimburse towards the cost of Hyperbaric Oxygen treatments prescribed a doctor for any FDA approved treatments which includes DFU’s as listed on their site as “Enhanced healing of selected problem wounds” .