HBOT on Oprah

The hyperbaric chamber may look high-tech, but the concept is pretty simple.

When you take oxygen and pressurize it in a tube, Dr. Oz says the oxygen is forced into a person's cells. "It gets me to mobilize stem cells from my bone marrow," he says. "It gets those cells moving along so it goes out to heal areas. In some parts of the body, like the brain, where you don't always have a lot of oxygen in the tissues, it might improve memory. It might play a role in making those cells which have energy factories function more efficiently."

Oxygen therapy isn't just for people who want to live longer. It's also speeds up the healing process for wounds and helps repairs broken bones. If you're interested, Dr. Oz encourages you to seek out qualified technicians.

"They should usually be used in a hospital with folks really watching what's happening," he says. "You have to wear 100 percent cotton, because it's oxygen in there, and oxygen's combustible. If you have synthetic fabrics, those fabrics can rub and make a spark."

Source: Oprah.com :: High-Tech Ways to Extend Your Life

HBOT Effective Against Autism

Okay, this information isn't cerebral palsy specific, but I think it's worth mentioning. Both autism and cerebral palsy are based in the brain, so it's great to see a study that scientifically supports HBOT for such diagnoses.

A multicenter, randomoized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study (the strongest kind of research) was published today that shows significant improvements in autistic children after 40 hours of hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The study, A Controlled Trial of the Clinical Effects of Hyperbaric Therapy in Autistic Children, included 62 children with autism between the ages of 2 and 7 years of age who were randomly assigned to 40 hourly treatments of either hyperbaric treatment at 1.3 atmosphere (atm)and 24% oxygen or slightly pressurized room air at 1.03 atm and 21%oxygen.

To quote the study
"Children with autism who received hyperbaric treatment at 1.3 atm and 24% oxygen for 40 hourly sessions had significant improvements in overall functioning, receptive language, social interaction, eye contact, and sensory/cognitive awareness compared to children who received slightly pressurized room air."

For more details, please read the study - Hyperbaric treatment for children with autism: a multicenter, randomized, doubleblind, controlled trial

News storied regarding the research study:
Hyperbaric Therapy Called Effective Against Autism
Oxygen therapy benefit in autism

Tomatis

The Tomatis method is suppose to re-educate the way a person listens. It's intensive therapy where children wear head phones and listen to music like Mozart that is filter out except for the high frequencies. Children also listen to their mothers voice after it's been modulated to replicate what the fetus hears in the womb. This is suppose to stimulate the brains desire to communicate. The method is named after Dr. Alfred Tomatis who developed the method. I found a good overview of the method here:

"In 1953, Dr. Alfred Tomatis said "The voice contains only the sounds which the ear hears." This quote basically sums up the process he created to reteach the ear to listen. The program begins with an initial assessment with a consultant to test present and potential hearing. The patient is also evaluated to ensure that auditory stimulation is the appropriate treatment. Then a program is custom made, but it follows a basic pattern. The Electronic Ear is a tape recorder where sound is filtered and frequency can be adjusted. Initially, workouts consist of sessions of listening to very high frequencies that stimulate the pre-natal sounds and reproduce the stages of development from an audial point of view. This training makes it possible to switch ear dominance, reteach the listening process. These passive exercises, which consist of listening to specific frequencies, are gradually combined with active exercises utilizing the voice to maintain the lessons learned. For language learning and transformation of words and pictures, beginning with pre-natal sounds enables a person to learn a language quicker and more efficiently. The first fifteen days usually require about two hours a day. Subsequent sessions are shorter, with up to one or two months between each session."

Some national media interviews can be viewed here.

What is the Tomatis Method?

MEDEK

MEDEK stands for "Metodo Dinamico de Estimulacion Kinesica" or "Dynamic Method for Kinetic Stimulation". It is a therapy that claims to help develop gross motor skills by provoking automatic motor responses.

Cuevas Medek Exercise
The Canadian MEDEK Centre

Promising components developed to protect against cerebral palsy caused by oxygen deprevation at birth

Northwestern University chemists have developed two compounds that have been shown effective in pre-clinical trials in protecting against cerebral palsy due to oxygen deprivation during or shortly after birth.  The press release Stunning Finding: Compounds Protect Against Cerebral Palsy contains all the details, an excerpt of which is below:

"In developing the potential drugs, Silverman and his team were able to produce something that pharmaceutical companies so far have not: highly selective compounds that inhibit the enzyme found in brain cells that produces nitric oxide but that do not affect similar nitric oxide-producing enzymes found in endothelial and macrophage cells."

Scientists have not tested the compounds on humans yet, but the initial animal trials appear promising:

"None of the fetuses born to animals treated with the two compounds died; more than half of those born to untreated animals died. Eighty-three percent of animals treated with one of the compounds were born normal, with no cerebral palsy characteristics. Sixty-nine percent of animals treated with the other compound were born normal."

This research greatly interests me because our son has cerebral palsy caused by a lack of oxygen at birth.  Don't get me wrong, I love my son for who he is, but I am also in support of research that may help to minimize the long-term impacts of infant brain injury.

Omega-3

Since our son has been weaned, we've been supplementing his diet with Omega-3. DHA and EPA are both Omega-3 fatty acids. From what I've read, research has shown that most neurological benefits appear to come from DHA. You can find out more about Omega-3 and it's benefits by reading DHA Supports Brain Development and Protects Neurological Function.

I like the Nordic Naturals brand, specifically their Children's DHA, because it's tested by independent laboratories to have undetectable levels of heavy metals and other environmental contaminants.

Omega Resource Library : Children's Health and Development

Metagenics Ultracare for Kids Medical Food

Our son has allergies to milk and eggs, so Metagenics Ultracare for Kids Medical Food has been a big help to ensure that he's getting the nutrients he needs.  We blend the product with organic rice milk, which he drinks at least twice a day.  "Ultracare for Kids" is rice based, which has worked well for him.  We tried a corn syrup solids based medical food and he seemed to have more digestion issues with corn syrup solids based medical food.