No matter what specialised diet or treatment you undergo, we are all affected by aging and oxidative stress. In the medical field, treatments are widely reactive and target specific things like infections. However, health is more than just counteracting sickness — it should also be about helping our body regenerate! 

There is now emerging research about hyperbaric oxygen therapy and its ability to help with sickness and improve general health. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy is not a cure-all miracle, however, it can help supply our bodies with the oxygen they need to repair and heal themselves! 

In this episode, Dr Jason Sonners tackle common misconceptions about oxygen and hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Dr Jason discusses oxidative stress and what can make it positive or negative for our bodies. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy may not be widely used in hospitals, but the emerging research surrounding it shows incredible results. Take your health into your own hands and discover how hyperbaric oxygen therapy can improve your health!

If you want to learn more about how hyperbaric oxygen therapy works, then this episode is for you!

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1. Learn how hyperbaric oxygen therapy works as a panacea, and why it’s different from simply breathing in oxygen. 
2. Discover the benefits of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and how it can serve as positive oxidative stress to our bodies. 
3. Understand the future of hyperbaric oxygen therapy research and how there’s growing study into its applications and synergy with different therapies.

Resources

• If you would like more information on purchasing or renting hyperbaric chambers please contact Lisa on [email protected] and she can advise you further.
• Gain exclusive access and bonuses to Pushing the Limits Podcast by becoming a patron! 
• Hyperbaric Environment: Oxygen and Cellular Damage versus Protection
• Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy - Discussion between Dr Jason Sonners & Dr Mercola from the Take Control of Your Health podcast 
• Oxygen Under Pressure by Dr Jason Sonners
• Check out previous Pushing the Limit episodes: 
• • Episode 230 - Exploring Ari of the Possible with Dr Joe Dituri 
  • Episode 227 - Fighting Cancer and Other Diseases Using the Ketogenic Diet with Dr Dominic D'Agostino 
  • Episode 170 - Search for the Perfect Amino Protein and Why So Many of Us are Deficient with Dr David Minkoff 
  • Episode 116 - AMA with Dom D’Agostino, PhD, Part I of II: Ketogenic diet, exogenous ketones, and exercise
  • Episode 120 – AMA with Dom D’Agostino, PhD, Part II of II: Ketosis for cancer and chronic disease, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, and the effect of ketosis on female health 
• Connect with Dr Jason: Website I NJ HBOT Center I Youtube I Email ([email protected])

Episode Highlights [02:53] Introduction to Dr Jason

• Dr Jason’s background is in exercise physiology, chiropractic and nutrition. 
• When he got a herniated disc, he was confident in his and his wife’s abilities to help him recover. However, it did not fully heal even after 18 months. 
• Dr Jason then happened to attend a chiropractic conference and discovered hyperbaric chambers. He took sessions for four days and immediately saw improvement.
• His experience made him want to better understand hyperbaric oxygen therapy. 

[07:04] How Hyperbaric is Growing

• Despite its impact and effectiveness, hyperbaric is not widely used in hospitals. 
• Dr Jason explains this is largely because of politics and insurance. There’s also a myth that oxygen is dangerous. 
• The medical profession typically uses antibiotics to heal wounds, but antibiotics focus on reducing infection risks and do not improve the healing response. 
• Typically, doctors and insurance companies do not bring access and awareness to hyperbaric. It’s typically the patient. 
• Because of a large interest in hyperbaric, Dr Jason was able to set up 30 hyperbaric clinics last year. 

[14:14] How Hyperbaric Acts as a Panacea

• Dr Jason emphasises that hyperbaric therapy does not cure anything, but it can help with general wellness since your cells use oxygen to make energy. 
• Even if you’re 100% saturated with oxygen, it does not mean that you have the oxygen needed to heal or fuel certain systems. 
• In the full episode, Dr Jason explains how we never have a surplus of oxygen for regeneration. 
• Hyperbaric therapy can create a reservoir of oxygen in our bodies and improve oxygen absorption to feed the tissues that need it. The reservoir is used over a 10-hour period. 
• Hyperbaric chambers put oxygen under pressure, compressing the molecules until they’re small enough to dissolve into tissues. 

[20:36] How Oxygen and Pressure Works 

• When you go above sea level, it becomes harder to breathe. 
• This is not because there’s less oxygen, but because of how pressure forces oxygen into your circulation. 
• Every time you breathe, red blood cells pick up oxygen molecules and take them where they’re needed. 
• With hyperbarics, oxygen dissolves at a faster rate than the capacity of red blood cells. Oxygen then stays in the liquid. 
• Red blood cells cannot bring oxygen to damaged tissues, however, hyperbaric allows them access as it produces an excess of oxygen in the liquid.

[23:01] Short-term and Long-term Benefits of Hyperbarics 

• Our cells use food to create NAD and oxidized NAD becomes the fuel for our cells.
• Hyperbarics helps increase oxidation and, therefore, more fuel or ATP production. 
• Long-term benefits of hyperbaric include immune system upregulation, stem cell release, angiogenesis, and rebuilding of blood vessels. 

[25:48] Is There Such a Thing as Getting Out Too Quickly? 

• When divers get out of water too quickly, the danger is not from the oxygen but from nitrogen. Too much nitrogen can block blood vessels and choke arteries. 
• The level of nitrogen depends on how deep a hyperbaric chamber is. However, most hyperbaric environments do not contain nitrogen. 
• Dr Jason shares that leaving a hyperbaric chamber makes the body think it’s becoming hypoxic, but it’s not actual hypoxia. 
• This state drives the angiogenesis growth factors. 

[30:39] Differences Between Short and Long Hyperbaric Sessions

• When working with athletes, Dr Jason uses short 20–30 minute sessions to give a boost. 
• The hyperbaric chamber puts you in a parasympathetic state in which your body slows down, relaxes, and heals. 
• Doing hyperbaric at night can help people sleep better. 
• Dr Jason shares that around 30% of people get stimulated instead after doing hyperbaric, so he recommends these people do hyperbaric in the morning. 

[32:50] What Can Hyperbaric Help With? 

• Dr Jason shares that hyperbaric research is still in progress and may not provide in-depth insights into certain conditions. 
• Hyperbaric therapy works for necrotizing fasciitis and gangrene. Hyperbaric therapy helps to reduce microbe activity and breaks down biofilms that anaerobic organisms.
• Conceptually, hyperbaric therapy would also work on other anaerobic infections like H Pylori. 
• It also helps white blood cells kill both bacterial and viral infections. Hyperbaric therapy can also help with neuropathy, strokes, and TBI. 
• There is still little research on its effect on ALS and MS, but Dr Jason notes that since it’s an ongoing process, hyperbaric therapy can only work if it’s done aggressively. 

[37:48] When is Oxidative Stress Beneficial or Detrimental? 

• Oxidative stress is the reason we’re dying, but it also helps us. 
• Everything requires balance and reactive oxygen species help promote cell turnover. 
• There needs to be enough damage to stimulate healing.
• While oxidation from the outside environment destroys our bodies, oxidation from hyperbaric therapy increases mitochondrial performance. 
• As people get used to hyperbaric sessions, they can build a tolerance to oxidation from the outside environment. 

[42:48] The Importance of Protocols

• Healthy people can use hyperbarics periodically as it’s relatively safe. 
• For people with serious health concerns, it’s important to have a good protocol to match different therapies together. 

[46:28] How Does Molecular Hydrogen Work with Hyperbarics?

• Molecular hydrogen is not an antioxidant, but it can act like one.
• When oxidizing, our bodies sometimes experience incomplete combustion and create superoxide or free radicals. 
• Using molecular hydrogen mixes excess oxygen with excess hydrogen to reduce free radical production. 

[49:41] Can Hyperbarics Help with COVID-19? 

• There’s been a huge interest in hyperbarics to help manage COVID-19 since it can help improve oxygen saturation. 
• Viruses need to be contained by our immune system. We can typically live with viruses in our body without them expressing. 
• COVID-19 is a new type of infection so it takes longer for people’s immune systems to get it under control. 
• Other dormant infections can surface since our immune systems are so depleted. 
• Hyperbarics can help refuel that immune system. 

[56:29] Importance of Synergy 

• Senescence cells can help protect the DNA against oxidative stress. 
• Combining hyperbaric therapy with other autophagy-related therapies like fasting and keto can create a synergistic effect. 

[1:00:15] Future of Hyperbarics and Epigenetics Research 

• Dr Jason has written a book and uses his YouTube channel to help dispel myths about hyperbarics. 
• He shares that most research focuses on high-pressure hyperbarics, but his practice shows that people see benefits at all pressures. 
• There is growing research comparing benefits at different pressures. 
• What you do now is going to affect the next generation. While intergenerational toxicity exists, you can also re-teach your cells to express a healthier version of themselves. 

7 Powerful Quotes

“Just like anything else, you need to know how to use [oxygen], how to operate it properly, how to keep it within a safe means and make it effective.”

“This might not sound fabulous, but [oxygen] doesn't cure anything. It just helps with so many things.”

“Not only do we have to exercise properly, but the framework of alignment, and posture, and all the pieces that predispose the body to breaking down prematurely, and where chiropractic fit the model of really trying to improve that story.”

“I can only hold my breath for a couple minutes and if I can get a little bit more oxygen, maybe I could heal a little bit faster. To some extent, it's that simple.”

“If we make really great changes, and then we decide to have children at some point, we may not have to pass down the intergenerational toxicity.”

“Every virus you've ever had, you'll always have. They live contained, so to speak, and as long as our immune system can keep things in quarantine that way, we can typically live with these viruses in our body without actually expressing.”

“Molecular hydrogen is technically not an antioxidant, but it has antioxidant-like capacity.”

About Dr Jason

Dr Jason Sonners, DC, DIBAK, DCBCN, CCWP, CHP is a certified hyperbaric practitioner and is the Clinic Director of NJ HBOT and HBOT USA. He combines hyperbaric oxygen therapy, exercise, nutrition, and detoxification programs to help support patients through a variety of conditions including autoimmune and neurological conditions, autism, allergies, cancer, and many others. 

Passionate about spreading the effectiveness of hyperbaric oxygen therapy, Dr Jason wrote the book, Oxygen Under Pressure, and regularly uploads to the HBOT USA YouTube channel. 

Learn more about Dr Jason and his work through his website, NJ HBOT Center, and Youtube.

You can also contact him through email ([email protected]).

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Lisa