Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Fibromyalgia

Fibromyalgia is a frustrating syndrome to deal with. The FibroTroll likes to hide out in dark places and beat you at every opportunity. One of the most difficult things to deal with, on top of actually having Fibromyalgia, is the lack of effective treatment options. There really is no medication or surgery or treatment that is known to help in all cases. There’s lots of drugs you can try, that might treat one or more of your symptoms, but they might also give you side effects that are as bad or worse than what you were trying to treat! Sometimes, it feels like all you’ve done is feed the Troll the equivalent of anabolic steroids and made him cranky!

When a new study comes out, I tend to read it with equal parts optimism and scepticism. I try to stay hopeful and I am incredibly grateful that there are healthy individuals who are willing and able to perform research into this condition. One such study was published in 2015. It explored the possibility of using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy to treat Fibromyalgia patients.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) has been around for centuries. You may be familiar with it in reference to treating deep-sea divers with decompression illness (The Bends). In modern medicine HBOT is used to treat many conditions including (but not limited to) smoke inhalation, non-healing wounds, cancer and cerebral palsy.

The article I mentioned studied 48 women with Fibromyalgia and treated them in two groups with HBOT. They found that while some of the patients had an increased level of pain for the first 10-20 sessions, almost all the participants in the study showed a significant improvement in quality of life and pain levels. Many of them were able to stop or reduce their medications.

Encouraged by this study, I started researching HBOT. The study used HBOT at 2atm (2 x atmospheric pressure). This level of HBOT is only available in hospitals, and only for certain approved conditions, and Fibromyalgia is not yet on that list. However, mild HBOT (1.35-1.4atm) is readily available in many places and doesn’t need any sort of referral. I found that for HBOT in general there were very few side effects, especially at the lower pressure levels. There are some contraindications such as lung disease, claustrophobia, or ear problems. Not suffering from any of those, I decided to give it a go.

While the benefits of this level of HBOT might not be as profound, I decided I wasn’t willing to wait until further studies were done and HBOT finally got recognised as a treatment for Fibromyalgia before trying it out. After all, there’s only been a couple of pilot studies, and there will have to be a LOT more studies performed before anyone is willing to say it works with any degree of confidence. So, with a quick google search, I found Advance O2. Advance O2 currently have locations in Toowong, Brisbane and Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast. I rocked up to my first treatment, a little nervous, but hopeful.

I started with a couple of 60-minute sessions, then soon increased it to five 90 minute sessions a week. The sensation of the chamber filling is not unlike flying in a plane, with the pressurisation and depressurisation similar to take-off and landing. If you yawn a bit, the blocked ear sensation quickly settles. For the first few weeks, I also noticed some drying of my nasal passages, which was easily relieved with some saline nasal spray after a treatment. During the session, you breathe concentrated oxygen via a mask like this one.

Within a few short weeks, I noticed an improvement. The fact that I could leave my high set house, interact with people, have a treatment, and get back up the stairs to get home, five days a week, was an improvement on its own! Sometimes, following a treatment, I was able to go to lunch or shopping with my mum without being completely wiped out afterwards. After a couple of months, I tried reducing the frequency of my visits. Unfortunately, I found that the improvement did not continue if I reduced my days. So, my darling knight in tarnished armour came to my rescue again – he suggested we buy one!

Now, buying your own HBOT chamber is not cheap, and you need to have a place where it can be permanently set up. Luckily, there are chambers that are slightly smaller than the ones available at Advance O2. I sourced mine on Ali Baba and bought the oxygen compressor in Australia. Making a purchase this big from China is not without risk, so I’m not going to give you links, you’ll have to research it yourself. However, there are reputable companies that sell HBOT chambers in Australia – they cost a little more, but they’ve done the hard work for you.

This is my HBOT chamber.

We call it the whale – I’m sure you can see why. It sits in the corner of my craft room and when I’m not using it, my dragon (cat), Terry, used to like to sleeping in it.

I can breathe the oxygen through a mask like the one pictured earlier, but I prefer the headset that came with my chamber – it looks like this.

 

Once the chamber is inflated, it is actually quite roomy. If you are claustrophobic I do not recommend it, but I am quite comfortable. Here’s what it looks like inside.

I get in my whale 5-6 days a week – in fact, I often write my blog posts in there! I tend to stay about 90mins, I’ve stayed longer, but I’ve found that seems to be a bit draining. I recently suffered a bout of sinusitis and if you’ve ever flown with blocked sinuses, then you know how uncomfortable increased pressure can be in that situation. So I had a couple of weeks off from my whale. I can tell you I missed it.

My conclusion on mild HBOT? It’s not a miracle cure for Fibromyalgia, but it does decrease my pain levels and increase my energy and therefore improves my overall quality of life. I think of it as another weapon in my arsenal for fighting the Troll