Why do people need hyperbaric oxygen therapy? Is there a scientific basis for hyperbaric oxygen therapy?
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- Issue Time
- Sep 4,2023
Summary
Oxygen is the first need of our life activities. Humans have been aware of the important role of oxygen for centuries, but how cells adapt to changing oxygen levels is unknown.
Do you know the importance of oxygen to humans?
Over the course of biological evolution, humans and other animals have evolved a mechanism to ensure adequate oxygen supply to tissues and cells. For example, the human carotid body contains special cells that sense blood oxygen levels. The 1938 Nobel Prize in Medicine was awarded for research that revealed how the carotid body communicates with the brain to regulate respiratory rate after sensing different blood oxygen levels.
In addition to the regulation mechanism of the carotid artery body on respiration, animals have a more basic physiological adaptation mechanism to oxygen supply. For example, red blood cells transport oxygen to tissues in the body, and a key physiological response in the absence of oxygen is an increase in the amount of a hormone called erythropoietin (EPO), which stimulates the bone marrow to produce more red blood cells to carry oxygen. Since the 90s, Ratcliffe and Semenza have been exploring the mechanisms behind this phenomenon.
Both studied the mechanism by which the EPO gene "interacts" with different oxygen levels, and eventually discovered a key protein that acts as a "regulator" in a low-oxygen environment, hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF). HIF can not only change with the change of oxygen concentration but also regulate the expression level of EPO and promote erythropoiesis. Semenza discovered that HIF actually contains two proteins, HIF-1α and ARNT.
The scientists also found that when oxygen levels rise, the amount of HIF-1α in the body drops dramatically.
It was oncologist Kaylin who solved the mystery when he studied a rare genetic disorder, Hipper-Lindau (VHL) syndrome. His research is therefore linked to the work of the two scientists above. Kaylin found that patients with VHL syndrome suffered from multiple tumors due to VHL protein loss. Typical VHL tumors often have abnormal neovascularization, which may be related to oxygen regulatory pathways. In follow-up research, he also found that it was the VHL protein that negatively regulated HIF-1α through oxygen-dependent proteolysis.
Revealing the oxygen regulation pathway of cells not only has basic scientific research value, but also is expected to bring new treatments for diseases. For example, regulating the HIF pathway will help treat anemia; The degradation of related proteins such as HIF-1α may inhibit angiogenesis, thereby helping to fight malignant tumors that require neovascular feeding.
These studies fully demonstrate the importance of oxygen to the human body, and it can be seen that the rise of oxygen levels in the body is of great significance for inhibiting malignant tumors, treating anemia, and restoring the body.
So how to increase oxygen levels in the body?
Our body's oxygen elements are divided into bound oxygen and dissolved oxygen, unlike other elements, we cannot supplement oxygen in the body through drugs or changes in diet, under normal air pressure, our oxygen-carrying cells (red blood cells, carrying bound oxygen) have been saturated, so they can no longer carry excess oxygen for the body to use.
But by subjecting the body to a gentle increase in pressure slightly above one atmosphere during hyperbaric oxygen therapy, an environment in which oxygen can be dissolved directly into the blood (dissolved oxygen), tissues, and other body fluids is created, greatly increasing the amount of oxygen in the cells and prompting the body to produce more energy. This increase in energy can help the body fight aging, fight stress and relieve other sub-health symptoms caused by the deterioration of physical functions that we usually do not notice.