Diabetes & Hyperbaric Therapy

Diabetes is a chronic disease that occurs when the body cannot make good use of the insulin it produces, or when the pancreas is no longer able to make insulin.

Insulin is a hormone that permits glucose from the food we eat to pass from the blood stream into the cells in the body to produce energy.

Carbohydrates are broken down into glucose in the blood. Insulin helps glucose get into the cells.

The inability to prodluce insulin or to use it effectively leads to raised glucose levels in the blood (known as hyperglycemia).

As time passes, high glucose levels are associated with damage to the body and failure of various organs and tissues.

Diabetes

Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease in which the pancreas produces little to no insulin due to an overactive immune system attacking the insulin producing cells in the pancreas.

Patients with Type 1 diabetes have to take supplemental insulin to keep their glucose levels regulated.

Type 2 diabetes has recently been gaining ground to be classified as an autoimmune disease.

A patient with Type 2 produces enough insulin,however, their cells don't react properly to it,creating a condition called insulin resistance. The pancreas continues to create an overabundance of insulin in an attempt to feed the cells. The level of sugar in the blood increases to dangerous levels resulting in the symptoms associated with Type 2 diabetes.

Patients with diabetes often experience damage to nerves causing neuropathy. Over time, high levels of blood sugar may damage the blood vessels resulting in a loss of circulation to limbs.This is why some patients experience ulcers that don't heal and potentially require amputation.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has been utilized in the treatment of diabetes for a variety of reasons. It has been proven that extensive treat-ments can produce new blood vessels, a process called angiogenesis. By creating new routes for blood to flow through, the patient can experi-ence better circulation, especially to limbs that have been affected by diabetic induced tissue damage.

Many patients have reported a reduction or complete cessation of neuropathy. Increased circulation may also prevent the need for limb removal in patients with severe diabetic ulcers.Hyperbarics has been extensively studied for its healing potential of slow or non-healing wounds,especially in diabetes.Hyperbarics has also been shown to regulate

glucose levels which may help control insulin production.

Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Improves Glucose Homeostasis in Type 2 Diabetes Patients: A Likely Involvement of the Carotid Bodies P Vera-Cruz, F Guerreiro, M J Ribeiro, M P Guarino, S V Conde Published 2015

The carotid bodies (CBs) are peripheral chemore-ceptors that respond to hypoxia increasing minute ventilation and activating the sympathetic nervous system.

Besides its role in ventilation we recently de-scribed that CB regulate peripheral insulin sensi-tivity. Knowing that the CB is functionally blocked by hyperoxia and that hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) improves fasting blood glu-cose in diabetes patients,we have investigated the effect of HBOT on glucose tolerance in type 2 diabetes patients.

Volunteers with indication for HBOT were re-cruited at the Subaquatic and Hyperbaric Medicine Center of Portuguese Navy and divided into two groups: type 2 diabetes patients and controls.Groups were submitted to 20 sessions of HBOT.After 20 sessions, fasting and 2 h post-OGTT gly-cemia decreased significantly. In control group HBOT did not modify fasting glycemia and post-OGTT glycemia.

Our results showed that HBOT ameliorates glucose tolerance in diabetic patients and sug-gest that HBOT could be used as a therapeutic intervention for type 2 diabetes.