Every day scientists and physicians are working to find and develop new medications to treat a variety of conditions, including Alzheimer’s disease. Currently, the only FDA approved treatments for Alzheimer’s disease include two different types of medications. Unfortunately, these medications only work as a short-term solution and don’t provide much benefit for those in later stages of the disease. They also come with side effects. Other medications are offered to try and reduce certain symptoms, but again with little success. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, offers Alzheimer’s patients and family members an alternative to traditional medications. This non-invasive treatment option addresses the disease, and, in many cases, can halt the progression and even reverse the damage, all with little to no side effects.
Dr. Spiegel has found great success in treating Alzheimer’s patients and would love to meet with you and discuss how HBOT can help you regain quality of life.
Current Alzheimer’s Medications Are Short-Lived and Come with Side Effects
The Food and Drug Administration has only approved two types of medications for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. They are only approved for use in specific Alzheimer’s stages. These three stages include mild, moderate, and severe and are based on test scores that assess thinking, reasoning, memory, and awareness of time and place.
The first type of drug, cholinesterase inhibitors, work by boosting the amount of the chemical messenger acetylcholine in the brain. This chemical plays a role in memory, thinking, alertness, and judgment. This medication cannot reverse damage or stop the destruction of healthy nerve cells but can help reduce symptoms for a short time. They eventually lose effectiveness and no longer work. These medications can treat all three stages of Alzheimer’s, but their effects do not last long. In addition, they can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and increased bowel movements. Patients with cardiac arrhythmias should not take cholinesterase inhibitors at all.
The other FDA approved medication is memantine and it is approved to treat moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease. It works by regulating another brain chemical, glutamate, which aids in many different brain functions, including memory. Unfortunately, side effects from this drug include dizziness, headaches, agitation, and confusion.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, or HBOT, is a non-invasive treatment that lets you relax while the oxygen does the work. No side effects, no medications, no remembering if you took a pill or not. Contact us today for more information about how HBOT can help you!
Other Medications Simply Treat Symptoms
Whether a symptom of Alzheimer’s or the result of a medication side effect, other conditions such as mood changes, anxiety, aggression, hallucinations, delusions, and sleep disturbances are common for Alzheimer’s patients. Physicians also prescribe medications, such as antidepressants, anxiolytics, antipsychotic medications, and sleep-aids. Unfortunately, these just mask the symptoms and don’t do anything to slow the progression of the disease.
HBOT Offers A Light at the End of the Tunnel
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy, or HBOT, offers an alternative to Alzheimer’s patients. It is non-invasive and comes with little to no side effects. What makes it even better than traditional Alzheimer’s medications? New research shows it can STOP disease progression and even REVERSE damage already done to the brain!!
To learn more about how HBOT helps Alzheimer’s patients, click HERE.
With HBOT, you simply relax in a hyperbaric chamber while breathing in high concentrations of oxygen at increased pressure. This increased oxygen floods the brain, which stimulates new blood vessel and tissue growth. A January 24, 2019 case report of a 58-year-old woman showed that after 40 HBOT treatments, her brain showed global improvement in brain metabolism as much as 38 percent. The publishing author, Dr. Paul Harch, the clinical professor and director of hyperbaric medicine at LSU Health New Orleans School of Medicine, stated, “We demonstrated the largest improvement in brain metabolism of any therapy for Alzheimer’s disease. HBOT in this patient may be the first treatment not only to halt but temporarily reverse disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease.”
Let us help you battle Alzheimer’s disease and help improve your quality of life. Give our office a call today and set up an initial consultation with Dr. Spiegel and his team. They will work with you to create a treatment plan that helps reduce symptoms, stimulates new brain metabolism, and gives you back some quality of life! You may also visit HERE to fill out an online request form.