HBOT Conversations:
Dr. Jay Stevens
Optimizing Health & Longevity
Dr. James “Jay” Stevens is the Medical Director of Extivita-RTP. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Doctor of Medicine from East Carolina University School of Medicine. He completed a Family Practice Residency at the Fairfax Family Practice Program at the Medical College of Virginia and the first Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1991. He is Board Certified in both Family Practice and Anti-aging Medicine. He also holds a Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine. In 2003 he founded Carolina Family Practice & Sports Medicine with locations in Cary, Raleigh, and Holly Springs, NC. He has served as the Team Physician for the National Hockey League’s 2006 Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes since their arrival in 1997. He also serves as Company Physician for the Carolina Ballet.
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Dr. Jay Stevens, Medical Director at Extivta, returns to HBOT News Network to discuss ways to optimize your health & longevity. In addition to being the Medical Director at Extivita, Dr. Stevens is also the Medical Director & Provider for the Cary, NC location of Essential Health. Essential Health has many locations across the country.
We are lucky to have Dr. Stevens here to share the insightful data and information he has come across over the course of his career.
Dr. Stevens starts by explaining that there is in fact a difference between someone’s health span and life span. Health span can be defined or looked at by how long can someone live before they succumb to disease? While, life span is more along the lines of quality of life, and wanting to live as long as possible. With life span, a person wants to keep the body as young, disease-free and as healthy as possible. This is where longevity fits in, because it ultimately is the desire to achieve the longest life span possible. But, he reminds us that functional medicine can never exist without conventional medicine. They both play a part in someone’s longevity and keeping diseases away.
Yet, how exactly does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy play a part in a person’s longevity goals? Dr. Stevens states that he sees HBOT as elegant and simplistic; because to create energy, we require a nutrient and oxygen. It’s as simple as that. But, our environments keep mucking that process up — toxins, poor diet, too much sugar, etc. We must look at Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as a mechanism to improve cellular energy production. He further explains that when we focus on optimizing everything about the cell lifestyle and then apply oxygen, we have a recipe to achieve the best outcome in energy production. But, why is energy production so important for longevity?! Because energy production in your immune system predicts how your immune system will function – more energy production and your immune system is boosted to preform better, thus optimizing the chances of keeping disease and illness away.
The topic of the immune system leads us into a discussion on immunosenescence and why it is so important. Dr. Stevens explains that ultimately, the longevity of our lives is predicted by our immune system. Thankfully Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is known to slow down the rate of decline in an aging immune system, and increase our body’s ability to regenerate stem cells.
Dr. Stevens again touches on the power of extended fasting, and why it plays such an important role in optimal health & longevity.
Dr. Stevens starts by explaining that there is in fact a difference between someone’s health span and life span. Health span can be defined or looked at by how long can someone live before they succumb to disease? While, life span is more along the lines of quality of life, and wanting to live as long as possible. With life span, a person wants to keep the body as young, disease-free and as healthy as possible. This is where longevity fits in, because it ultimately is the desire to achieve the longest life span possible. But, he reminds us that functional medicine can never exist without conventional medicine. They both play a part in someone’s longevity and keeping diseases away.
Yet, how exactly does Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy play a part in a person’s longevity goals? Dr. Stevens states that he sees HBOT as elegant and simplistic; because to create energy, we require a nutrient and oxygen. It’s as simple as that. But, our environments keep mucking that process up — toxins, poor diet, too much sugar, etc. We must look at Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy as a mechanism to improve cellular energy production. He further explains that when we focus on optimizing everything about the cell lifestyle and then apply oxygen, we have a recipe to achieve the best outcome in energy production. But, why is energy production so important for longevity?! Because energy production in your immune system predicts how your immune system will function – more energy production and your immune system is boosted to preform better, thus optimizing the chances of keeping disease and illness away.
The topic of the immune system leads us into a discussion on immunosenescence and why it is so important. Dr. Stevens explains that ultimately, the longevity of our lives is predicted by our immune system. Thankfully Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is known to slow down the rate of decline in an aging immune system, and increase our body’s ability to regenerate stem cells.
Dr. Stevens again touches on the power of extended fasting, and why it plays such an important role in optimal health & longevity.
Guest
Dr. Jay Stevens
Dr. James “Jay” Stevens earned a Bachelor of Arts in Zoology from UNC-Chapel Hill and a Doctor of Medicine from East Carolina University School of Medicine. He completed a Family Practice Residency at the Fairfax Family Practice Program at the Medical College of Virginia and the first Sports Medicine Fellowship at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill in 1991. He is Board Certified in both Family Practice and Anti-aging Medicine. He also has a Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine. In 2003 he founded Carolina Family Practice & Sports Medicine with locations in Cary, Raleigh, and Holly Springs, NC. He has served as the Team Physician for the National Hockey League’s 2006 Stanley Cup Champion Carolina Hurricanes since their arrival in 1997. He serves as Company Physician for the Carolina Ballet as well.
In 2009, his commitment to helping his patients create healthy lifestyles for long-term wellness, along with his desire to provide the highest quality health care services, motivated Dr. Stevens to establish Essential Health & Wellness (EHW). EHW offers its patients a comprehensive health care service tailored around their busy schedules with the goal of optimizing their performance and longevity.
In 2018, he continued this commitment to long-term wellness of his patients by becoming the Medical Director at Extivita RTP, a hyperbaric oxygen therapy facility with two, twelve seat treatment chambers in the Research Triangle Park, Durham, NC.
Dr. Stevens is also a Fellow in both the American Academy of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine and the American Academy of Family Practice. He is a member of the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine and Hyperbaric Medicine International.
Dr. Stevens lives in Cary, NC with his wife, Dr. Patience Stevens. They have three sons Eric, James, and Timothy. He is passionate about surfing, triathlon and almost any form of exercise.
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Recent HBOT News
Clinical Trial – Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation and Hyperbaric Chamber for Women Fibromyalgia
Fibromyalgia syndrome (FMS) is a multisystem disease, characterized by generalized chronic
musculoskeletal pain. In addition, there is a lot of care for fatigue, sleep disorders,
morning stiffness, cognitive disorders, depression, anxiety and stress. Other common symptoms
are back pain, headaches, irritable bowel, balance problems and deterioration of physical
function in general. Patients with fibromyalgia (FM) often show pain at specific points that
are known as "tender spots or tender spots, with an increased sensitivity to painful stimuli"
(hyperalgesia) and a decreased pain threshold (allodynia). which can be evidenced in the
physical examination and in the absence of anomalies that justify in the biological or image
tests. These pain points to pressure, based on the most specific and specific criteria for
the diagnosis of the disease, traditionally based on the criteria of the American College of
Rheumatology (ACR), according to which, should be presented so minus 11 out of 18 painful
points to confirm it. Although the etiology remains unknown and unclear, its appearance is
attributed to a problem of central sensitization, that is, changes in central processing,
which causes an alteration of the mechanisms that regulate the sensation of pain, with
amplification of nociceptive input . and perpetuation of painful stimuli. Fibromyalgia is
becoming a common syndrome in the countries of Western Europe, with a prevalence in the
general population that ranges between 1-3%, and specifically in Spain, around 2.4%. In
addition, it has a higher incidence in women than men (73-95%), predominantly affecting women
between the ages of 40-50 years. About 3% of women with fibromyalgia are at an age when
menopause occurs, so not only do they experience the symptoms of both states but they even
exacerbate the syndrome with each other. On the other hand, and in relation to its
chronicity, the care of this type of patients involves large costs for society with a
significant consumption of health resources in the field of primary care, as well as the
costs of work absenteeism. For these reasons, it is considered an important problem with a
great impact on the health system, and therefore more and more studies are being developed
with the aim of better understanding the pathophysiology of this disease. The therapeutic
approach includes low cost and easy access measures, such as physical exercise (EF) programs
to improve the symptoms of FM. Physical exercise has positive effects directly on pain, joint
and muscle stiffness, generalized sensitivity and fatigue, among others, and secondarily on
cognitive disorders. Thus, the vast majority of studies focus on low-impact aerobic exercise,
performed between 60% and 70% of the maximum heart rate two to three times a week. However,
to date, there is no study that compares the effectiveness of physical exercise with other
innovative therapeutic actions, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), the
hyperbaric chamber (HBOT), in parameters related to pain and quality of life. the life of
patients with fibromyalgia. The general objective is the effectiveness of transcranial
magnetic stimulation and the hyperbaric chamber in women with fibromyalgia. As specific
objectives we propose:
To assess the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF on quality of life in women with fibromyalgia.
– Object the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF in cortical functioning.
– Evaluate the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF on fatigue.
– Evaluate the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF on psychological aspects, such as depression and
anxiety.
– Evaluate the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF on the perception of pain and the number of
painful points.
– Evaluate the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF on the quality of sleep.
– Evaluate the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF on the quality of life.
– Evaluate the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF on the pain constructs.
– Determine the effect of HBOT, TMS and EF on plasma endorphin levels.
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Abstract: BACKGROUND Several clinical conditions can cause hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury. This study aimed to determine the mechanism of the protective effect of hyperbaric oxygen preconditioning (HBO₂P) on hepatic ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury in a...
Effect of hyperbaric oxygen therapy and corticosteroid therapy in military personnel with acute acoustic trauma.
Abstract: Acute acoustic trauma (AAT) is a sensorineural hearing impairment due to exposure to an intense impulse noise which causes cochlear hypoxia. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO) could provide an adequate oxygen supply. The aim was to investigate the effectiveness...