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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Clinical Trial – Effects of Repetitive Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Patients With Acute Ischaemic Stroke
Background and Rationale:
Cerebrovascular disease is always ranked at the top causes of death and most of hospitalized
acute stroke patients have ischemic stroke [1].
Although the mortality rate of acute ischemic stroke is less than that of hemorrhagic stroke
[1], it still results in patient disabilities and complications that often lead to
significant costs to individuals, families, and society.
Traditional treatment for acute ischemic stroke includes thrombolytic therapy by injecting
tissue plasminogen activator (t-PA) within three hours after onset of symptoms [2],
antiplatelets and/or anticoagulant agents administered within the first 48 hours. Clinically,
the narrow time window of thrombolytic therapy and coexisting contraindications limit the use
of t-PA [2]. Thus, searching for an effective supplemental treatment for acute ischemic
stroke is imperative.
Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is valuable in treating acute carbon monoxide poisoning
[3,4], air or gas embolism [5], facilitating wound healing [6] and has been used as an
adjuvant treatment for many neurological disorders that need further study as concussion [7]
, stroke [8,9], cerebral palsy [ 10],traumatic brain injury [ 11], cerebral air embolism
[12], Autism [13] and multiple sclerosis [14].
Indications of hyperbaric oxygen therapy recommended by undersea and hyperbaric medical
society (UHMS) [15] are 1.air or gas embolism [5], 2.carbon monoxide poisoning [3,4],
3.clostridial myositis and myonecrosis [16], 4.crush injury, compartment syndrome and other
acute traumatic ischemias [17], 5.decompression sickness [18], 6.arterial insufficiencies
[19], 7.severe anemia [20], 8.intracranial abscess [21], 9.necrotizing soft tissue infections
[22],10. refractory osteomyelitis [23], 11.delayed radiation injury [24], 12.compromised
grafts and flaps [25], 13.acute thermal burn injury [26] and 14.idiopathic sudden
sensorineural hearing loss [27].
Known mechanisms of HBOT-induced neuroprotection include enhancing neuronal viability via
increased tissue oxygen delivery to the area of diminished blood flow, reducing brain edema,
and improving metabolism after ischemia [28,29]. Furthermore, a recent study performed on a
rat suggested that upregulation of the expression of glial derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF)
and nerve growth factor (NGF) might underlie the effect of HBOT [30].
The effectiveness of use of Hyperbaric oxygen therapy in human ischemic stroke is still
controversial that need further evaluation.
Clinical Trial – Effect of Adjuvant Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy on Bells Palsy Outcome
This is a randomized, single blinded, non-placebo controlled that will compare one group of
Bells Palsy patients receiving the current standard of care including oral corticosteroids
and oral antivirals against an experimental group receiving the current standard of care in
addition to hyperbaric oxygen therapy. Outcome assessment will be based on both objective
analyses of facial movements as well as subjective quality of life scales.