HBOT Conversations:
Laurie Anderson (Part 3)
Healing COVID with HBOT
Dr. Laurie is a Doctor of Pharmacy, and a graduate of the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) School of Pharmacy and the Pharmacy Practice Residency Program at the University of California – San Francisco (UCSF). Dr. Laurie spent many years in clinical practice, first as a neurosurgery clinical pharmacist at UCSF Medical Center and then as a general medicine and critical care clinical pharmacist at Duke Medical Center. For the past 14 years Dr. Laurie has been working in industry, and is currently a safety scientist in early phase drug development, designing safety strategies for First Time in Human clinical trials.
Through her own journey navigating chronic illness, Dr. Laurie has explored and embraced many forms of alternative and non-traditional medicine to support her body for healing. She has gravitated towards practitioners and modalities that treat the whole patient, with the mantra that tending to mind, body and spirit is the true key to lasting health. Over the years, Dr. Laurie has discovered that this often leads to a ‘less is more’ approach. She discovered HBOT when she was struggling to heal from COVID, and now tells anyone who will listen about the power of oxygen and pressure.
Watch the Podcast
We continue Dr. Laurie Anderson’s HBOT News Network interview, diving in deeper to discuss our veteran population, does HBOT have a therapeutic index, and what is the research telling us about the HBOT industry.
Her interview has been released as a three part series. Part 1 and Part 2 has already been released with both focusing on her HBOT journey with COVID & Lyme Disease.
In Part 3 of Laurie’s podcast the conversation shifts. It starts with the medical industry and the unfortunate “bad rap” that Hyperbaric Oxygen sometimes receives. Dr, Laurie refers to HBOT as a gift, so it’s truly unfortunate when the media focuses on the negative instead of the positive, influencing the public to not even try this life saving therapy. Research trials are discussed, including the problems that the hyperbaric industry has identified in the sham, placebo and/or control group when researchers try to mimic HBOT with little pressure and they discover that everyone starts to improve. Those of us in this industry understand and effortlessly work to enlighten others that any amount of pressure is good and therapeutic.
The topic of our US military and the high rate of suicide among our service man and women arises. Is there a solution to the veteran suicide epidemic our country is facing? It appears there is. di Girolamo speaks of Patriot Hyperbarics in Tulsa, and the success they have had treating veterans with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy.
“The Patriot Clinics in Tulsa treated some 500 veterans with PTSD, with donated money, donated chambers, and healed them. Most of them war-fighters, were in a bedroom, locked in the dark for years and years, like seven, ten years. And then they found Patriot Clinics and they got 40 treatments and then they got their executive function back. Some of them starting businesses. I saw videos of guys, you know, in the car on their way to the clinic on the first day and then on the 40th day, talking about their experience, it was just amazing.
There wasn’t some combined study about that. 500 souls were saved that didn’t commit suicide, they worked their way out of it.”
Dr. Laurie, who is a Doctor of Pharmacy, brings up an excellent point, and one that we’ve never discussed before on HBOT News. We know that the FDA ultimately states that oxygen is a drug, and you are required to have a prescription for it. But does Hyperbaric Oxygen have a therapeutic index like other drugs? And if so… how would a patient know they have reached the therapeutic index and how long is a patient at the therapeutic index? She explains it like this…
“If I apply this to drugs, like with a drug we would want to keep the level, generally, we try to keep the level of a drug in the blood inside the therapeutic index, right? So sometimes, depending on the half life of the drug, you can be in your therapeutic index by taking it once a day so you trickle up and down in between that therapeutic index. Some drugs have a shorter half life and you have to take it twice a day to stay in that therapeutic index.
So what keeps you in whatever is the defined therapeutic index, if that can be translated to oxygen therapy, you know, is it daily? Is it twice a day?”
di Girolamo wonders if in 20 years from now the industry will look back on this conversation and be shocked that we weren’t more focused on the therapeutic index. He stresses that the hyperbaric industry can’t even come together and decide the specific definition of hyperbaric oxygen, much less all these variables that Dr. Laurie has opened our eyes to.
Dr. Laurie ends her time here with HBOT News stressing that for her HBOT healed her during a very sick time with COVID, and it helped her with many of the Lyme Disease symptoms she struggled with for years. It worked for her, and she said it’s definitely worth a try to see if it can work for you.
Guests
Dr. Laurie Anderson, Pharm.D.
Through her own journey navigating chronic illness, Dr. Laurie has explored and embraced many forms of alternative and non-traditional medicine to support her body for healing. She has gravitated towards practitioners and modalities that treat the whole patient, with the mantra that tending to mind, body and spirit is the true key to lasting health. Over the years, Dr. Laurie has discovered that this often leads to a ‘less is more’ approach.
When not working, Dr. Laurie is an avid gardener, ballroom dancer and traveler with her husband. Remaining curious and finding joy in every day are her super powers.
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Recent HBOT News
Cerebral hypoperfusion in autism spectrum disorder
Cerebral hypoperfusion, or insufficient blood flow in the brain, occurs in many areas of the brain in patients diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Hypoperfusion was demonstrated in the brains of individuals with ASD when compared to normal healthy control brains either using positron emission tomography (PET) or single‑photon emission computed tomography (SPECT). The affected areas include, but are not limited to the: prefrontal, frontal, temporal, occipital, and parietal cortices; thalami; basal ganglia; cingulate cortex; caudate nucleus; the limbic system including the hippocampal area; putamen; substantia nigra; cerebellum; and associative cortices. Moreover, correlations between symptom scores and hypoperfusion in the brains of individuals diagnosed with an ASD were found indicating that the greater the autism symptom pathology, the more significant the cerebral hypoperfusion or vascular pathology in the brain. Evidence suggests that brain inflammation and vascular inflammation may explain a part of the hypoperfusion. There is also evidence of a lack of normal compensatory increase in blood flow when the subjects are challenged with a task. Some studies propose treatments that can address the hypoperfusion found among individuals diagnosed with an ASD, bringing symptom relief to some extent. This review will explore the evidence that indicates cerebral hypoperfusion in ASD, as well as the possible etiological aspects, complications, and treatments.
Clinical Trial – Spinal Anesthesia in Caesarean Section
Spinal anesthesia is a safe technique, widely used and tested in the gynecological field, so
as to be considered the first choice technique in cesarean section, which allows to quickly
obtain a valid sensor and motor block. Bupivacaine is one of the most widely used drug for
obtaining spinal anesthesia in pregnant women undergoing caesarean section. Bupivacaine is a
local anesthetic available as a racemic mixture of its two enantiomers, the R (+)-
dextrobupivacaine and the S (-) – levobupivacaine, whose clinical use is widely validated.
Racemic bupivacaine is available as a simple or hyperbaric solution, the latter being the
most commonly used for spinal anesthesia. Levobupivacaine, which is the pure levorotatory
enantiomer of racemic bupivacaine, is a slightly hypobaric solution compared to liquor and
has shown less heart and nerve toxicity, probably due to its ability to bind proteins more
rapidly, and a greater selectivity towards the sensory component compared to Bupivacaine,
presents action and effects better predictable. Its baricity would also offer the advantage
of providing a less sensitive block to the position.
Hypotension is one of the most common complications of spinal anesthesia and is particularly
relevant in caesarean section because, in addition to the adverse effects on the parturient,
it can have repercussions on the fetus through a reduction of placental perfusion.
Some studies have showed a similar incidence of hypotension in patients treated with
bupivacaine compared to those treated with levobupivacaine, while others assert an
equivalence between the two drugs. In most studies, however, a significantly lower incidence
of hypotension and a greater hemodynamic stability were reported in pregnant patients
undergoing spinal anesthesia by caesarean section with levobupivacaine.
Being both hyperbaric bupivacaine and levobupivacaine routinely used at the "G. Rodolico"
Universitary Hospital of Catania for the spinal anesthesia of pregnant women undergoing
caesarean section and being their use decided exclusively at discretion of the treating
anesthesiologist, in the light of the discrepant data in the literature about the incidence
of hypotension with the two drugs, the main objective of this observational study is to
evaluate the hemodynamic effects mediated by levobupivacaine on pregnant women subjected to
elective cesarean section and to compare them with those mediated by hyperbaric bupivacaine
in an historical court of pregnant women subjected to caesarean section in the period between
April 2017 and April 2018. The hemodynamic parameters will be monitored in real time with a
non-invasive hemodynamic monitoring system (EV1000® platform + Clearsight® system – Edwards
LifeSciences), routinely used in the "G. Rodolico" Universitary Hospital of Catania, allowing
to obtain greater accuracy and veracity of the results compared to previous studies conducted
on such anesthetics.
Role of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in Trauma Care
Article from Bio Spectrum Media discusses how technological advancements have made the use of HBOT more efficient in Trauma Care: Head Trauma is one of the major causes of death and disabilities across the world. This can be caused due a contusion (bruise),...