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.
Subscribe Now, It’s Free!
Recent HBOT News
Healing of spongiosus-cutaneous fistula with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT): a case report.
Abstract: We present a case of a spongiosus-cutaneous fistula in a 39-year-old man with recurrent episodes of cutaneous abscess in dorsal middle third penis (5 - 3 cm) treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). After emptying nodular abscess, the patient was...
Clinical Trial – Caudal Block,Saddle Block, Anorectal Surgery
Anorectal surgery includes pilonidal sinus, hemorrhoidectomy, anal fissure, and anal fistula
operations. Various surgical and anesthetic techniques have been used to increase the level
of analgesia in perioperative period and decrease the length of stay in the hospital. In this
study, investigators investigate the effects of routinely applied anesthesia techniques
during anorectal surgery, caudal block and saddle block, on patients’ perioperative
hemodynamic values, sensory and motor block levels, and postoperative pain scores.
Clinical Trial – Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy for Ulcerative Colitis Flares
Ulcerative colitis (UC) is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease associated with recurrent
mucosal inflammation. Clinically, the disease is characterized by bloody diarrhea, abdominal
pain, and constitutional symptoms such as fever and weight loss. Treatment strategies vary
based on disease activity and target various aspects of the inflammatory cascade. Options
include: anti-inflammatory drugs (mesalamine), immunosuppressive or modulatory medications
(corticosteroids, thiopurines, cyclosporine) and biologic agents (Anti-TNF). Disease severity
can be wide ranging, and nearly 25% of UC patients are hospitalized for acute severe disease.
Of these patients, 30% will undergo colectomy after the acute episode, a quarter of which
will experience post-operative complications. Although there has been great progress in
treatment of UC over the past decade, even with the anti-TNF agent infliximab, the one-year
remission rate for patients not responding to conservative management is barely 20%.
Furthermore, corticosteroids have significant long-term consequences and immune suppressive
drugs such as 6-mercaptopurine, azathioprine and infliximab have been associated with serious
adverse events including life-threatening infections and lymphomas. With growing evidence
that the pathogenesis of UC is multi-factorial and involves a complex interaction of genetic
and environmental factors, newer treatment modalities are being evaluated to target the
mucosal immune response and mucosal inflammatory regulatory system.
Hyperbaric oxygen offers a promising new treatment option since it targets both tissue
hypoxia and inflammation. Recent small scales studies evaluating the impact of hyperbaric
oxygen treatment in acute ulcerative colitis flares demonstrated improved outcomes. The
mechanisms underlying the improvement are not known. In this study, we will treat ulcerative
colitis flares with hyperbaric oxygen and measure changes in both markers of tissue hypoxia
and inflammation. We hypothesize that hyperbaric oxygen will (a) improve outcomes, and (b)
show reductions in markers of both tissue hypoxia and inflammation.