Next step after undergoing radiation therapy for cancer – HBOT
If you have been diagnosed with cancer and underwent radiation therapy along with other treatments, you would have seen other symptoms popping up as side effects that your doctors would have told you already. The symptoms vary depending on the area where the radiation therapy was performed. This is because, during radiation treatment, the energy transmitted into the body damages the surrounding tissues and muscles along with the targeted tumour. This is an inevitable thing. If you are young, the severity of the symptoms may be little less as the tissues and muscles try to get back to their near 100% but if you are a little aged, you may see unwanted symptoms for lifetime.
As per a study reported in science daily, HBOT can relieve symptoms and side effects of radiation therapy against cancer in the pelvic region.
Cancers in the pelvic region include:
- Bladder cancer
- Prostate cancer
- Cancer of the cervix
- Ovarian cancer
- Colon cancer
- Anal cancer
- Rectal Cancer
- Chondrosarcoma – cancer of the cartilage
- Osteosarcoma – cancer of the bone (can be anywhere but we are specific about the pelvic region here).
What happens when radiation therapy is performed in the pelvic region?
In cancers such as bladder, prostate, cervix, colon and ovary, the radiation not only kills the cells in the tumours but also damages the tissues and muscles around it as we have mentioned already. As a result, when the muscles around the bladder are damaged, that can lead to incontinence. Incontinence is a condition when the urine leaks involuntarily when a person coughs, sneezes, lifts weights or bends forward. Other symptoms include frequent urge to urinate (urge incontinence), bleeding and abdominal pain.
How does HBOT help in relieving the symptoms of radiation therapy?
In the study done by the researchers at the intensive care of Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, around 79 candidates were selected who were divided into two groups. One group underwent treatment with HBOT and another underwent controlled therapy with regular medication and care.
As a part of the HBOTherapy, the subjects were left in an oxygen filled chamber for 90 minutes everyday for 40 – 50 sessions. The oxygen pressure was maintained at 2.5 times that of normal atmospheric pressure. At the end of sessions, 2 out 3 subjects among them showed nearly no symptoms or drastically improved symptoms. This was self-evident as per Dr. Nicklas Oscarsson who stated that “This treatment is highly effective for the majority of the patients”.
The reason for improved symptoms is due to the regenerative nature of high pressure oxygen in the body that leads to healing and growth of damaged muscles, blood vessels etc. As the damaged tissues heal, the symptoms associated disappear or improve to a great extent.
Conclusion
If you have undergone any kind of radiation therapy for treatment of cancer, the next immediate thing we would recommend doing is to take up HBO Therapy. This not just heals the damage done by the radiation, it can also help in fixing other problems such as the blood vessel damage caused by high sugar levels, improving memory and cognition by supplying more oxygen to the brain etc.
For more information on what problems HBOT can treat, please visit the link.
