Oxygen Therapy - Massaging the Truth (Part IV)

After my initially ecstatic but ultimately short and unhelpful experience with meditative breathing with oxygen, I went back to the drawing board.  If my theory that certain muscle groups were under-oxygenated was correct, then targeting blood flow to those muscles while breathing oxygen was a logical next step.  My weapon of choice... a foam roller.

I set up my oxygen generator to use while performing self-massage on a foam roller, targeting tight hips, quadriceps, and my IT (iliotibial) band.  After the very first treatment, I felt a difference - an ache in the hips, quads, and IT band on the right side of my body that wasn't usual after a session with the foam roller.  My left side felt normal.  I immediately (whether correctly or not) attributed the disparity between to the relative tightness of the muscles in each leg.  The muscles in my right quad have been tight for years, whereas the muscles in my left quad have been relatively limber.  What did it mean?  I don't know.  I wanted to believe that my right leg muscles were finally getting the oxygen that they needed to repair and relax.  

The aches and soreness lasted for two or three days.  After a few more days, I tried massaging with oxygen again, targeting the same muscle groups, with much the same result.  Achy right leg muscles, three day recovery.  I kept up with this routine for a few more weeks.  However, nothing changed.  I observed no relief in muscle tightness attributable to the addition of oxygen or any other effect from the oxygen therapy.

The massage experiment was a relatively short trial, with interesting observations but no conclusions.  After a month of these interesting but inconclusive observations, I was eager to move on to the next promising experiment...exercising with oxygen.

Click the links below to read other posts in the Oxygen Therapy Series:

Oxygen Therapy - A Plausible Theory (Part I)
Oxygen Therapy - Finding an Oxygen Source (Part II)
Oxygen Therapy - Trials and Tribulations (Part III)
Oxygen Therapy - Massaging the Truth (Part IV)
Oxygen Therapy - Cardio for a Day (Part V)
Oxygen Therapy - Strength Training (Part VI)

Oxygen Therapy - Trials & Tribulations (Part III)

I had been generally warned about the potential dangers of oxygen toxicity from a friend - so before I started, I researched the dangers.  The best resource I found is from the National Institutes of Health, which has an article discussing the dangers of oxgen therapy for COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease).  To read the full article, click this link.  The two main concerns with oxygen therapy appeared to be (1) Carbon Dioxide Retention and (2) Oxidative Stress.  Carbon dioxide retention leads to a condition called respiratory acidosis, in which the body cannot eliminate all the CO2 generated during respiration and which causes the body's acidity increases.  Oxidative stress occurs when too much oxygen is present in the blood, which allows for the formation of free radicals that can damage cells.  Of course, I had no idea how much oxygen was too much or would create these conditions, so I determined to start off with short intervals and work up from low levels of oxygen.

The determined starting point - meditative breathing with oxygen for 30 minutes per day, once per week, for a minimum of a few weeks before changing the regimen.  My first 30 minute trial was unspectacular but with spectacularly promising results.  After the session, I immediately felt less fatigued, a slight improvement.  The noticeable improvement came that night with restful sleep and dreams - something I had experienced in years. The next morning came and I felt somewhat rested - an unusual occurrence.

With such noticeable improvements after only one session, all of my plans to ease into oxygen therapy went out the window.  If I felt this much better with one dose of oxygen, I could only imagine how much better I would feel on even more oxygen.  The next night, I indulged again - this time for a full hour.  Instead of feeling elated, I felt slightly jittery, dizzy, anxious, and nauseated.  After some thought and riding high on my improvement from the first night, I decided it would be difficult to know if my new symptoms were definitively caused by the oxygen without another data point (its the engineer in me) and so I indulged in oxygen therapy for a third straight night.  Bad idea.  The symptoms the night before intensified and worsened, making for a very uncomfortable night.  Carbon dioxide retention?  Oxidative stress?  Who knows.  I had learned my lesson.  I took a full week off of oxygen therapy to allow my body to normalize before starting again, this time a bit more intelligently...

Click the links below to read other posts in the Oxygen Therapy Series:

Oxygen Therapy - A Plausible Theory (Part I)
Oxygen Therapy - Finding an Oxygen Source (Part II)
Oxygen Therapy - Trials and Tribulations (Part III)
Oxygen Therapy - Massaging the Truth (Part IV)
Oxygen Therapy - Cardio for a Day (Part V)
Oxygen Therapy - Strength Training (Part VI)

Oxygen Therapy - Finding an Oxygen Source (Part II)

Oxygen, in a pure form, is not without danger.  It is a fire accelerator and can be toxic if inhaled in the wrong concentration at the wrong flow rate for the wrong amount of time.  Oxygen, for medical purposes, is regulated by the FDA as a drug.  As such, it is available by prescription only and in two forms:  (1) compressed in a pressurized vessel and (2) on demand via oxygen generator.  Wanting the ability to produce my own oxygen, I focused my attention on finding an oxygen generator - a device that essentially consists of a few compressors that force ambient air through zeolite, a media that scrubs out the nitrogen, leaving anywhere between 80% and 95% pure oxygen.  

As oxygen is regulated by the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act as a drug, I wasn't even sure if I could buy an oxygen generator.  I suspected that I could because of the existence of oxygen bars and began searching.  What I found was that yes, I could buy an oxygen generator - although the debate of legality appears more complicated.  The FDA has determined that Oxygen Bars that dispense oxygen without a prescription are doing so in violation of federal law but appeared to have left ultimate regulation and enforcement up to the individual States.  Accordingly, some States regulate the sale and/or use of oxygen generators more aggressively than others.  The conflict reminds me of the recent conflict between federal and state marijuana laws, where the feds, for the time being, are deferring to the states who have passed recreational and medical marijuana laws. 

Several websites promoting a specific kind of oxygen therapy, exercise with oxygen therapy (EWOT), were willing to sell oxygen generators without a prescription.  EWOT is exactly what it sounds like - exercise (on an elliptical machine, treadmill, stationary bike, etc.) while breathing concentrated oxygen).  Ultimately, I settled on a refurbished DeVilbiss 515 Oxygen Generator, capable of producing 90% oxygen at up to 5 liters per minute, which set me back just under $600 (versus thousands for new machines).  Then I waited for it to arrive...

Click the links below to read other posts in the Oxygen Therapy Series:

Oxygen Therapy - A Plausible Theory (Part I)
Oxygen Therapy - Finding an Oxygen Source (Part II)
Oxygen Therapy - Trials and Tribulations (Part III)
Oxygen Therapy - Massaging the Truth (Part IV)
Oxygen Therapy - Cardio for a Day (Part V)
Oxygen Therapy - Strength Training (Part VI)

Oxygen Therapy - A Plausible Theory (Part I)

The shortened story goes like this...  A number of years ago I started to research hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) during discussions with Dr. Kurisu regarding natural treatments for herniated or bulging disks.  In HBOT, a patient is placed inside of a container that is pressurized with air that has a much higher oxygen concentration than normal air (normal air is mostly nitrogen, approx. 78%, and oxygen, approx. 21%, with the remaining percent going to various other gasses).  To be clear, Dr. Kurisu recommended swimming or sitting in Jacuzzis (a therapy that reduced the pressure on the ailing disk thanks to the buoyancy effect of water), not HBOT.  I made the connection between the buoyancy of water and the buoyancy of pressurized air in HBOT.  My research at the time was not particularly interested in the oxygen aspect and resulted in the following conclusions: (1) HBOT was not covered by insurance for back injuries, (2) HBOT would be expensive out of pocket, (3) there was significant risk to health if not done properly (e.g. wrong pressure, wrong oxygen content, etc.).  With those hurdles, I put HBOT out of my mind.

In the intervening years, the oxygen aspect of HBOT flickered in my thoughts as something that might help correct whatever was ailing me - though it was a dim thought.  I knew that oxygen was prescribed to those with certain medical conditions and that oxygen bars were popping up in certain cities as the latest craze, but testing out an oxygen therapy on my own condition didn't take hold until I met a colleague for lunch a few months ago at the Seaside Market in Encinitas.  Instead of talking shop, as I had intended, we chatted illness and therapy, as his wife had recently been diagnosed with a mitochondrial disease.  "Your symptoms sound strikingly similar to mitochondrial disease," John (pseudonym) told me. 

The mitochondria are the powerhouses of the cells - they create the energy that the body uses to function.  Energy is produced in one of two ways: (1) aerobically - with oxygen and (2) anaerobically - without oxygen.  In mitochondrial disease, the mitochondria are unable to absorb enough oxygen to maintain aerobic energy production, resulting in the body moving much more quickly into anaerobic energy production.  The result of moving into anaerobic energy production is fatigue.

The theory that my fatigue was caused due to oxygen deficiencies in the cells was fascinating.  I immediately started looking for more information.  I found the following two blog posts (the titles say it all) by Cort Johnson:

Poor Oxygen Uptake May Be at the Core of the Exercise Problems in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Are Oxygen Starved Tissues Causing Pain and Fatigue in Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)?

These blog posts review current medical studies that suggest that oxygen deficiency may be a cause for both the pain associated with Chronic Fatigue Syndrom and Fibromyalgia and a particular symptom of exercise-induced fatigue - a symptom that I was thoroughly familiar with (see blog post - The Depths of Illness - Exercise-Induced Fatigue).  The Cort Johnson blogs, though fascinating, offered little in the way of treatment and/or therapy outside of a few drugs (that may or may not work if you can get your doctor to prescribe them).  

The notion that oxygen deficiency leading to anaerobic energy production and fatigue matched my experiences too closely to ignore.  Uninterested in pursuing the suggested drugs, I wanted to know if any alternative therapies could help - the leading suspect, oxygen therapy (any therapy that would supersaturate my body with oxygen).  A brief mention of oxygen therapy in the comments section of one of these blogs noted that anecdotal evidence showed that oxygen therapy was helpful for some people but not for others.  More hours of internet research confirmed the same sentiment - all anecdotal evidence, all inconclusive.  However, oxygen therapy sounded both promising and plausible - almost without hesitation, I decided to give it a try...  

Click the links below to read other posts in the Oxygen Therapy Series:

Oxygen Therapy - A Plausible Theory (Part I)
Oxygen Therapy - Finding an Oxygen Source (Part II)
Oxygen Therapy - Trials and Tribulations (Part III)
Oxygen Therapy - Massaging the Truth (Part IV)
Oxygen Therapy - Cardio for a Day (Part V)
Oxygen Therapy - Strength Training (Part VI)