Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (Neubauer and Walker - Dr. Morton Walker Health Book)

Europeans have done more research than Americans have on hyperbaric oxygen therapy--HBOT--and Europe has more and better facilities for it than the U.S. has. Italy, Belgium, and Russia are the HBOT pioneers; meanwhile, in the U.S., most doctors did not learn about HBOT in medical school, there is a shortage of proper (often costly) facilities, and more research is needed. Neubauer and Walker seek to foster public awareness of HBOT, so that patients will ask their doctors about it and thereby spur increased U.S. medical awareness. HBOT works primarily by forcing oxygen into blood plasma rather than blood cells. Neubauer and Walker describe several conditions for which HBOT has proven useful and safe, including healing serious wounds, preventing gas gangrene and related amputations, and treating brain and spinal cord injuries. They strain a bit, though, when they say HBOT can treat AIDS; what it really does is help heal Kaposi's sarcoma. Most of their references are, creditably enough, to articles in top-drawer medical journals. William Beatty