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Studies by Hospitals and Doctors
Pilots and Passengers
Passengers:
Have you ever wondered why you sleep through a flight?
It's called jet lag; the bodies response to lower levels of oxygen.
Pilots:
Have you wondered why you arrive yawning and feeling fatigued, or even have a mild headache?
This is a result of hypoxia, not serious enough for you to be considered unsafe to pilot a plane according to the FAA.
Twenty-five percent of night vision is lost at 8.000 feet.
While flying at 7,000 to 10,000 feet on a sunny day do you get drowsy?
If so, take a couple of shots of oxygen to perk you up! It'll sharpen your pilot skills and horizon scan.
Cluster headaches or just plain headaches/migraines?
Listed below are studies from hospitals and doctors pertaining to the use of oxygen and its benefits.
Migraine headaches are a source of disabling pain for millions of people.
The study, led by Takahiro Takano, Ph.D, and Maiken Nedergaard, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Rochester Medical Center in New York, focused on a phenomenon called cortical spreading depression (CSD), which occurs in migraines as well as stroke and traumatic brain injury. In CSD, a slow-moving wave of potassium ions causes large numbers of neurons to signal at once, followed by a period when normal neuronal activity in that area is halted.
The researchers found that CSD caused a short-term drop in oxygen levels and obvious swelling in the neurons. It also caused a temporary loss of dendritic spines, which are tiny projections on neurons that form junctions (synapses) with other neurons. These changes are signs of hypoxia – a state where neurons have too little oxygen to function normally. Hypoxia usually results from reduced blood flow in part of the brain and is what causes brain damage in strokes and transient ischemic attacks (TIAs). In the new study, however, the researchers saw signs of hypoxia even though the amount of blood flow in the brain temporarily increased
It is critical for the brain to keep normal levels of potassium,” Dr. Nedergaard explains. It takes a great deal of energy to reduce CSD-related potassium levels in the brain. Producing this energy requires oxygen. Dr. Nedergaard believes the brain’s attempts to reduce excess potassium and halt CSD prompt the temporarily increased blood flow associated with CSD. Unfortunately, however, the study showed that neurons close to the tiny blood vessels in the brain used up most of the increased oxygen. This caused small pockets of hypoxia in brain tissue that was farther away from the blood vessels. The hypoxia lasted for more than two minutes.
Dr. Nedergaard says. However, the increased oxygen might help to relieve the blood vessel constriction that follows CSD and reduce the pain of migraine.
C.O.P.D. - Improve your qaulity of life through exercise and oxygen
Bottom Line's Daily Health News
Oxygen Therapy for Headache Pain
For the nearly one million Americans who suffer from cluster headaches, relief may be just a breath... of pure oxygen... away. Cluster headaches are acutely painful headaches that come in waves... with several short headaches a day over a period of weeks or months. It's not known what causes them nor what might cure them... but a recent review of research suggests that oxygen therapy, in particular what's known as "normobaric" (normal pressure) oxygen therapy (NBOT), can effectively relieve the pain. This is good news for sufferers of cluster headaches, as NBOT is an easy and natural alternative -- and, perhaps most importantly, it works really fast.
RESEARCH FINDINGS
The lead author of the meta-analysis, Michael Bennett, Alexander Mauskop, MD, a board-certified neurologist and director of the New York Headache Center, who uses oxygen
therapy in his practice, explained why this treatment is helpful to people who suffer from these very particular headaches.
OXYGEN USE
According to Dr. Mauskop, up to 70% of cluster headache patients can attain relief within five to 10 minutes of breathing in 100% oxygen. For oxygen therapy to work. It is believed that oxygen helps by offsetting metabolic changes that cause pain and vasospasms due to oxygen depletion.
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