THE HIDDEN LINK–   How Air Travel Can Worsen Chronic Illness

On assignment in Tucson to write an article about a horse ranch, I’d begun to suffer the stirrings of a headache on the second leg of the stopover flight. I knew I would soon slowly crescendo over the night into terrible pain. I have been struggling with lyme disease for four years now, and one of the hallmark symptoms are migraine-like headaches that put you in bed for a day or two.  I call them “lymegraines.”   I used to be clobbered by them once or twice a week, but I hadn’t had one since I’d been using a home mild hyperbaric chamber a few times a week.  It had banished the crushing head pain to a mere memory.

     But for some reason the flight had triggered one.  I called Lance Brubaker, of NetPhysician, Inc, who I have turned to in times like these.  I knew I needed a session, or I wouldn’t be able to complete my assignment. Lance located two professionals, one an M.D. and the other a naturopath, with mild chambers in Tucson, and a few hours later I was blissfully breathing oxygen under pressure and my headache melted away.  The doctor whose chamber I visited, Jane Orient, M.D., had bought it to treat her own multiple sclerosis, and confirmed that it seemed to be slowing or halting progression of the

my lyme symptoms, especially connecting or stop over flights.  I would get off the plane and my body was trembling and sweating.  I became hyperactive, disoriented, extremely anxious and would be unable to sleep for days afterward.”  Lance discovered that both pathogens and the immune function were susceptible to changes to lower oxygen and lower pressure.  “A drop in pressure and oxygen will suppress immune function and signal pathogens to proliferate, or grow     rapidly.  The exposure to such low pressures experienced on an airplane can cause jet lag in a healthy person and a severe relapse for the chronic disease patient.

     “Lower pressure can cause a reduction in oxygen dilution into hemoglobin,” explains Dr. Rhett Bergeron, M.D., of Roswell, GA.  “This results in an overall reduction in oxygen.  Flying or vacationing at high altitudes may not be a wise choice for the immune compromised or those with chronic conditions.  But if these patients do hyperbaric treatments before and after flying, they can protect themselves.        

     So is there a connection between the relative hypoxia of air flights and the 

Fojgel believes that a good deal of jetlag is actually a mild form of altitude sickness.  “Most in-flight and post-flight disorders, including most so-called "jet-lag" can be traced to the hypoxic event called air travel. If a flight doesn’t traverse more than two time zones, any such incident should not be termed jet-lag, but ascribed to hypoxia.”

     In fact, says Fojgel, “A patient of mine had a stroke after flying from

Bangkok.  After only 25 mild hyperbaric sessions, there were no signs left of the stroke.  The doctors at the best clinic in Buenos Aires were aghast.”

     So what can you do if you travel frequently by airline, or if you have any kind of chronic illness that could be worsened by air travel?  I know what I’m going to do from now on: pre-treat the day before in my chamber, and know ahead of time which practitioners have mild chambers in the city I’m going to, so that I can have a treatment the day after I touch down.  For a particularly long flight, I’d also ask my doctor for a prescription for in-flight oxygen.  While breathing oxygen does not have the same benefits as when it is used in conjunction with hyperbaric, it can help ward off some symptomology.

condition. 

     But the question lingered in my mind: why had the flight triggered a lymegraine?  Lance suggested three reasons: 1) When airplanes are up at flying altitude, the pressure inside the cabin is about 8,000 feet.  For someone who lives at sea level, that’s a high altitude; 2) the air is re-circulated, and as all the passengers breathe out carbon dioxide, over time the oxygen level in the ambient air goes down;

3) stopover flights cause dormant bacteria to replicate.  Going up and down twice in one day is harder on the body than a straight flight.

     In other words, hypoxia, low altitude, and changing pressure several times had overwhelmed my defenses.  And just 40 minutes in the chamber reversed that. 

Lance explained that the same thing frequently occurred during his bout with lyme in the early 90’s when he flew for business. “Flights greatly exacerbated

hypoxia common in chronic illness?  I turned to Ignacio Fojgel, M.D., Head of the Complimentary and Integrative Medicine Department at Maimonides University School of Medicine in Buenos Aires, a specialist in hyperbaric oxygen treatment who utilizes two mild chambers at his hospital in Buenos Aires.  He’d written a research paper on the connection between the two, especially on neurological conditions like lyme.  “The diminished oxygen levels in flight are sufficient for healthy individuals, but not for patients with pre-existing conditions,” says Fojgel.  “They may show symptoms after as little as two hours of flight.”

    Airplane flight for the chronically ill should therefore be regarded as a kind of potential altitude sickness, and precautions taken. 

Dr. Fojgel also recommends the following:

·   Heavy meals should be avoided prior to ascent.

·   Alcohol promotes dehydration, and is to be avoided.

·   Oxygen by mask should be provided to neurological patients flying for more than 2 hours.

·   “Super-charging” with several hyperbaric sessions, prior to the flight or ascent can be considered 

·   Adequate sleep is recommended, but not onboard. Exercise in your seat every two hours.

Mild Hyperbaric Therapy As An Immune Modulator

 Gunnar Heuser, M.D., Ph.D., Olga Aguilera, M.D., Sylvia Heuser, M.A., Shayna Kasbee, B.A., and Tanya Peach, B.S.

Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen treatment (mHBO) in a portable chamber, at 1.3 ATA and 24% oxygen, administered daily for ten consecutive sessions (1 hour each) improves brain function as measured by SPECT brain scan and a test for attention and reaction time.  Patients often report a sense of well-being and youthfulness after mHBO therapy.

We wondered whether immune function is positively affected by mHBO. We chose apoptosis (a function of programmed cell death) and natural killer cell activity (a function of immune surveillance) as parameters in 9 patients.

Our preliminary data, illustrated in graph form, show that 10 mHBO sessions can positively affect immune function: natural killer cell function increases and apoptosis values decrease. More sessions may be needed to affect positive results in an even higher percentage of patients.

We conclude that mHBO can improve immune function. Since apoptosis numbers increase with age the reversal of that process may have significance with regard to aging.