Oxygen – A Breath for life

Boosting oxygen levels to brain injured children can deliver dramatic improvements in their conditions. A Breath for Life is the only charity which provides hyperbaric oxygen treatment specifically for children at a price that is affordable. Yet they have to operate out of what is effectively a garage on an industrial estate with no waiting room (visitors have to wait in their cars), a portacabin for loos and no space to offer refreshments. They receive no government funding.

A typical patient would be a child like Tazif.

Tazif was very uncommunicative, seriously brain damaged and experiencing numerous fits every day when he arrived. As you can see, he is now bright and responsive, no fits. Sarah, his mum, was told he would be blind, deaf and never walk. The latter may turn out to be correct, but she has brought him back from the brink travelling daily from Manchester for months.  And Tazif is only one. With all of our support, how many more children like Tarif could A Breath for Life treat?

For now A Breath for Life wants to raise £200,000 to create a reception/refreshment area, indoor male/female/disabled changing facility and a landscaped area for the summer. Please can you help, even if not by actually donating any money (although all donations, whatever their size, are gratefully accepted) by promoting their GoFundMe link. GoFundMe only works if the link gets widely shared – so please take a millisecond or two to share on your own social media feeds.

More about oxygen and oxygen therapy

Every cell in our body needs oxygen to function. And while every one ‘sort of’ knows this, and we are all aware that those with poor lung function may need to wear oxygen tanks and breathe in extra oxygen, few people really understand how crucial oxygen is to each individual cell’s wellbeing. Nor do they really understand how boosting the amount of oxygen our cells can access can have dramatic effects on our health.

Which is why the award of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine this month to Sir Peter Radcliffe for his work on ‘hypoxia’ (the condition in which part of or the whole body is deprived of an adequate supply of oxygen) is so important. Sir Peter and his colleagues have discovered the key mechanisms that our cells use to detect and respond to low levels of oxygen – and then boost red blood cell production to carry more. A very welcome blast of publicity for oxygen!

While footballers know the value of oxygen (who remembers when Wayne Rooney spent time in a hyperbaric chamber to speed up his recovery from a broken foot in time for the 2006 World Cup?) – boosting oxygen intake is a sadly underused therapy. Yet it has massive potential in treating a very wide range of conditions – especially those involving brain injuries. (This 2018 review of 40 years of clinical trials of the use of hyperbaric oxygen in case of brain injury ‘demonstrated that HBO2 has the potential to be the first significant treatment in the acute phase of severe TBI’.)

But even if you know about it, accessing hyperbaric oxygen treatment is not that easy – or cheap. It is only offered in a limited number of hospitals, some private clinics (but at well over £100 per hour), a number of MS (Multiple Sclerosis) centres and at a few small charities such as Kent Oxygen Therapy and a Breath for Life.

For more about hyperbaric oxygen treatment and where to find it, check in to the Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment Trust site; they not only explain the mechanisms but have a ‘find a chamber’ page which is very helpful.

Ingested oxygen

Breathing in oxygen in a chamber is the most widely accepted way of treating yourself with oxygen. But it is also possible to ingest it.

Some years ago when I was seriously electrosensitive (reacted to electro magnetic radiation from mobile phones, wifi etc etc) I used ingested oxygen – apparently very successfully. Apparently – because it seemed to work for me although since I do not know anyone else who has tried it I cannot make further comments.

Electromagnetic radiation interferes with the efficient functioning of our cells by, effectively, flooding them with calcium. (For more on this see my report on the recent BSEM 5G conference, and especially Professor Martin Pall’s talk). So it makes sense that anything that can strengthen our cell health against such an influx will be beneficial. Hence the apparent benefit of ingesting extra oxygen.

For more details on my situation and my own protocol see this article on the Foods Matter site. Since I wrote that my original source of aerobic oxygen has become unavailable. Because I stocked up years ago and only use it occasionally now, I have not looked for a replacement but there seem to be several possible alternatives if you Google ‘buying aerobic oxygen’. (Googling just ‘aerobic oxygen’ appears to take you to a very dubious site full of underclad ladies!!)

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