It make a major difference for me.

In general, about a third of the people received significant improvement from their symptoms, about a third got some improvement, and about a third didn't get a lot of help. Factors in this equation could be the length of time a person was diving, did they use the right combination of ABX, especially IV ABX, what co-infections did they have and were those treated, were metals and candida an issue, and did they have Lyme disease in the first place.

Wildcondor is right, that major ABX should be used along with HBO, if possible, especially IVs.

I did hbo in clinics at 2.5 ata twice--once for 30 days, then for 60 days.

I did it without antibiotics but I dove with those who were doing it with antibiotics, and without.

I think the pressures are too high, for the time required (many months) to gain from it. A month is not enough.

I use a home chamber that goes to about 1.3 ata, and use it about twice a week, and it has greatly improved my life, and I have it longterm. I don't do it with antibiotics.

Thanks a lot for the web site!

It says about you:
"After 1 1/2 years symptom-free and off antibiotics, Johnson relapsed in December 2001 after moving from the West coast to the East coast. Apparently, freezing temperatures in New York forced the relapse. "

Is the role of temperature generally accepted? I lived many years in the clammy, damp willamette valley of Oregon and believed that the lack of sunshine was causing me Seasonal Affective Disorder. I've posted previously about the failure of bright light "therapy" to improve my condition. I moved to the Deep South hoping that the increase in sunshine would help. I do feel much better, but after finally learning about Lyme I'm now convinced that it is the heat (not the light) that is helping.

I assumed this was sort of an accepted idea in the Lyme community given that Borrelia prefers 34C to 37C, but when I described my experience previously, some members insisted that for them it was in fact the light that was mediating their seasonal "remission:" Is there a consensus on the influence of body temperature on Lyme severity? It seems to explain a lot for me and I'm hoping it will give me some measure of control over the disease (by keeping warm).

Are you saying that clinical treatments were not effective over the time frame you used them, or that they were effective but not realistic for long-term treatment?

How do you get concentrated oxygen for a home system? Does it come with a oxygen concentrator (in which case all you pay for is electricity)?

Borrelia is known to alter its gene expression based on elevated levels of oxygen. One of the concerns I have about the lower levels of the home system (which I know very little about) is that the borrelia may simply adopt a defensive posture (better than nothing) whereas the high levels characteristic of the clinical chambers might kill the bacteria outright. Is this distinction real, or my imagination?

One patient does well in cold areas, others do better in warm, dry climates. Some like it hot, some like it cold. Go figure. Others are affected by passing storms and changes in barometric pressure.

In my case, I was infected on the prairies, a few miles north of North Dakota in Saskatchewan. With no diagnosis and no treatment I began the slow transition into winter. I could feel the nausea, fatigue, and other symptoms rise in my body as the temperature dipped below freezing. The colder it got, the worse the symptoms were.

This first winter, still undiagnosed, I spent a month between -30 and -40 and I thought I was going to die.

Other Lyme patients are affected by the cold, but as far as I know, I am the only one I have found that has such a direct relationship between the onset of symptoms and temperatures that drop below freezing.

When I lived in Chico, CA for three years following HBO there, the dry, hot, Arizona-like climate helped put Lyme in remission. I relapsed in the first snowfall after moving to NY in 2001.

I now attribute my relapse to stress, candida and metals, along with colder temperatures.

But remember, each person is different where one stimulus can have an opposite effect on two different Lyme patients. You really have to find what works for you, and what works against you.

And yes, Jen, HBO only put Lyme in remission and it would have been better to have continued treatment long term, though doing 150 near-consecutive dives was very long term at the time, but it didn't get them all. Longer is better.

BTW, Jen has taken HBO to the next level with Lyme patient home care. If you find that HBO works for you, this seems like a very good way to go, if you are able. It will not only help kill Lyme bacteria, but HBO supports the immune system while doing other, very good things to your body.

Jen uses HBO, in part, because she can't do ABX, and as she has said, it is of considerable help to her. However, it is believed that HBO actually helps ABX kill borrelia. This is something I wrote that is included on the previous link that I posted:

Angiogenesis Plays a Role

HBO therapy facilitates angiogenesis. Angiogenesis is defined as the development of blood vessels in the body. This may become important in the treatment of Lyme disease because it is believed that Lyme bacteria effectively evade antibiotics by moving away from normal blood flow into tissue, organs and bone. Thus, the farther that the antibiotic can move into these areas through a more dense and extensive system of blood vessels, the greater the opportunity to kill the Bb organism.

HBO therapy's facilitation of angiogenesis allows the antibiotic to potentially have a greater effect on Lyme bacteria by helping to move the antibiotic closer to those parts of the body where the bacteria may be residing.

Phage, so much to do with chronic lyme is speculation, so I can't really answer your question. I will say I was talking with a knowledgeable friend tonight and we agreed that if most of lyme was sent into cyst form (via threat) that if you kept up the treatment for a few years, the cysts would eventually degrade. They can't live forever, it's known that their ability to produce daughter spirochetes lessens over time and finally they are incapable. So, let's say my mild hyperbaric oxygen treatments at the level I'm doing them (I did 30 minutes last Wednesday, 30 minutes tonight, i.e. about once every 4-5 days for 30-40 minutes) simply causes the spirochete to revert into cyst form since it doesn't like the oxygen...kills some of the active form (there is enough oxygen to do that and I *know* it does because even at 30-40 minutes I will sometimes get achier, more neck cricks and cracks, etc, i.e. dieoff, and when I originally was doing an hour a day, I had significant dieoff although not as much as in a hardchamber at 2.5 ata)...etc...boosts the immune system which we know it does, helps detoxify and dampen inflammation which is what the whole benicar thing is about, helps all the cells function better, shifts you back into a parasympathetic calmer state, gets better sleep etc...

I mean, in such case, the benefits are so obvious, at least for me...

In retrospect, I think the 2.5 ata, 60-90 m day, 100% oxygen, running at 50 litres a minute (saturating my eyes btw which was NOT good for the lens, and the second round I kept my eyes closed)...was too much. The second time I did 2 months and had a major candida exacerbation after I stopped the hyperbaric. At that level and intensity, you're killing lots of anaerobes in the gut too but candida is a facultative anaerobe and will do fine without or with oxygen. I was also much hungrier, eating a lot more carbs before and after those sessions. So I personally in retrospect wish I'd known about the mild home chamber in the beginning and only done that. At the level I do it, it causes no candida problems at all.

Yes, my unit uses an 02 concentrator, an Integra that operates at 10 liters a minute. This is necessary because the backpressure of the chamber drops that down to about 8, and if you use a humidifier, maybe 7. And you really don't want less than about 7 liters a minute. So 02 concentrators that typically run 5 liters a minute, for emphysema, or other home use, are not sufficient.

James, you are right, it definitely seems to potentiate antibiotics and if used together as long as you aren't vulnerable to candida, is a good idea if you can tolerate both.

The low pressurs can probably do the same or someting a bit similar over time if you are sensitive. I keep my eyes closed even in my home chamber but because I"ve done so much hbo, I still notice changes. I am particularly sensitive, I think, more so than others I've talked to. But it is definitely a side effect, and as I said, the frustrating thing is that if the hyperbaric docs were open, and were talking with each other, they'd ALL already have a policy in place for all those who dive, including stroke victims etc, to keep their eyes closed.

In addition,t he 50 liters a minute flow rate isr eally high and quite unecessary.

The "more is better" idea in the hardchambers has no true backup. Its just trial and error. I'd think less is more would be smarter. Start someone at lower pressures and see hwo they respond. 2000% more oxygen is not necessarily what you need and may stress the system.

Same with candida, as I posted, the 2nd round of 2 months exacerbated it in me. Those were 90 minute sessions which for me were too long (I'd notice about an hour into it, I would sometimes go into almost a depression. It was transient, but I just think my body did not want that much oxygen). Each perrson is individual. Perhaps candida was also exacerbated because those longer sessions under high pressure made me very hungry, and I always ate carbs before and after, more than my usual fare.

Candida is just not a problem for me at lower pressures.

Even though I research everything for myself and question efverything and am cautious, in the case of hyperbaric, I accepted their gospel and it took me a while to understand that 1) 2.5 is not necessarily better and in fact may stress the system 2) you need to protect your eyes, and keep them closed 3) 90 m a day is not necessarily better than 60 m a day which is not necessarily better than a few times a week, its all individual and 4) it is a powerful adjunctive therapy but aint' gonna kill lyme on its own, so spending a ton of money for a month or two of treatment will likely get you somewhere but you may relapse over time. Many do. Sometimes kids are resilient enough not to.