More On Oxygen Therapy

[yogini]

Following up on the earlier post on hyperbaric oxygen, I was wondering whether anyone here has tried an oxygen concentrator, such as one of these? They are expensive, but I was thinking of giving one of them (one of the cheaper ones) a try. I have benefitted a lot from Resperate machine - just from taking deep breaths of regular air, sif I do this at the beginning of a day, my POTS symptoms are better all day. So I am wondering whether oxygen would help me.

I also bought oxygen in a can for about $15 from my local drugstore and use it occasionally. It does seem to calm down my POTS symptoms a little, but it doesn't feel like enough. So I am considering a concentrator. I am looking at the recreational ones:

http://www.amazon.com/Zadro-Tranquil-Sound...9981&sr=8-8

http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Oxygen-Portable-O.../ref=pd_sbs_a_4

http://www.amazon.com/O2-Innovations-Porta.../ref=pd_sbs_a_2

[EarthMother]

I thought about these a great deal last spring when I crashed hard, as I noticed I also felt a lot better with an oxygen tube up my nose.

I tried those little cans of air ... never noticed any help. I'm not inclined to spend a lot of money (which is a good thing since I don't have a lot of money to spend!). But what I did notice ... for me (your mileage may vary) is that I also feel better when a fan is blowing HARD in my direction. I think its the forced air. Or maybe just something that is taking my ANS in a different direction. So now we have a bunch of little fans in various rooms in the house and when I start getting POTSY (like when I try and cook in the kitchen) I will squat on the floor with the fan blowing at me for a bit.

~EM

[bjt22]

I've had just plain old oxygen tanks at home. To be honest, I can't say that they helped a whole heck of a lot. I was prescribed oxygen for cluster headaches, and while I could sometimes get some momentary relief after using very high flow amounts, I often tended to rebound back when I went back on room air. Since there's limits as to how long one should be on high flow oxygen, this wasn't particularly helpful. It was a last stop-gap measure when the pain made me feel almost suicidal.

I tried it for chest pain since I often have angina-like pain along with cluster headaches. The oxygen provided a little relief, but really, it was no answer to long term problems.

[Miriam Poorman-Knox]

An interesting point would be to check pulse ox to see what that is before, during and after. M

[Radha]

i have my own oxygen tank and i use it for so many reasons and i can say i can not survive without it, i use it for tachcardia, lightheadedness, brain fog,

adrenaline rushes,

radha

[flop]

If you have low oxygen levels then having extra oxygen may help - I would get your doctor to measure your oxygen levels. The best test might be to have a 24 hour portable pulse-oximetry test to see what happens when you are doing different things and when you have symptoms.

I don't know anything about the concentrators that you linked to on amazon. However I did do some reading about the medical oxygen concentrators - they are usually used for people with severe lung problems who need oxygen for many hours a day. They slightly increase the oxygen so that the air breathed in via a mask or nasal prongs has about 24-28% oxygen rather than the 21% in room air.

I'm not sure that such a small increase in oxygen levels would make much difference to symptoms caused by POTS. Usually our problem is that the blood isn't travelling to where it is needed (like the brain) not that the blood doesn't have enough oxygen in it.

In the UK the british thoracic society have released new guidelines for oxygen treatment suggesting that the current "give everyone oxygen" that happens in hospitals is not actually good for everyone. From the summary it looks like the message is measure pulse-oximetry and if it is normal the patient probably doesn't need extra oxygen.

Just my thoughts,

Flop

[yogini]

Thanks, guys. I use a biofeedback machine called Resperate, which helps me to take deep breaths. I use it almost every morning, and I feel immediately better after using it. I thought the oxygen would make me feel even better. I know I had oxygen in the hospital and it helped.

I got a good deal on a concentrator from a local store. I've tried it over the past few days and haven't noticed anything different. I have 2 weeks period to return it, and that's what I will probably do. My machine only increases oxygen by 30%, which is not much of a difference. I'm going to save up and in the future think about getting an concentrator that puts out a higher % of oxygen.

[flop]

Yogini,

the respirate machine may be helping but not necessarily due to more oxygen from deep breathing. When you take very deep breaths (especially if against any resistance) the pressures inside your chest cavity will change. Taking in a deep breath causes a negative pressure in the chest at the start of the breath. As well as causing the lungs to fill with air, the negative pressure will also draw blood in the veins back towards the chest and the heart ready to be pumped round the body. This is called increased venous return. It may well be the effects on the blood flow rather than the lungs that is causing you to feel better after using the respirate?

Flop

[Guest tearose]

Wish there was a simple way to get more oxygen to the cells!

[yogini]

You may be right about the blood flow, Flop. But canned oxygen does help me feel better. In any case, I am glad I can return my concentrator!!!