Portable hyperbaric chambers: An expensive folly?

The website for American Medical Aesthetics Corp., a clinic that offers hyperbaric treatment at its offices in Santa Monica and Irvine, claims that it "works as a potent anti-aging therapy" that energizes the body while clearing away toxins. The site also claims that "children with severe autism, ADD and even cerebral palsy . . . see remarkable progress in muscle control and brain function."

The Summit to Sea website says that "many people all over the world have used hyperbaric chambers . . . to treat a variety of conditions from autism to strokes to wound healing." The company, however, doesn't claim to treat any illness other than altitude sickness.

HyperbaricsRx claims that hyperbaric therapy "increases the body's ability to fight infections . . . and improves the rate of healing." Laura Betts, a trainer and technician with the company, says the therapy fights aging by stimulating collagen in skin and eliminating toxins.

The bottom line

Oxygen may be vital for life, but as an anti-aging remedy it's a bust, says Dr. Neil B. Hampson, a hyperbaric medicine specialist at Seattle's Virginia Mason Hospital and past president of the Undersea and Hyperbaric Medical Society. "If anything, oxygen accelerates aging."

As he explains, oxygen encourages the formation of free radical compounds that damage cells over the years. "We provide 5,000 or 6,000 hyperbaric treatments every year, and I have no perception that any of those people are looking younger."

Hospital-based hyperbaric treatment has more than a dozen proven uses, Hampson says. Doctors prescribe it for victims of carbon monoxide poisoning and deep-sea divers with the "bends." Hyperbaric treatments can speed healing of wounds caused by poor circulation, including those of diabetics.

But there's a big difference between hospital-based chambers and the low-pressure models offered at spas and sold for home use, Hampson said, adding that although portable chambers definitely help treat altitude sickness, there's no evidence that they live up to any other promises.

Claims that hyperbaric oxygen can treat autism or cerebral palsy are especially unfounded and unethical, says Dr. Jake Freiberger, an attending physician at the Center for Hyperbaric Medicine & Environmental Physiology at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, N.C. "Some people are desperate," he says. "They are vulnerable to being manipulated."