This New Therapy May Help Improve Behavioural And Physical Deficits In People With Alzheimer's

As a ray of hope to all patients suffering from Alzheimer's disease, researchers have found a new treatment for them called hyperbaric oxygen therapy. The treatment might have the capability to correct behavioural and physical deficits associated with Alzheimer's diseases, say the researchers at American Friends of Tel Aviv University in New York. Alzheimer's disease is the most common kind of dementia, which leads to people facing with memory, thinking and behavior issues. Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are known to develop slowly and get worse over time. They become so severe that they end up affecting one's day to day life.

Calling the treatment as "revolutionary", Uri Ashery, the lead author of the research, says that that the treatment uses hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which has previously been shown to be extremely effective in treating wounds that were slow to heal. Air pressure in this chamber is twice a the normal air pressure. This oxygen garners the release of stem cells which trigger faster healing of wounds and injuries.

To test for the credibility of it, the therapy was initially done on a mouse suffering from Alzheimer's disease. The researchers created something called a custom-made hyperbaric oxygen chamber, which can be suitable for small animals. The test was done for a period of 14 days, where the team administered hyperbaric oxygen treatment to the mice for one hour every day. The test helped in better understanding of how hyperbaric oxygen treatment affects the pathological aspects of Alzheimer's disease.

As a result of the tests conducted on the mice, the bhavioural deficiencies were reported  to reduce significantly as compared to non-transgenic mice. The plaque pathology and neuroinflammation were both reduced by around 40%. 

The test concluded that hyperbaric oxygen treatment is a well-tolerated, and totally safe therapy. It  is used in clinics around the world for neurological disorders and various other medical conditions.