Interstitial Cystitis Advice

Story originally posted on May 31, 2006



The preliminary results of a very unique study have recently been put forth in which it was not a pill, bladder instillation or supplement that was tested on IC patients, but instead an increase in their oxygen levels. This was accomplished thanks to the help of a device called a Hyperbaric Oxygen Chamber, or HBO.

Many people may know of such chambers due to their use in hospitals and underwater diving/submersion facilities where HBOs are used to treat serious medical problems that can arise from diving. HBOs can vary in size from a compact portable device to a very large chamber which is able to accommodate eight or more people at once. Inside (or with the use of) an HBO patients are supplied with a pure source of 100% oxygen (either though a mask, or instead the chamber is filled with oxygen and no mask is used).

Home sized versions are also available, and were first created to help relieve altitude sickness. However their popularity and use has spread, and now some people choose to use home HBOs in the treatment of such conditions as cancer, cerebral palsy, MS, lyme disease, heart conditions, brain injuries, autism and various immune disorders. It is very important to note that there is often little established proof that HBOs provide long term benefits for these conditions, and many further studies need to be conducted in order to determine if HBOs are significantly important treatment tools for such conditions. Whatever the condition that you are thinking of using HBO for, it is imperatively important that you consult your doctors first and do not proceed until you have their approval.

Recently however, a controlled double blind study of 21 Interstitial Cystitis provided researchers and patients alike with some very encouraging results. In total 14 patients were treated with 100% oxygen and 7 received a placebo (fake) environment which simulated what goes on in an HBO chamber, but were in truth the patients were actually just breathing normal air. An HBO treatment consists of a half hour session in which 100% pure oxygen is consumed at a pressure level of 2.4 atmospheres. This process was administered six days in a row per week for five weeks in total. It's worth noting however, that this treatment is not cheap and each session carried a $100 US price tag, which means that for many people this treatment may not be economically feasible unless they are able to have it covered by their health care provider (service).

Of the patients those who responded positively to the treatment noted an 80% drop in their IC related pain and urinary urgency. 57% of the patients who received the oxygen had improvements in their IC symptoms, and interestingly (but hardly surprisingly), none of the patients who received normal oxygen improved at all. 12 months after the treatments started 5 of the 8 ICers who had a positive response stated that they could still feel the benefits of their HBO treatment. Doctors noted that patients who felt an improvement in their symptoms did so nearly instantly.

Jane Meijlink, one of the world's leading IC advocates who is well known for her important work with the International Painful Bladder Foundation, said of the treatment that, "These are early days in the use of this procedure.” Which is clearly the case, and further research is definitely required, especially because the use of HBOs is not without its own risks such as possible temporary vision problems and oxygen toxicity.

This study shows that we're seeing an increase in the number of alternative procedures which are being tested on IC, a positive factor when you consider that many IC patients respond poorly to to traditional forms of treatment like oral medications and bladder instillations. If HBO chambers where to prove affective on a larger scale they could possibly become a standard IC treatment (imagine if urologists had small HBO units in their clinics and could administer the treatment to the patients right there), or for some people a secondary (supplemental) form of IC help. Indeed, these are very interesting thoughts to ponder, but not ones that are so far fetched when you stop to consider that oxygen is so crucially vital to life itself.

Information resources:

The Database of Randomised Controlled Trials In Hyperbaric Medicine