Oxygen Treatment, Another Weapon against Diabetes

Diabetes is a nightmare, every day of your life. Once you’ve got it, you have a hard, rocky road ahead of you.
But don’t despair yet because there’s this interesting…kind of gassy, perhaps?…treatment that makes your life easier. By a lot.

When divers go on a deep sea expedition, some may experience decompression sickness. To treat the condition, it is common practice for the diver to breathe in pure oxygen over several sessions.

Now researchers have identified that this oxygen treatment can be used for treating insulin-dependent diabetes. When people have low sensitivity to insulin, the cells in the body gradually gain resistance to insulin and this can greatly increase the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes.

In a preliminary pilot study, the researchers identified that the oxygen treatment – also known as hyperbaric oxygen therapy – was useful for increasing insulin sensitivity. Something interesting is going on here, eh?

The volunteers were instructed to sit in a specially-designed diving chamber and breathe in pure oxygen. The treatment was performed 3 times over a period of 5 weeks.

This treatment was found to increase insulin sensitivity by 40 percent. To give you an idea about the significance, this is as effective as a 13 percent loss in body weight for controlling diabetes.

In a larger study, the researchers are planning to analyze the effect of two 90-minute sessions of hyperbaric oxygen treatments in 20 volunteers. If the results are optimistic, there is a chance that this might become a regular treatment option for Type 2 Diabetes in the future.