Does HBOT increase the Free-Radicals in ones body and cause damage?
While one might think more oxygen in the body might led to more oxidative stress, there is actually a net decrease of free radicals with HBOT. Remember, oxygen is probably the most fundamental fuel/element that the body feeds from, and when the body realizes there is such an abundance of what it needs present it actually, in a sense, relaxes allowing toxins to be released as well as enhancing many different repair and cleanup mechanisms. Actually, a body that has been chronically ill, or that is under stress from an illness, is already loaded with free radicals, so under the conditions that hyperbaric oxygen provides these chemicals can be dealt with and healing can begin. Now, it never hurts to take a little vitamin E after an HBOT treatment, but that recommendation is made to help the body deal with the cleanup of the free radicals that are already present, not new ones created by the treatment itself. Fridovich (1) was the first to publish that it is LACK of oxygen that creates the
