What Happens When Meds Don’t Work?
As a young adult, Jolie enjoyed a busy and active lifestyle. She was working full-time and attending school part-time to be a medical secretary. She and her husband had just purchased their first home and spent all their extra time cleaning and renovating the house, mowing the lawn, planting flowers and having friends and family over for gatherings. She also enjoyed cooking, baking and going on long nature walks. That all changed when she was 24 years old, and her world was turned upside down.
Jolie would suddenly become too dizzy to walk without holding on to something to stabilize her. She lost all her stamina and struggled to walk more than 10 minutes without getting fatigued. She reached a point where she could no longer garden or do yard work. Simple tasks, such as shopping for groceries, would drain her energy for an entire day. Even driving a car for more than a few minutes would completely exhaust her. As her condition continued to deteriorate, Jolie and her husband were forced to sell their home when it became too unsafe for her to navigate stairs without falling.
Jolie was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis (MS), an incurable, autoimmune disease that impacts the central nervous system, including the brain and spinal cord. “Sclerosis” refers to scarring of the white matter of the brain and spinal cord. In the case of MS, the immune system, our body’s defense mechanism, mistakenly targets myelin cells, the protective coverings of the brain and spinal cord nerves. This damage to the myelin sheath disrupts the transmission of messages or signals that nerves send across the body, affecting crucial functions such as vision, sensation, and movement.
MS usually strikes young adults like Jolie. Over time, it can render a person unable to write, speak and walk. According to a 2019 study funded by the National MS Society, around 1 million people in the United States have been diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. That number is more than twice what was found in previous studies. Unfortunately, scientists still don’t know the root cause of this disease. However, over the past two decades, extensive international medical research has demonstrated that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) can play an extremely important role in the treatment of MS. In many European countries, HBOT is now considered an integral part of the MS treatment program, and doctors are recommending it as part of their patients’ care plans.
Unfortunately, the American medical community has been slow to accept HBOT as an alternative therapy for Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Treatment regimens continue to focus on the use of medications and corticosteroids to reduce nerve inflammation, limit the frequency and severity of clinical attacks, slow disability progression and reduce brain and spinal cord lesions. As with any drug therapy, those that are used to treat MS come with a range of potential side effects, ranging from mild irritation at an injection site to potentially serious complications, like liver damage or severe infections.
However, there is scientific evidence to suggest that oxygen treatment does have beneficial effects for MS sufferers. Many MS people report improvements in their overall symptoms and their functional ability. Patients have reported improvements with their ataxia, numbness in their fingers and hands, balance, visual fields, concentration, pain, weakness, and dizziness. Ideally, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy treatments should be initiated as soon as the condition is diagnosed, and before irreversible lesions have become established. This does not mean that patients whose diagnosis was determined more than five years ago will not benefit.
Oxygen is essential to all body tissues, particularly injured ones that require oxygen to heal. Extra oxygenation through HBOT is proven to accelerate the healing process and reduce inflammation. Inflammation in the central nervous system is a signature characteristic of MS, which is one of the reasons why HBOT can slow the progression of the illness. HBOT is also known to boost energy, promote faster recovery from fatigue, reduce pain, and improve concentration and mental clarity, thus alleviating many of the symptoms of MS.
Jolie’s MS treatment journey began like most others in the U.S. with medications. She was placed on numerous drugs for her fatigue and dizziness. None of which worked. She went to physical therapy, but they simply focused on helping her learn how to economize her movements and work at a slow, steady pace. The goal here was only to help manage household tasks and take care of her family. Returning to work and school was impossible.
Jolie learned about HBOT at Sara’s Garden by sheer coincidence. Her daughter had just been diagnosed with Autism and she was looking for a school that specialized in this condition where she could learn, cope, grow and thrive. While touring the school, staff noticed that she was struggling to walk and asked if she was ok. After hearing about her condition, staff informed her about the success Sara’s Garden had in treating individuals who suffer from MS through Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy. She scheduled a tour of the hyperbaric center the very next day. Feeling she needed to do whatever she could to take care of her health and her family, she decided to give it a try. To this day, Jolie claims it was the best decision she has ever made.
By the end of the second week of treatments, Jolie began noticing significant improvements in her symptoms. Her dizziness had faded away and her energy levels had increased. Driving was no longer exhausting, and she was able to start taking walks again. Jolie was able to start playing with her children again and even started taking college classes again to complete her degree. Her family said that it was like having the old Jolie back again.
Jolie has said, “The beautiful thing about Sara’s Garden isn’t that it’s faith-based, though that helps, nor that it is a medical treatment that doesn’t pump you full of chemicals. The most beautiful thing – the greatest thing – about Sara’s Garden is that it is a community of people who have hope in miracles, who care about not just you, but anyone who is suffering and needs the kind of help they can give. It is a place where people can connect, uplift, encourage and relate to one another. It’s a place where the greatest treatment isn’t the oxygen therapy – it’s the encouragement, hope and comradery that you find with the staff and other clients.”
Ever since Jolie’s first visit, she has said the same thing repeatedly, with all her heart to anyone who will listen, “Hope grows at Sara’s Garden!” Thanks to Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy at Sara’s Garden, Jolie has her life back. No matter what you’ve been told, there is hope… for this and many other conditions. HBOT is treatment without drugs… without surgery… without pain.
