Pioneer Valley Hyperbaric Announces Reopening in Hadley

HADLEY — Dr. Bruce Goderez, founder of Pioneer Valley Hyperbaric, recently announced the reopening of his treatment center, which offers oxygen therapy as a healing modality for a wide range of medical disorders and conditions. On Aug. 1, the business returned to its original address after a short-term relocation.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) is offered at many hospitals for a limited number of conditions approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, including non-healing wounds, abscesses, and damage from radiation treatment. Pioneer Valley Hyperbaric offers ‘mild’ hyperbaric oxygen therapy (mHBOT), which Goderez said has been found to be safe and effective for a wide variety of neurological and medical conditions.

He noted that mHBOT has been effective in the treatment of traumatic brain injury, and can improve residual symptoms even when treatment occurs years after the injury. “It can be helpful in controlling chronic neurological Lyme disease and can improve symptoms of multiple sclerosis, peripheral neuropathy, and many other neurological conditions. mHBOT is also useful in treating sports injuries, other musculoskeletal issues, degenerative disc disease, and diabetic ulcers. It has even been shown to bring about improvement in some cerebral palsy patients.”

Goderez explained that mHBOT treatment is delivered in a sealed, slightly pressurized chamber, in which the patient breathes 100{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} oxygen through a mask. He said the procedure raises oxygen concentration in the blood and other body tissues to high levels, which causes a powerful anti-inflammatory effect and triggers a variety of healing processes.

“mHBOT is helpful in a remarkable number of apparently unrelated conditions because it is working on the underlying disease mechanisms common to many different diagnoses,” he noted.

Goderez said it’s long been taught that traumatic brain injury damage, for example, cannot be repaired. “It turns out that HBOT can bring about real healing in this and many other conditions that have been considered untreatable. It is incredibly gratifying to see dramatic improvements in people who had thought they were doomed to live out their lives with serious limitations due to an accident or illness.”

Treatment of most conditions requires a block of 40 treatments, delivered over an eight-week period. Treatment can be delivered in the office, but it is also possible to rent an HBOT chamber and deliver treatments at home. Whatever improvements that come about in the case of injury, such as traumatic brain injury or back injury, are usually permanent, Goderez said. Some conditions require episodic treatment sessions indefinitely, in which case some patients choose to buy a chamber.