What is Hyperbaric Oxygen (HBO) Therapy?
One Person’s Experience with a Promising New Lyme Treatment By L. James Johnson Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) therapy is an experimental treatment for Lyme disease. It is also something that I have become very familiar with and for good reason. I am told that I hold the record for the most near-consecutive HBO treatments in North America. I completed my 150th “dive” on January 29th, 1999 at a hyperbaric facility in northern California. I was treated for chronic Lyme disease. But more about me later. The Technical Side of HBO Therapy HBO therapy is a medical treatment. Like any medical procedure, a physician’s prescription is needed prior to beginning treatment. HBO therapy uses the administration of 100 percent oxygen at a controlled pressure (greater than sea level) for a specified period of time. Lyme patients usually receive two, one-hour treatments each day, five days per week. Each treatment is administered at a pressure equivalent to 45 feet below sea level or what is termed 2.36 ATA (
