NFL Players buying into hyperbaric chambers
Posted by Gayle Saunders on August 31, 2010 · 5 Comments
By Gayle Saunders
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In the 80′s the fad might have been started by the one and only Michael Jackson, but many NFL players are buying into the idea of using hyperbaric chambers to help their bodies out.
Tim Tebow recently had his hyperbaric chamber shipped to training camp. Tebow has been using the chamber for over two years to help him recover from bumps, bruises and injuries.
Hyperbaric chambers are pretty much all over the NFL these days, Redskins Santana Moss acquired one of the chambers over a year ago for $20,000 and with the help of Moss’ connects, DeAngelo Hall went out and got one for himself too. Santonio Holmes owns one as well as Maurice Jones-Drew. Jones -Drew sleeps in a hyperbaric chamber after each game to help recover his body throughout the season.
Hines Ward naps in a hyperbaric chamber four times a week for preventative reasons and told Pittsburgh reporters it was his “fountain of youth,”Ward credits the device for extending his career. 
“It’s really an investment for me, maximizing the potential I have left in my body,” Hines Ward.
Terrell Owens has stated that his chamber helped speed his recovery from a broken leg to allow him to play in the Superbowl when he was with the Eagles.
Dwight Freeney’s hyperbaric chamber became big news last year when he used it to help recover from a sprained ankle before the Super Bowl. Last year’s Defensive rookie of the year, Linebacker Brian Cushing is a big fan of the chambers as well.
The athletes have said that the oxygen treatments can speed recovery from injuries and keep them feeling fresh.
“I get a little bounce to my step,” It helps with soreness, it helps with injuries, it helps with everything,” the wide receiver told me Monday. “I recommend it, but it’s all about your beliefs. Some guys don’t believe in stuff like that.” Santana Moss
Darren Sharper shows us how he uses his Hyperbaric Chamber
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I played DT for the SF 49ers in 80 & 81 and developed hydrocephalus (water on the brain) during the 81 Super Bowl season and underwent emergency VP shunt brain surgery. Two more brain surgeries 10 hrs apart and given last rites, just 4 months after we won Super Bowl XVI ended my “career” (If you can call 2 years a career.)
I am now on brain surgery # 9 and currently taking my 6th different anti seizure med, as all have horrible side effects. After undergoing an intensive 3 day evaluation at Dr. Amen’s clinic in New Port Beach, CA summer of 2009, he recommended Hyperbaric Oxygen treatments. We returned to his clinic after 40 treatments and all of my microcog tests improved dramatically (basically memory tests). After my 80th treatment we returned for additional testing and again all of my tests showed improvement. On some of the tests I improved 300%.
I am currently coordinating directly with Dr. Ellenbogen, the NFL’s new head of Head, Neck and Spine injury group and working to get chambers installed in all the locker rooms.
For a glimpse at my post NFL and pre Hyperbaric life, go to the following links:
Sac News and Review Cover story
http://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/content?oid=1317643
NPR: A Brain, A Life, Battered by Football
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=114059228#commentBlock
NFL HBOT link
http://www.westcoastmarketingpartners.com/nfl/index.html
First Annual Independent Football Veterans Conference
http://www.ifvconference.com/blog/speakers/
http://www.ifvconference.com/blog/topics/
Visger Rules – Recommended Changes to NFL Rules | The Sport Digest
Dec 16, 2010 … George Visger, who played defensive tackle for the University of Colorado in the 1977 Orange Bowl, and won a Super Bowl championship in 1981 …
thesportdigest.com/…/visger-rules-recommended-changes-to-nfl-rules/ – Cached
CNN – Concussions, Visger
http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/02/05/concussions.visger.football/index.html?iref=allsearch
George Visger testimony at Senate Hearing on Traumatic Brain Injuries
http://www.kget.com/mediacenter/local.aspx?videoid=38122@kget.dayport.com& navCatId=5 (click on: Top Stories – Silent Epidemic Part 2)
George Visger 2/2/10
George Visger
Wildlife Biologist
SF 49ers 80 & 81
Survivor of 9 NFL Caused Emergency VP Shunt Brain Surgeries
Benefactor of ZERO NFL Benefits
Hey George:
I really appreciate you stopping by the site and sharing some insight with us! We’d love to hear more about your story, if you’d like to to do a video interview via skype please let me know! We would love to help get your story out and promote the good that your doing.
Best,
Gayle
Gayle@skinnypost.com
In reference to TBI (Head Injuries) – With the link between elevated rates of suicide in young males whom have sustained head injuries well documented now, you’d think they’d elevate it as a priority. PTSD has been clinically proven to be a result of TBI in many cases. There is also significant clinical evidence documenting the link between drug/alcohol abuse/gambling addiction etc. and head injuries. I feel there is a fine line between employment and exploitation going on here…
The benefits using of HBOT for TBI is well documented (See NBIRR-01 Study for most recent data.) Other significant studies for the application of Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy to traumatic brain injury:
-Holback’s study showed a 55% reduction in mortality and 81% improvement in short-term outcome.
-Rockswold’s 1992 study demonstrated a 47% reduction in mortality with a 59% reduction for those most severely injured.
-Rockswold’s 2001 study showed a single HBOT treatment “improved brain metabolism and re-coupled brain blood flow and metabolism in the severely injured human brain for the first time in the history of science and medicine.”
Mr. Visger,
I am with Sechrist Industries and I greatly apprecaite if you would be able to take some time to speak with me regarding your mission to improve the state of care for football players with brain injuries. As a mother of football and lacrosse playear and part of the management team for Sechrist Industries, I think that together we can look at ways to continue your mission. Please contact me at your earliest convenience.
Regards,
Monica Gutierrez
Submarine Manufacturing is a world leading manufacturer and supplier of commercial diving equipment, hyperbaric chambers, diver decompression chambers and hyperbaric oxygen therapy chambers.