Exercise with Oxygen Therapy for Breast Cancer

The Link Between Cancer and Oxygen

For over one hundred years, we have known that there is a close link between oxygen and cancer.  In the 1920’s Otto Warburg established a strong causal link between lack-of-oxygen and cancer.  In fact, much research has demonstrated that cancer is primarily a metabolic disease  that involves disturbances of oxygenation and energy production.

Today, breast cancer is a leading cause of death in women, and there is quite a bit of research showing the links between oxygen status and breast cancer.  The scientific term for oxygen-starvation is “hypoxia”.  The is a lot of research showing that breast cancer tumors are hypoxic.   Hypoxia is such an important hallmark of  breast cancer that there is research looking at improving detectability of benign vs malignant breast legions simply by measuring the oxygen saturation in and around the legion. 

When an area of the body becomes hypoxic, it produces a chemical called hypoxic inducible factor (HIF) to signal to the body that it needs more oxygen and HIF increases as the body becomes more hypoxic.  Research has shown that higher HIF is correlated with higher reoccurrence and higher mortality rates.

How Oxygen Helps People with Cancer

There is also evidence in the other direction showing that oxygen therapy can reduce breast cancer.    Beyond helping with cancer, oxygen has been shown to help with the side effects of radiation and chemotherapy (and here) while low oxygen makes tumors treatment resistant.  And there is research into using oxygen to make traditional treatments more effective.

There is no doubt that breast cancer is linked to low oxygen near the tumor and that restoring oxygen to the tumor can greatly improve outcomes.

Beyond oxygen’s anti-cancer benefits, oxygen can help increase cellular energy.  This helps the cells perform their best – including the immune system cells.  It helps the body detoxify through a process called oxidization.  The body “oxidizes” toxins to break them down and eliminate them from the body.  It can also reduce side effects like brain fog or chemo brain, memory problems, inflammation and pain, and many other difficulties people face when dealing with cancer.

Why EWOT is So Powerful For Helping People With Cancer

While there are various different ways to get more oxygen into your body, people with chronic health conditions need to consider the effectiveness of the treatment, the cost, and if they will be able to maintain the protocol over time.

There are two forms of oxygen therapy that are typically most effective in providing people with cancer benefits.  These modalities are hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) and EWOT.  They both work by saturating the blood plasma with oxygen.  Blood plasma typically only carries 2% of all the oxygen in our bodies, but while using HBOT and EWOT, we are able to saturate blood plasma.  Because blood plasma is much thinner than a red blood cell, which typically carries most of our oxygen, the plasma is able to reach places in the body that may be choked off from good circulation – like tumors.

The most effective hyperbaric treatments are hardshell hyperbaric treatments which require a doctor prescription and can only be used in a medical setting.  Typically a session lasts about 90-minutes, not including the time taken to pressurize the chamber at the beginning and to depressurize it at the end of a session.  Hyperbaric treatments typically cost about $250 - $600 per treatment.  Both the time and cost associated with HBOT make it very difficult for most people to do.

EWOT involves doing 15-minutes of cardiovascular exercise while breathing oxygen from a mask.  EWOT can be done in your own home with a one-time purchase.  Historically, EWOT systems cost between $5k and $25k for a system.  However, One Thousand Roads launched in 2018 to reduce the price of EWOT, and we currently sell EWOT systems for under $2,500.  The lower time commitment, convenience of doing it in your own home, and affordability, make EWOT a much more practical solution for most people.

In addition, because we are exercising, we get the anticancer benefits of exercise.  The exercise also causes physiological changes in the body that help drive the oxygen deeper into the tissues where it is needed.  Exercise causes the heart to pump faster and deeper, it causes our blood vessels to dilate and it increases the systolic blood pressure, which acts like a pump to push the oxygen deeper into the cells.

Customer Testimonials

Beyond the research and science, we get amazing feedback from our customers every day:

“5 stars!  Highly recommend to all cancer patients. Really helped boost feel good energy and reduce fatigue. My quality of life during treatment has improved 90%.”  - Sheri

“My wife reports that doing EWOT on a stationary bike before/after chemo raised energy levels, reduced treatment side effects, gave a deep sense of calm (anti-anxiety). We believe it's also helped treatment be more successful (her results are great).” - Andrew

“I am doing unbelievably well.  I thought I was going to die. They said I'd never walk without a walker or crutches again... yesterday I power-walked 6-miles”  - Patrick

Conclusion

If you, or someone you know, is dealing with a cancer diagnosis, they should consider adding oxygen to their daily routine to help support them on their healing journey.  While there are various ways to get more oxygen, EWOT ranks among one of the best ways since is can be done quickly and cost effectively while also providing the synergistic benefits of exercise.