dras knowledge

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Oxygen Concentrators in Chiro Offices

I just saw the agenda for the next meeting of the Washington State
Chiropractic Quality Assurance Commission. They are considering adding
oxygen concentrators to the list of approved devices for chiropractors. Can
anyone tell me why a chiropractor would need such a device? The very idea
blows my mind... but maybe I'm missing something?

[HH]

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This will be a great new product for chiropractic office marketing!!! Think of all the angles. Take a lesson from these guys: http://www.thebigox.com/index.html

Oxygen from the concentrator as the latest sCAM medium for health restoration is going to be big, big, big.

We can flavor it. We can put the patient in hyperoxygenated rooms. It will look high-tech; there will be tubes and masks, and dials, gauges, and buttons. We can fill appointment books with repeating treatments and programs. We can list all the beneficial effects for it: it helps heal wounds, it sharpens the senses, and restores vitality. We can tout Oxygen as the fountain of youth, the giver of life, the ultimate detoxifier, the all-natural remedy for whatever ails you. We can put a picture on the wall of our favorite NFL star on the sidelines toking on it. We can even buy a pulse oximeter and show how that number goes up from 96, all the way to 100 when they're on oxygen therapy. PROOF.

Wow, and think: we can expose everything we have and sell in the office to oxygen and thus it will be "hyperoxygenated" for added potency and efficacy. We can even sell our own brand of freshly-brewed "oxygenated water" right out of our own tap!

Best of all, oxygen from a concentrator is fairly benign. At around 89% concentration up to a typical 4-liters per minute, concentrator oxygen is essentially non-toxic, and fairly safe aside from its risks associated with fire. Physician-prescribed commercial home oxygen concentrator machines are everywhere treating those with chronic lung disease. They have become fairly reliable with simple maintenance. And, best of all, oxygen concentrators are relatively cheap thanks to poor Medicare and private insurance reimbursement that has driven the technology to keep the prices down.

The time is truly ripe for the oxygen concentrator in the Chiropractors Office.

There might be a few questions the sCAM practitioner needs to learn to answer before taking this new idea on, for example:
1. How does the oxygen therapy interact with all those anti-oxidant supplements you've been selling me for years?
2. What's that tingling sensation in my fingers I got the first time I had oxygen therapy in your office, and why did I have a headache when I got home?
3. What's the difference between your $30 per hour oxygen, and Grandma's $30 dollar per week oxygen?
4. Why have MD's been prescribing oxygen for generations, but not in any way that you prescribe it?

Honestly, if I could give the Washington folks some advice, DON'T DO IT. I've hinted at all the illegitimate, phony, needless and expensive ways it will be used and abused. Plus, oxygen can be toxic (it's a poison in nature), and there is a good scientific basis as to why it is regulated as a prescription only medicine in our country. I can't think of any legitimate use for oxygen in a chiropractors office that can off-set the risk of one fire, one hyperventilation mishap, or one CO2 rebreathing mishap from faulty use or equipment.

dras (Registered Respiratory Therapist)

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