Helping Heal Brain Injuries
You are entitled to know that some of the best researchers on brain injury have shown that Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) can usually provide quick relief from symptoms after Concussion while treating and healing the wound to the brain. That healing dramatically accelerates recovery from Acute Concussion.
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The most important message is that you must be your own advocate for brain healing. This idea of a “wound to the brain” is unconventional. The treatment, Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and other alternative interventions, are controversial but are backed up by decades of clinical experience, evidence, peer-reviewed science, and over 7,500 success stories attesting to the power of oxygen under pressure to speed healing.
Dr. Daphne Denham, the nation’s premier expert in using Hyperbaric Oxygenation (HBOT) to treat and help heal brain wounds, is amassing evidence that active intervention with HBOT can dramatically reduce symptoms and shorten the negative consequences of Acute Concussions. 348 out of 350 success stories with Acute Concussions, all within days of the injury.
Worldwide research and evidence-based medicine attest to the medical significance of HBOT in treating and healing many kinds of wounds to the brain and is all parts of the body. Seek medical attention immediately, but demand that they talk to you about HBOT therapy. If they don’t, get a second or third opinion.
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The Commander John Scott Hannon Veterans Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Bill Unanimously Passed in the Senate. Bipartisan legislation to connect veterans with life-saving care is one step closer to becoming law.
“Sadly, our veterans continue to struggle with mental health, and through no fault of their own, this pandemic has led to more veterans being isolated from friends and family and cut off from lifesaving services,” said Chairman Moran. “Now, more than ever, we need to invest into mental health services for veterans especially for those in hard-to-reach areas in rural America. The Senate took an important step by unanimously passing this legislation, and I urge my colleagues in the House to act quickly so our veterans can access critical mental health services to help prevent veteran suicide.”
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Studies are underway to better link the acute pathobiology of blast injury with potential mechanisms of chronic cell death, dysfunction and neurodegeneration. Physiological damage -- ripping and tearing and shearing and bleeding and bruising and swelling -- lead to chaos in the head and link to clinical characteristics of concussion: balance problems, migraine symptoms, cognitive impairment and numerous other observable and measurable dysfunctions, and vulnerability to repeat injury. Any combat veteran can attest to modern war's effects on the brain. Ask any EOD, breacher, SpecOps, or survivor of an IED what they go through, and how inadequate "treatment" is after getting their heads rocked. Similar negligence is apparent in the "Concussion Protocols" in place around the world: "Wait a while, and we think you'll get better." Medicine has well-known explanations of the nature of wounds and the phases in wound healing. The so-called "concussion cascade" that follows the wound to the head creates conditions that impede healing in the closed, heretofore unseen environment inside the skull. A blast or jolt to the head begins a series of negative consequences. These can include: inflammation; interrupted blood flow; oxygen starvation/hypoxia; tissue and nerve fiber ripping and tearing; cell stunning/ inactivation and/or cell death. This insidious biological set of degenerative processes may or may not lead to permanent damage. Unlike with a wound that can be seen, there is solid evidence that this brain inflammation can continue and linger for a long time, impeding healing and increasing the likelihood that more physical damage is occurring and is likely to occur. It has been "common knowledge" that most blast injuries and concussions heal themselves. That is far too simplistic. What may be true is that symptoms abate. Yet damage that can lead to mental and physical degeneration may lead to lingering symptoms and chronic degeneration. The logical extension of the DOD/VA/Army findings in the LANCET article is that we must treat the wound to the brain using wound-healing protocols. The validity of using HBOT for healing the wound to the brain is validated in the most recent research. Unsurprisingly, delivering oxygen under pressure safely and economically leads to effective wound healing. And numerous other interventions for comorbid maladies have a much better chance of effectiveness when the concussion cascade is interrupted and reversed. [a] Baughman Shively, S., Iren Horkayne-Szakaly, Robert V Jones, James P Kelly, Regina C Armstrong, Daniel P Perl. Characterisation of interface astroglial scarring in the human brain after blast exposure: a post-mortem case series. The Lancet, Neurology, June 2016. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S1474-4422(16)30057-6. In what is being called a breakthrough study, Dr. Daniel P. Perl and his team at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences in Bethesda, Md., [the medical school run by the Department of Defense], have found evidence of tissue damage caused by blasts alone, not by concussions or other injuries. The New York Times calls it the medical explanation for shell shock: preliminary proof of what medicine has been saying without proof for nearly 100 years -- blasts cause physical damage, and this physical damage leads to psychological problems, i.e., PTSD. The importance of this admission cannot be overstated: this is a DOD discovery with documented evidence that blast injury [IEDs, breeching--whether in training or combat, enemy and/or friendly fire from personal weapons and such systems as the Carl Gustav recoilless rifle] can lead directly to physical brain damage and the accompanying effects, many of which have been heretofore diagnosed as "only PTSD." [Commentary on above: Robert F. Worth. "What if PTSD is More Physical Than Psychological?," The New York Times Magazine, June 10, 2016. http://nyti.ms/1TYYp6U A new study supports what a small group of military researchers has suspected for decades: that modern warfare destroys the brain. [Additional commentary on above]: Alexander, Caroline. "Mystery of How Battlefield Blasts Injure the Brain May Be Solved. A landmark study sheds new light on the damage caused by “blast shock”—the signature injury of wars for more than a century." National Geographic. JUNE 9, 2016 http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/06/blast-shock-tbi-ptsd-ied-shell-shock-world-war-one/ [b] Johns Hopkins Medicine. "Combat veterans' brains reveal hidden damage from IED blasts." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 14 January 2015. . [c] Xavier A. Figueroa, PhD and James K. Wright, MD (Col Ret), USAF Hyperbaric Oxygen: B-Level Evidence in Mild Traumatic Brain Injury Clinical Trials. Neurology® 2016;87:1–7 "There is sufficient evidence for the safety and preliminary efficacy data from clinical studies to support the use of HBOT in mild traumatic brain injury/ persistent post concussive syndrome (mTBI/PPCS). The reported positive outcomes and the durability of those outcomes has been demonstrated at 6 months post HBOT treatment. Given the current policy by Tricare and the VA to allow physicians to prescribe drugs or therapies in an off-label manner for mTBI/PPCS management and reimburse for the treatment, it is past time that HBOT be given the same opportunity. This is now an issue of policy modification and reimbursement, not an issue of scientific proof or preliminary clinical efficacy." [d] Wang F, et al. Hyperbaric oxygen therapy for the treatment of traumatic brain injury: a meta-analysis. Neurol Sci. 2016 Jan 8. PubMed PMID: 26746238. "Compelling evidence suggests the advantage of hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) in traumatic brain injury. ...Patients undergoing hyperbaric therapy achieved significant improvement....with a lower overall mortality, suggesting its utility as a standard intensive care regimen in traumatic brain injury." Blast injury, and the accompanying role of air embolism in invisible wounds to the brain, is still not widely studied and thus seldom treated. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is recognized worldwide as the definitive treatment for air embolism. Air/gas embolism is already an on-label, approved indication for HBOT. Next in BLOG #8: Parents' and Students' Enhanced Healing Concussion Protocol The information provided by TreatNOW.org does not constitute a medical recommendation. It is intended for informational purposes only, and no claims, either real or implied, are being made.](https://i2.wp.com/treatnow.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/BRAIN-DAMAGE-FROM-BLAST-INJURY.png?resize=650%2C366&ssl=1)
The logical extension of the DOD/VA/Army findings in the LANCET article is that we must treat the wound to the brain using wound-healing protocols. The validity of using HBOT for healing the wound to the brain is validated in the most recent research. Unsurprisingly, delivering oxygen under pressure safely and economically leads to effective wound healing. And numerous other interventions for comorbid maladies have a much better chance of effectiveness when the concussion cascade is interrupted and reversed.
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The TreatNOW Coalition, in association with dozens of VSOs and clinics across the US, is focused on suicides and brain-wounded Special Operators using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and some adjunct therapies. Thanks to groups like America’s Mighty Warriors, there are over 7,500 success stories with other service members, professional and amateur athletes, and civilians with TBI/PTSD.
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Over seventeen peer-reviewed studies using HBOT to treat TBI and PTSD show conclusively that hyperbaric oxygenation for those conditions is safe and effective.
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The Stories that follow are illustrative of the work the TreatNOW Coalition has been performing for ten years: over 7,500 successes with Veterans, Active duty, National Guard, Reserves, First Responders, citizens and athletes returned to healthier lives
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Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is an oxygen treatment in an enclosed chamber that enhances the body’s natural healing processes by inhalation of 100% oxygen, using increased atmospheric pressure to help heal under controlled conditions. HBOT is proven to treat a wide variety of medical conditions, usually as part on an overall medical care plan.
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A concussion is a form of traumatic brain injury (TBI), a wound to the brain. The current medical standard of care for concussions relies on a protocol that essentially recommends rest. It is thought that this resting period will allow the brain to recover. Indeed, it is “common knowledge” that 80-90 percent of concussions “get better” on their own.[i] Not “heal” mind you, merely recover. While it is true that some symptoms will diminish over time, it is equally true that merely waiting for those symptoms to go away – or using drugs to control symptoms — is not our best medicine, nor is this good for the wounded brain, either in the short term but especially over time.
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Here’s the Bottom Line, Up Front. We intend to accelerate the conversation and change the way we think about and treat brain injuries. The data and evidence from science and clinical medicine tell us that brain wounds are treatable.
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