CTE, PTSD, TBI, Concussion: Deja Vu all over again

**Study’s Alarming Finding: At Least 1 in 4 N.F.L. Players Gets Brain Disease — CTE. The actual prevalence, researchers said, may be much higher. At least 215 of 878 former NFL players’ brains studied post mortem — 24.5 percent — had C.T.E.

**The VA’s own records show 556,502 veterans have been diagnosed with or screened positive for a TBI since 2001, through 2025. . . . this likely undercounts the real total, since it only captures veterans who engaged with VA care and excludes cases misdiagnosed as PTSD or never diagnosed at all.

**5.3 million Americans are living with a TBI-related disability at any time, while somewhere between 250,000 and 750,000 new cases of lingering post-concussive symptoms occur every year in the US — though with the large number of concussions that never get seen in an ED at all (primary care, urgent care, or untreated), that number is likely double or triple the true total.

**The VA has a 20-trial psychedelics portfolio, costing “more than $23 million” as of August 2026; and a separate $50 million federal commitment for ibogaine research. DoD has many more tens of millions committed. Starting in December, 2024, the VA accelerated research into psychedelics/hallucinogens/plant-derived medicines: MDMA, psilocybin, ibogaine, cannabis, and even GLP-1s. USG total funding is $95–100 million in identifiable, psychedelics-specific federal commitments since 2021.

**Private investment alone dwarfs the ~$100 million or so in US federal spending on psychedelics/hallucinogens/plant-derived medicines by a factor of 50–80x. Philanthropy adds several hundred million more. Capitalism and the USG are once again betting on a drug-based, Mental Health approach to brain wounds. Little time or money are spent on actually healing the wound and eliminating the symptoms. 

**163,000+ Veterans have succumbed to suicide since 9/11.

**On a broader note, there have been 6–8 million medically-attended, violence/assault-related TBIs since 1993 — roughly 2–3% of the ~250–270 million violent victimizations over that period. The U.S. has tens of millions of brain-wounded citizens whose ultimate fate is hope, rest, palliative care with drugs, and mental health interventions. No dedicated healing.

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The month of August is typically barren of legislative movement. The current hyper-partisan miasma in Washington, holiday schedules, Congressional recesses, approaching elections, and general malaise and exhaustion caution against investing much time and energy into marketing, education, or trying to find receptive ears for the alarming statistics listed above.

Certainly there is nothing new about hearing that “1 in 4 NFL Players get brain disease.” We’re used to hearing that players have gone into the concussion protocol. Few are aware that is is essentially a waiting-and-hoping strategy: waiting for time to pass and hoping that the player can pass the step-stage tests to get back into play. Not many people connect that particular player or concussion to a pattern that is well known in the military: brain wounds are not good for your health. Sadly, the military and the NFL and dozens of Foundations and researchers and Institutes and hospitals wait decades to report on the degeneration and deaths due to undiagnosed and untreated brain wounds: CTE, PTSD, TBI, Concussion.

The press and the NFL and the US Government, along with scientists and researchers, are enthralled with statistics. The worse the numbers, the more the headlines. “If it bleeds, it leads.” Our startle reflex — an automatic, involuntary reaction in newborns to sudden sensory input like loud noises, bright lights, or a feeling of falling — has matured to the point in adults where we can absorb casualty numbers. Hundreds killed in floods, dozens of children killed in accidental bombings, 11,700 to over 44,000 people killed by intentional violence in the U.S. each year, over 36,000 yearly auto accident deaths, over 6,000 service member suicides every year, and over a quarter billion acts of violence in the US since 1993. Staggering numbers. Yet they are met with the same ineffective standard of care that ignores the principles of wound healing.

Not that medicine hasn’t progressed with new and improved drugs, devices, procedures, and protocols that can save lives. The NFL touts their efforts to deal with the inherent violence of their game. Budgets always seem to increase for research into new ways to avoid the damage done by orchestrated violence.

This author spent the morning with a Veteran victim of multiple Blasts. 100% disabled, this middle aged warrior suffers from well-known and treatable damage from combat and years of selfless service. She has been subjected to “the best standard of care known to man” in DoD and VA and private care. And yet the lingering symptoms of untreated brain wounds continue to make every day a test of resilience, patience, suck-it-up pain/migraine/sleep/gut/fatigue/ frustration self-control. Two months of waiting to get only virtual “counseling” from the VA, rotating drug ingestion, and self-paid emergency room visits for intractable and debilitating gut pain.

“Operator Syndrome” is well documented. NFL players and especially their wives can identify with the symptoms suffered by Veteran victims of polytrauma from war: “interrelated health and functional impairments including traumatic brain injury effects; endocrine dysfunction; sleep disturbance; obstructive sleep apnea; chronic joint/back pain, orthopedic problems, and headaches; substance abuse; depression and suicide; anger; worry, rumination, and stress reactivity; marital, family, and community dysfunction; problems with sexual health and intimacy; being “on guard” or hyper vigilant; memory, concentration, and cognitive impairments; vestibular and vision impairments; challenges of the transition from military [and professional sports] to civilian life; and common existential issues.”

Yee gads, “you don’t need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows” as Bob Dylan put it. The evidence is overwhelming if we have but eyes to see, and ears to hear.

The statisticians and researchers and scientists and contractors and medical universe could do all the victims of brain wounds a real public service by going beyond describing the “disease” of brain wounding [starting by calling TBI/PTSD/CTE/Concussion a brain wound] and noticing the treatments that already exist to heal those wounds.

STOP, READ, LISTEN, LEARN, ACT.

30 clinical studies attest to brain wound healing using Hyperbaric Oxygenation and other alternative therapies. HBOT is proven safe and effective. Thousands treated can attest to the efficacy and results that restore a quality of life denied to them using the traditional standard of care: rest, drugs, mental health palliatives like talk therapy and psychological interventions that do not recognize a need to heal the brain wound.

Over 1,000 patients with brain wounds have been successfully treated with HBOT in clinical trials in the last fifteen years. Most doctors do not know about the research and the results. Veterans are protected from knowing about the use of HBOT for TBI/PTSD/Post Concussive Syndrome because the VA does not tell them that the alternative exists. Insurance does not cover it. Nevertheless, over 33,000 patients, including over 12,500 Veterans and over 750 Special Operators have been treated and helped to heal with HBOT. Fourteen states have passed legislation and seven have invested over $33 Million taxpayer dollars into HBOT-for-TBI/PTSD. The record of success is astonishingly positive.

It is no longer a question of medical and scientific proof. This is a political battle with the lives of hundreds of thousands of Veterans and millions of citizens at risk.

Heal Brains. Stop Suicides. Restore Lives. TreatNOW.

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The TreatNOW Mission is ending service member suicides. Along the way, we have learned that we can end suicidal ideation, help end symptoms of PTSD, get patients off most of their drugs, and heal brain wounds to end the effects of Concussion, BLAST injury, mild TBI, Persistent Post Concussive Syndrome, and polytrauma from Operator Syndrome, AHI, and Burn Pits. No Veteran or civilian has ever been killed or hurt while undergoing HBOT treatment for TBI/PTSD.

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.