Treat Brain Wounds with Hyperbaric Oxygenation and other Alternative Therapies
“VA’s top clinical priority is preventing suicide among all Veterans — including those who do not, and may never, seek care within the VA health care system.” Yet nowhere in their strategies do they recognize that untreated brain wounds and the drugs used to control symptoms lead to suicidal ideation. Nor do they admit that they are not doing “all that is humanly possible” — as they promise — to end suicides by treating and healing brain wounds
Below article cited from TreatNow.org
The Department of Veterans Affairs and DoD spend hundreds of millions of dollars on Suicide Prevention efforts, including videos and PSAs in prime time. Bumper sticker campaigns plead: “If you see something, say something.” Congress holds hearings, year after year, sponsoring Suicide Prevention day/week/month events, with five-hour hearings with titles like: “Veteran Suicide Prevention: Innovative Research and Expanded Public Health Efforts.”
The VA and Congress and DoD have been in the business of Suicide Prevention since at least 1958. The first suicide prevention center in the United States was opened in Los Angeles in 1958 with funding from the U.S. Public Health Service. Later on, in 1970, the National Institute of Mental Health pushed in Phoenix the discussion about the status of suicide prevention, presented relevant findings about suicide rate and identified the future directions and priorities of the topic. 81 Recommendations resulted. And in 2022, some 50 years later, the suicide rate among service members continues to rise.
Our recent Report, The National Brain-Wounded Veteran Brain Drain: Cost-Benefit Analysis of Changing the DoD and VA
Standard of Care for TBI and Suicide Prevention estimates that 109,000 service members have succumbed to suicide since 9/11 — fifteen times the number of deaths due to combat — and that a similar number have died from opioid overdoses. Lost in the non-stop debate about whether the suicide rate is 18, or 22, or 25 victims per day are the real impacts of untreated brain injuries on the 877,450 brain wounded today It is estimated that suicide affects at least nine other people in the victim’s circle.
Untreated brain wounds affect our entire society. Continuing with the same failed treatment protocols and on-going Suicide Prevention Strategies fuels the suicide and opioid epidemics while costing the US taxpayer an estimated $118.1 billion per year in societal costs. That amounts to a projected cost of $4.7 trillion over 40-year life span for over 877,450 brain wounded Veterans. Undoubtedly some of the money is not wasted. But imagine what that says about the growing despair in untreated service members? And the suicidal veterans who come to us with pleas for help after years, or decades, of neglect within the VA?
A scientifically validated FDA-approved treatment for brain injury exists. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) for decades has produced provable, measurable success in treating both Veterans and active-duty warfighters with invisible brain wounds. And HBOT has been shown to reduce or eliminate suicide ideation. During HBOT treatment, Veterans average a 50 percent reduction in pharmacology intake while greatly reducing symptoms associated with PTSD and TBI: headaches, anxiety levels, suicidal ideation, depression, pain, sleeplessness, brain fog, lack of self-control, and violent outbursts.
HBOT helps heal the brain. It needs to part of the VA’s and medicine’s armamentarium of insured treatments. Veterans must be informed about its safety and efficacy. Since the VA has no HBOT chambers, all Veterans must be accorded access to HBOT hospitals and clinics. Current capacity can handle thousands of patients, starting today. Infrastructure to treat the 3-5 million untreated brain-wounded veterans and citizens can catch up in very short order.
Evidence-based and clinical, peer-reviewed results in seventeen scientific studies don’t lie: TreatNOW. Give the brain-wounded true Independence.
The TreatNOW Coalition is over 133 clinics across the US that treat and help heal brain wounds using Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) and other alternative therapies. TreatNOW’s Mission is to end service member suicides; service members suicides have once again increased, continuing a fifteen year trend. Coalition clinics have demonstrated 100% safety and over 90% success in treating over 21,000 service members, Special Operators, first responders, athletes and citizens with TBI/PTSD/Concussion.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy is used around the world to extend and improve quality of life by augmenting the treatment of all injuries, diseases and infections, as well as to improve overall wellness. HBOT involves breathing 100% oxygen in a pressurized chamber to increase oxygen levels in blood plasma. A century of clinical research has shown that increased oxygen in plasma accelerates our natural ability to heal through neurogenesis, angiogenesis, and stem cell generation.
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.
If you or anyone you know is contemplating suicide, please immediately contact
Veterans Crisis Line: 1-800-273-8255 (Press 1)