Invasive brain implants? Anything to put off considering safe and effective natural treatments for our war veterans!
According to NIH, approximately 5.3 million Americans—more than 2% of the U.S. population—are living with a disability that results from traumatic brain injury (TBI). This number includes 280,000 soldiers who suffer from combat-related TBI. And, in what experts are calling the “concussion epidemic,” 25,000 school-age football players each year suffer from concussions that require emergency treatment. Other young athletes suffer as well.
To date, the Pentagon has favored drugs to treat brain damaged vets. Many of these drugs are used off-label, which means the FDA has not approved their use for this purpose.
The use of anti-psychotic medications off-label for brain injury is particularly cruel, because these drugs are highly toxic and can make a bad situation much, much worse. Such drugs can easily lead to violence and destroy lives.
The latest news in this deplorable story is that the Pentagon favors highly invasive brain implants: devices embedded directly into the brain (with wires running through the head and scalp as well as to an electrical-impulse device inserted under the skin of the chest area), that record and stimulate brain activity.
What are the Pentagon’s motivations for choosing implants? Could it have something to do with the $35,478 that MedTronic employees contributed to President Obama’s 2012 campaign (the White House is directing the BRAIN initiative funding the implant project)? Or, could it have to do with the “Catch-22”—the fact that natural treatments aren’t patentable (and thus won’t make industry bales of money), while drugs and implants are?
But there may be even more that implants can do for the Pentagon that natural treatments can’t: Pentagon researchers are hoping to use the implants to develop future technology for “warrior websuits” and “geckskins”—physically integrated suits that will help future soldiers climb vertical walls (without climbing equipment) make soldiers “stronger and less prone to injuries or fatigue.”
This sounds like we are using our wounded veterans as some kind of guinea pigs to develop new technology not directly meant to cure them. If true, it would be shameful.
What are some of the natural treatments that the Pentagon refuses to consider?
Dr. Paul G. Harch, former ANH-USA board member and the foremost expert on hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) for brain injury, has published evidence that HBOT is able to dramatically help veterans with post-concussion syndrome and PTSD.
Dr. Harch’s research caught the attention of First Lady Michelle Obama, who called on Dr. Harch to help innovate new treatment protocols for veterans. Unfortunately, the Pentagon and FDA have refused to give HBOT a full and fair review.
Other natural treatments cannot necessarily cure brain injury but can help:
- Osteopathic cranial adjustments done by DOs skilled in this increasingly hard-to-find art;
- Specialized chiropractic adjustments;
- Critical brain nutrients such as phospholipids and omega-3s;
- Melatonin supplementation to minimize brain swelling and dysfunction after TBI. When used proactively, melatonin supplementation can also protect against age-induced susceptibility to brain injury.
- Ginger extract to “significantly” enhance working memory, increase brain function, and shrink the area of damaged brain tissue.
- Coconut oil and other supplements known to combat Alzheimer’s disease for the reversal of TBI-related memory loss.
- Arnica, a remarkably effective homeopathic treatment, to be taken as soon after injury as feasible.
When will the Pentagon stop marching to the beat of the drug industry and their allies in the FDA and instead do what it takes to help our damaged soldiers?
