Hyperbaric Oxygen for Our Nation’s Veterans

Report from the Trenches:  Government Affairs from your Nation’s Capitol
Dr. William A. Duncan, Your Lobbyist in Washington

The DoD-Brain Injury Rescue & Rehabilitation Project
Since January of 2007, the American Association for Health Freedom has sponsored a project to have veterans of the war treated with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT).  Thank you to the thousands of you who have sent letters of support to your elected officials.  Many of our physician members use hyperbaric oxygen for everything from preventing diabetic foot amputations to stroke, autism or traumatic brain treatment.  There is a great deal of published material to demonstrate that this treatment is effective.  Many have seen it rebuild a brain in 120 days, and every service member who has been treated to date has had significant recovery.  Our very own AAHF Board member, Paul Harch, M.D. has treated many of these veterans.

Since April 28, 2008, Marty Hoffmann (Secretary of the Army for Gerald Ford) and I have met with over 150 offices on Capitol Hill and with many members of both the House and Senate.  We have been able to share the Health Freedom message and urge them to treat the causes of disease, not just symptoms.  HBOT is available right now for our injured service members.  AAHF’s message is timely and has been very well received.  We will soon have a meeting with key people within Department of Defense (DoD) accompanied by recovered service members.  We will have a Marine who has recovered, and two Army soldiers, one a General officer.  Dr. Harch will be leading that delegation, and you can read about how you can support this cost-effective treatment on the AAHF website.
HBOT-2008:  On July 24 through 26, AAHF had a booth at the 6th Annual “International Symposium on Hyperbaric Oxygenation and the Future of Healing.” (HBOT 2008) conference, sponsored by the Whitaker Wellness Institute and Dr. Julian Whitaker (a founding member of AAHF).  There were nearly 250 attendees at the conference, made up of physicians and health care practitioners who use hyperbaric oxygen to heal.
By the end of September, we hope to have the structure in place so that over 70 clinics across the nation, who have volunteered to start treating our veterans of the war, can begin treating and tracking patient recovery.  These patients will be from the active services to the National Guard and Reserves.  It has already helped some service members recover to the point they are able to stay in the service.  These clinics are in nearly every state in the Union, and more sign up each week.  Many of you may know injured veterans who need help.
With this effort AAHF and Health Freedom Foundation will also be helping to create the infrastructure to begin moving other therapies toward “standard of care.” There are new FDA-approved statistical techniques that can be used to help get therapies approved by insurance.