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Brain Trauma, TBI, and the Hidden Crisis Facing Veterans · Broken Brains with Bruce Parkman

• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: Hey folks, welcome to another episode of Broken Brains with your host, Bruce Parkman.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_00: We are the official podcast of the Mac Parkman Foundation.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And this is what we call a shorty.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: And this is where we our podcast, of course, is focused on repetitive brain trauma from two aspects repetitive head impacts from contact sports and repetitive blast exposure for veterans.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: And why this is important is because this is not trained in our society today, and nobody's aware of it.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: So our veterans and kids are misdiagnosed, they're mentally ill, but then they're mistreated with a lot of drugs and therapy.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: And what they need is they need brain treatments, the treatments to their brain.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk to you about an issue today that came to my attention about uh the recently released suicide rates for the United States military veteran population.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if they include the military population after a little bit digging, but the problem is they're going back up.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And even when they were going down, they weren't really going down that much.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_00: And so this highlights an enormous problem with our veteran population.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: The highlights of this particular report were kind of encouraging for once because they finally admit that TBI, they didn't say repetitive blast exposure yet, but that's all part of it.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: They do say that TBIs could be a part of the reason that our veterans are suffering from mental illness.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: This, in and of itself, is a very big admission for the VA.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And is something that, in my opinion, I think it should have been recognized a long time ago.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: And it's been known for years.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's been known that repetitive blast exposure and multiple TBIs are a point of causation for mental illness in our veteran population.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's been disturbing because the VA is the number one provider of care for our veteran populations.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, even if you're, you know, you retired, you go to TRICARE, when it comes to whatever conditions that are associated with your military service, you go over to the VA.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: The problem is when you go there and they don't understand, recognize, or aware of the problem you're suffering with, that is where the problems support, that when the problems start.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, number one, we've got to have veterans that go to the VA and admit they have a problem.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 2:33
  SPEAKER_00: There's a stigma with mental illness that exists to this day.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And we've got to get rid of it.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_00: We've got to get off this macho kit, right?
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's okay for grown men to cry, not saying they got to cry all the time or cry at a Disney movie, but it's okay for them to admit that they're having problems.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: And our veterans on both sides of the gender, male and female, have a huge problem with admitting they're struggling.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: And whether it's fear of reputation, fear of being seen as not being a man or a woman veteran or being tough, right?
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_00: Our veterans still refuse to talk.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of it is, much like we see in our football players, that they think that mental illness is forever.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't, and that it's a death sentence.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_00: And it's something that I, you know, I'll you know, I'll I'm done.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even want to talk about it.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_00: So it happens, especially when we're talking about repetitive blast exposure and TBI-related brain damage, they spiral.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: They continue to drink, they continue to be impulsive and angry and rage and or depressed and anxious and scared.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: And and the whole cycle only ends up with one big bad negative outcome.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: And we don't want that for our veterans.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, number one, our veterans have to speak out.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're hurting, reach out to anybody, reach out to us, reach out to another veteran, reach out to your mom and dad, your kids, whatever.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let them know that you're in pain because there's hope out there.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I just updated this entire book for kids.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: All those modalities work for veterans.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have new ways to diagnose, new ways to treat now.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: And now, I mean, there's people getting compensation uh for blast exposure and TBI related.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I got it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't even need it, but I went back and I educated the VA on my problems, memory problems, rage, anxiety, uh, you know, d depression, the whole gamut of things I was dealing with.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't want to tell nobody.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't even have to tell my wife, except for the fact that I'm in this corner of my bed sucking my thumb like a kid, and she's like, what's wrong?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm crying, I'm like, I don't know.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I did, and I was hospitalized twice.
• 4:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lot of fun, you know?
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: But then understand that it's treatable, that you can come back.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I have come back.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have come back, and I'm one of thousands of veterans that have come back through the use of these modalities, whether electronic modalities like HBOT and TMS and MERT and photobiomodulation and neurofeedback, or their brain supplementation programs, psychedelics.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: I've done all of them for re not only because I needed them, but also for research, because I want to walk the walk.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: You want to talk to me about psychedelics?
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk to you about it.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lot of fun, but you get a lot of good out of them.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of good out of them.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then, you know, outpatient procedures.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: There is so much hope to fix the brains of our veterans, but they gotta admit they're hurt.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's problem number one.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now problem number two is when you go to the VA and maybe you get disability, they got nothing for you.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I go to my BBA practitioner, I said, hypothetically, man, I got a damaged brain.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: What do you got?
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, Oh, mental health.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: I go, yeah, I'm I'm struggling.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: He goes, I got drugs and therapy.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_00: Mental illness is not a lifetime condition.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Mental illness, when it's caused by the brain, can be decreased.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to say it's cured.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: In my case, it's been gone, been alleviated, because I treated my brain.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: I had to spend a good chunk of money to do it.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the problem, is because the VA doesn't provide it.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: All these modalities that are known to impact the brain and treat it are not available.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: And that stinks because our veterans are mortgaging their homes.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: They're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, they're, you know, they're they're they're they're you know, they're reaching out the foundations, the whole nine yards, and and they're getting it done.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes they're not because they can't afford it.
• 6:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not society's problem.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_00: That's the VA's problem.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: The military did this to our veterans.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: They signed the dotted line.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_00: We need to write the check.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what we got to work with the VA on.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm not demonizing the VA at all.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the VA works by a Bible like every other.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: The defense contractor's got DCAA, and I'm sure there's another Bible for the VA, and they're withheld to VFDA-approved stuff like drugs and therapy, but it doesn't fix this.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: So we want to encourage the VA to understand that if you're going to admit that TBI is the problem, TBI is brain damage.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: If your brain's damaged, then you got to treat the brain.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: These drugs that they put our veterans on, and you've all read the stories.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I run to veterans all the time that 13, 15 different drugs, they chase system symptoms.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Medicating the brain does not treat it.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_00: Medicating the brain is medicating the brain.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: Treat the brain.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: Heal the brain.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: And we know how to do that.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the problem is, and we can talk off topic about that, is that there's a Chinese food menu because no brain is the same, and no brain responds the same to the menu of treatments.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: You have to find your own path.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: The VA should allow it, and we need to write the check.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: So on this suicide issue, we need to do more.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: There is absolutely no reason for us to lose, and they don't even know the number, but I would say easily eight times more kids have died by suicide than have died in combat since 2020 since 2001.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: That is completely unacceptable, especially when some of these men and women could have been treated.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So let's focus on that and let's hope and work all together to make sure that those numbers are only going in one direction.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And eventually they're gone.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you next time on Broken Brains.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: If you like what we're talking about, please like us, subscribe us, send us out there, run all the major platforms, follow us on uh, you know, the the major social media.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, if you're a veteran, you only got one melon.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, if you're a kid, you only got one melon.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: Take care of it.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: If it's been damaged, let's get it fixed.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out to us.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: We have a lot of information we can share with you to get you on a path.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Take care.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you on the next episode of Broken Brains, the official podcast of the Mac Parkman Foundation.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_00: God bless you all and take care.