Virginia becomes 10th state to pass legislation calling for the use of Hyperbaric Oxygen to treat and heal TBI/PTSD. [Other states include OK, TX, IN, KY, AZ, FL, NC, MD, and WY]SENATE BILL NO. 1082 A BILL to allow the Department of Veterans Services to contract with any hyperbaric clinic or any hospital in the Commonwealth that furnishes a comprehensive treatment program to any veteran who has been certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any branch of the United States Armed Forces as having post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia: That the Department of Veterans Services may contract with any hyperbaric clinic providing medical-grade 100 percent oxygen in U.S. Food and Drug Administration-approved chambers in the Commonwealth or any hospital that furnishes a comprehensive treatment program that may include medication, psychotherapy, and hyperbaric oxygen therapy, from an accredited program, to any veteran in the Commonwealth who has been certified by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs or any branch of the United States Armed Forces as having post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury. Unanimously passed in VA House and Senate and signed into law, March 2023. Soccer: CTE cases in soccer players raise fresh questions about safety of heading the ball [here]New diagnoses come as officials gather in Chicago for a Head Injury Summit (May 2023). The Concussion Legacy Foundation announced Tuesday that English pro and Oregon State head coach Jimmy Conway, Scottish and Seattle NASL midfielder Jimmy Gabriel, and NCAA champion Franny Pantuosco also were found to have the degenerative brain disease that has been linked to concussions in athletes, combat veterans and others who have sustained repeated head trauma. They are the first diagnoses among those who played in the NASL, a precursor to MLS as the top U.S. pro soccer league that attracted attention with high-profile signings — including Pele — before folding in 1985. Early Brain Amyloid Accumulation at PET in Military Instructors Exposed to Subconcussive Blast Injuries [here]Early brain amyloid ß deposition was found in the brains of otherwise healthy adult men exposed to repeated subconcussive blast injury using amyloid PET. Military instructors who were routinely exposed to repeated blast events were evaluated at two different points: baseline (before blast exposure from breacher or grenade) and approximately 5 months after baseline (after blast exposure). Age-matched healthy control participants not exposed to blasts and without a history of brain injury were evaluated at similar two points. Neurocognitive evaluation was performed with standard neuropsychologic testing in both groups. In the blast-exposed participants, four brain regions showed significantly increased amyloid deposition after blast exposure. . . No amyloid deposition was observed in the control participants. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy in the Treatment of Acute Severe Traumatic Brain Injury: A Systematic Review [here]This review summarizes 40 years of clinical and pre-clinical research on the treatment of acute TBI with hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBO2) in the context of an impending National Institute of Neurologic Disorders and Stroke–funded, multi-center, randomized, adaptive Phase II clinical trial —the Hyperbaric Oxygen Brain Injury Treatment (HOBIT) trial…. These studies provided evidence that HBO2 significantly improves physiologic measures without causing cerebral or pulmonary toxicity and can potentially improve clinical outcome. These results were consistent across the other four reviewed clinical studies, thus providing preliminary clinical data supporting the HOBIT trial. This comprehensive review demonstrates that HBO2 has the potential to be the first significant treatment in the acute phase of severe TBI. Fighting and Penalty Minutes Associated With Long-term Mortality Among National Hockey League Players, 1967 to 2022 [here]National Hockey League (NHL) “enforcers” with 50 or more career fights or 3 or more penalty minutes per game died 10 years earlier and more often of drug overdose and suicide when compared with age-matched NHL player controls. This matched cohort study of 6039 NHL players from 1967 to 2022 confirmed that NHL enforcers died at similar rates but approximately 10 years earlier when compared with NHL controls. Furthermore, the causes of death in the 21 enforcers included neurodegenerative disorders, drug overdose, suicide, and motor vehicle crashes, whereas only 1 of the 24 age-matched controls died of any of these causes (motor vehicle crash). 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. |