The Secretary of War has done a terrific service to America’s Warriors. The new mandatory Pentagon testing of testosterone levels, whatever the medical merits, sets the stage for a long-recommended test now made possible by another medical device. This could lead to a life-altering breakthrough for Veterans and active duty forces hammered by Blasts for decades, and continuing even today.
Soon, a blood draw to check T-levels can simultaneously, and at little extra cost, also test for Traumatic Brain Injury. DoD is fielding a handheld blood-testing device that can help detect traumatic brain injuries in just 15 minutes. The move might reduce unnecessary medical evacuation and give frontline providers a more objective way to assess injuries.
The “i-STAT Alinity” (FDA cleared, 2021) analyzes a drop of blood for specific proteins that leak through the blood-brain barrier after a traumatic brain injury. Currently, the test is effective up to 24 hours after the trauma, but it is inevitable that biomarkers will reveal brain wounds long after the initial injury. This breakthrough provides objective evidence that a brain wound has occurred.
Eventually, these tests could be made mandatory for the entire force, to include all Veterans. That would total nearly 2 million service members: 1,349,597, including some 70,000 Special Operators in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Space Force, and Coast Guard; ~773,400 total National Guard + Reserve across all six services; and nearly 18Million Veterans.
The medical, force readiness, and financial logic of the Secretary’s announcement , coupled with new capabilities in detecting brain wounds, sells itself. And the initiative is fully in line with the recent Executive Order 14401, Accelerating Medical Treatments for Serious Mental Illness.
Even if the multi-use single drop of blood test is delayed, it can be administered immediately to every combat veteran in recent contact with explosive trauma — which might be every SpecOps warrior returning from combat. We know from reporting and accumulating scientific studies by the military that whole categories of Special Operators are subjected to brain wounding: from Blast, IEDs, breaching, whiplash and G-forces endured from Special Boat operators and supersonic decompression accidents, EOD and shoot-room instructors, and relentless friendly-fire and artillery blast overpressure. All should be given the blood test after every encounter to take guess work out of diagnosing brain trauma.
It’s not just Special Operators. “In Central Command, we’re seeing disproportionately high traumatic brain injury rates in air defense,” Col. Jessica Peck, the command surgeon for the 10th AAMDC, said in a release. “These jobs demand extremely high cognitive performance. Even a mild traumatic brain injury can significantly degrade effectiveness, impacting coordination, emotional regulation, spatial awareness, and decision-making.”
The Secretary of War is rightly intent on honing service members for maximum performance. But a yearly health assessment is not sufficient for troops returning from combat or subjected to bombardments. Aircraft, vehicles, weapons systems are evaluated for readiness almost daily; warriors should get no less. As the Secretary put it: “We maintain our weapon systems and equipment with precision, discipline, and accountability, yet we do not currently manage Warfighter performance with that same level of rigor. That gap directly impacts readiness, increases operational risk, and limits our lethality and effectiveness.”
That gap can lead to a well-established condition called “Operator Syndrome,” and it doesn’t wait for a yearly assessment. The definitive study on the syndrome states: “This includes interrelated health and functional impairments including traumatic brain injury effects; endocrine dysfunction; sleep disturbance; obstructive sleep apnea; chronic joint/back pain, orthopedic problems, and headaches; substance abuse; depression and suicide; anger; worry, rumination, and stress reactivity; marital, family, and community dysfunction; problems with sexual health and intimacy; being “on guard” or hypervigilant; memory, concentration, and cognitive impairments; vestibular and vision impairments; challenges of the transition from military to civilian life; and common existential issues.”
The Secretary’s guidance establishes cognitive performance as equivalent to physical performance: “The Department will establish cognitive performance as a core occupational readiness competency, measuring and managing it with the same attention and discipline we apply to our physical standards. We will mitigate brain health risks that erode cognitive performance and leverage tactics, techniques, and procedures to train and optimize Warfighter cognition.”
Fortunately, numerous health professionals have already begun to create the capability that will be necessary to fulfill mandates in a DOW Report on Warfighter Performance Optimization due out any day. To deliver a “unified operational approach to accelerate readiness, dominance, and peak performance across the Force,” the skills and protocols developed by such groups as Allo Performance, MDHyperbarics, the Aurelius Foundation, Summit Hyperbarics and Wellness, Tier1 Therapy Centers, and many more treatment and research efforts across the TreatNOW Coalition partnerships.
We intend to turn the DoD and the VA into engines of innovation for brain wound healing through pooling what we know, sharing, and demonstrating that non-pharmaceutical interventions already provide fulfillment of mandates laid out by the Secretary of War. This has to begin with brain wound healing to ensure cognitive performance, readiness, peak intellectual performance, and maximum problem solving. We’re going to explore the spectrum of those research activities in the next Blog.
Meanwhile, Congress, the White House, the Secretaries of HHS, DoW and the VA can accelerate the same Emergency Use Authorization and “Right to Try” mandates across all alternative therapies proven safe and effective in scientific studies. Bipartisan support exists to expand Veteran access to new, proven therapies. We have to take seriously the indictment of current standards of care implicit in White House and DoW directives, and not just for building momentum for the speculative promise of hallucinogenic, psychoactive, psychotropic, and psychedelic medicines that may or may not actually heal brain wounds.
The DoW and VA need to read their own analyses: “Our medical research system has yet to produce approved therapies that promote enduring improvements in the mental health condition of these most complex patients. Innovative methods are needed to find long-term solutions for these Americans beyond existing prescription medications.”
Alternative therapies like Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy are already proven to support sustained performance, resilience, and long term health for those living and working in demanding environments. DoW and the VA can usefully open themselves to what the Israeli Defense Force already knows. Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy, along with other alternatives is available to the IDF through the Israeli Ministry of Defense Rehabilitation Department and to Israeli citizens with similar diagnoses. This capability in Israel has led to a service member suicide rate ten times lower than in the U.S. where over 163,000 Veterans have succumbed to suicide since 9/11.
The Israelis have pointed the way to what Secretary Hegseth has promised: “We owe our warriors the absolute best medical care in the world.”
That care is available today, proven safe and effective. Twenty nine studies can be found here.
The Israelis get it. It’s our turn.
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy Heals Brains, Stops Suicides, Restores Lives. TreatNOW.
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.