If you go back into the literature that was written in the 1930s, when subways were being dug in Europe, there was a fairly high incidence of the decompression condition known as Caisson’s disease, most likely caused by blast exposure. And in that group, of patients there was a high incidence of suicide.

Today, we usually treat a similar decompression condition called the bends, which occasionally happens to scuba divers, with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT). After such treatment, there is no increased incidence of suicide, to my knowledge,

Many of the vets we’ve treated had previously attempted suicide. But to my knowledge, none who have received HBOT have attempted or committed suicide after the treatment.

When you think about it, the blast exposure veterans experience is the same thing as a bad scuba diver suffering the bends, because there is a marked over pressure and then a quick release. Experimental animal data has demonstrated that even exposure to machine gun fire and anti-tank fire can cause bubbles to form in the vascular system. These bubbles can then travel to the brain and cause damage.

It is unfortunate that the VA hospitals don’t employ HBOT. I think if they did, we would have a lower less death rate among the veterans.

In my new book, “The Oxygen Cure,” I present excellent data about use of hyperbaric oxygen to treat strokes. You can go to the website Bcenter.com and look up the response of Valerie Greene who was 30 when she had her stroke. At that time she could not walk or talk. Today she can, and is now a spokesman for the Stroke Association.

Hyperbaric oxygen therapy has also been shown to help with chemotherapy, infection, radiation therapy effects, epilepsy, fibromyalgia, emphysema, asthma, ADHD, rheumatoid arthritis, cardiac disease, migraine headaches, vertigo, early dementia, vision loss, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and of course traumatic brain injury and PTSD.