Dr. Harch's IHMF Press Release Monday 3/15/10

[Guest guest]

I have pasted the press release below for those who have not seen it and might

be interested in listening and passing the word along.

Take care,

Barry

Virtual Press Conference: 1 p.m. EDT

Call: 877-317-0671 ID# 60427424

Study Finds a Biological Repair for a Quiet Epidemic – Brain Injuries

(Lorton, VA) – Brain injuries are the single most expensive chronic disease in

public health, according to the Centers for Disease Control and the Association

of Schools of Public Health. Now a nonprofit foundation seeks 1,000 volunteers

for a study on a new use for an old therapy to regenerate brain tissue

biologically instead of simply treating the symptoms with drugs.

Doctors began using hyperbaric oxygen therapy – saturating patients with pure

oxygen in a chamber – to treat divers with " the bends, " or decompression

sickness, eight decades ago. The federal Food and Drug Administration has

already approved it for treating 13 other conditions, including wounds that

don't heal such as diabetic foot wounds or lesions from radiation therapy. It is

the only biological repair and regeneration therapy, except for hormones,

approved by the FDA.

Doctors have already made progress using the therapy on brain injuries. Dr.

Harch, president of the International Hyperbaric Medical Foundation, sponsor of

the new study, is presenting 15 cases of veterans whose brains have been injured

by blasts and who were treated with oxygen therapy to the Eighth World Congress

of the International Brain Injury Association, which meets in Washington, D.C.,

today.

His study shows, on average, a 15-point increase in IQ in little more than a

month, 51% reduction in depression, four times (40%) the clinically significant

improvement level for post-concussion symptoms such as headaches and sleep

disturbances, and 30% improvements in post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Results were highly statistically significant. Most have been able to return to

duty, work or school. You can see the abstract of his study at:

https://ibia.conference-services.net/programme.asp?conferenceID=1677 & action=prog\

_list & session=6765

Researchers have long understood that brain injuries from blows, accidents, high

fevers and the like cost society billions of dollars every year because the

millions of people with brain injuries are more likely to be homeless, need

other medical care, be unemployed, incarcerated or abuse drugs or alcohol.

" Unidentified traumatic brain injury is an unrecognized major source of social

and vocational failure, " Dr. Wayne A. Gordon, director of the Brain Injury

Research Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, told The Wall

Street Journal recently. Traumatic brain injury is the signature wound of the

Iraq War.

" Failure to effectively treat brain injury can result in life-long cognitive

loss, " said Dr. Harch, who was in charge of hyperbaric medicine at Louisiana

State University. " Even a single episode of loss of consciousness from trauma

has been shown to cause permanent injury to the brain. That is why this study is

so important. " .

A new nationwide study is being launched on March 15, 2010, across the nation.

Dr. Harch's treatment will be available from more than 20 doctors, including Dr.

, a retired Air Force colonel who has replicated Dr. Harch's results

with oxygen therapy on other blast-injured war veterans. Dr. was in

charge of the Air Force Aerospace & Hyperbaric Medicine Fellowship, teaching

military doctors how to use hyperbaric medicine He was in charge of hyperbaric

and aerospace medical research for the Air Force for several years.

The Foundation seeks people with mild to moderate traumatic brain injury, or

TBI, and also post-traumatic stress disorder, to participate in this large

multi-center study. Participation involves being treated in a chamber 80 times

over five months to learn if patients recover cognitive abilities. The treatment

is non-invasive and has few side effects.

People can call 800-288-9328, go to www.ClinicalTrials.gov or visit the

Foundation's Web site at http://hyperbaricmedicalfoundation.org to learn if they

are eligible to participate and find participating physicians.