TBI: Pentagon Study To Commence 2011

A clinical trial to include 300 soldiers at 5 sites over 18 months, all coordinated by the Defense Centers of Excellence (DCoE) for Psychological Health & Brain Injury, is more good news for military veterans suffering traumatic brain injury (TBI) and another shot in the arm for evidence-based hyperbaric medicine. Read more about the study at Army Times.

P.S. Please accept this short PSA as our apology for neglecting to celebrate Brain Injury Awareness month in March.

Carbon Monoxide Poisoning: A Public Health Crisis

We bring you yet more deadly stats for the cold and "flue" season. Carbon monoxide poisoning accounts for some 50,000 emergency room visits annually in the US. Every year about 450 Americans die from accidental exposure alone. Death rates peak in December and January. Almost all survivors experience serious immediate and lasting neuropsychological effects.

Caffeinate To Turn Back Alzheimer's?

Of all the health gurus out there it's hard not to dig Dr Andrew Weil, who blogs today on pretty solid clinical evidence that Caffeine May Reverse Alzheimer's. Mice bred to develop Alzheimer's cut their amyloid-β protein levels in half when fed the human equivalent of five cups of coffee. (But it was caffeine, not coffee, all you teetotalers.) The study was published July 2009 in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease. So there you have a bit of promising news where we could report none in our 19 Oct post and new Alzheimer's and Dementia page. Bottoms up!

HBOT For Eldercare: Palliative Or Aggressive?

A thoughtful piece on the physical toll of dementia makes a fine postscript to our Monday post and new Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia page. Startling that

the life expectancy of a patient with advanced dementia is similar to that of a patient with advanced cancer.

But how much care is too much care toward the end of life? Especially considering the sorry evidence and the cost of treatment, we're apt to consider hyperbaric oxygen therapy more aggressive than palliative.

(Our apologies to the Times and to artist Stuart Bradford for the willful copyright infringement. What a glorious illustration!)

Off-Label HBOT: Alzheimer's And Dementia

We find scant clinical evidence to recommend the use of hyperbaric oxygen therapy for people with Alzheimer's and dementia. How dearly we'd prefer to report more encouraging news. But unlike intracranial abscess and acute traumatic ischemias, for which HBOT is approved to fight infection and aid in healing healthy brain tissue, cognitive impairments in the elderly present wholly nonvascular and seemingly irreversible mechanisms of cell death and tissue loss. Protein plaques and tangles (illustrated right) make Alzheimer's notoriously relentless in its slow progress.

Jump to our new Alzheimer's and Dementia page to learn more and to use our HyperbaricLink Evidence Index to guide your personal research.