Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Veteran Mental Health & Breakthrough Therapies: Sam Peterson on Healing PTSD & TBI
In this powerful and insightful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with Sam Peterson, an EOD veteran turned entrepreneur, to explore the challenges of transitioning from high-stakes military environments to civilian life, mental health struggles, and the groundbreaking innovations transforming veteran care.
Sam shares his personal battle with trauma, panic attacks, and depression, revealing how these experiences led him to redefine his purpose and become an advocate for advanced mental health solutions. The discussion takes a deep dive into the shortcomings of traditional mental health treatments, highlighting the need for private sector innovation in veteran care.
The episode also covers cutting-edge treatment modalities for PTSD and TBI, including:
✔️ Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) for brain healing
✔️ Ketamine Infusion Therapy for anxiety and PTSD relief
✔️ Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for neurorehabilitation
✔️ The role of neuroinflammation in trauma recovery
Sam’s work with Mind Spa is helping veterans and first responders access new, science-backed treatments that challenge conventional mental health approaches. If you're interested in brain health, innovative healing techniques, or the future of mental health treatment for veterans, this episode is a must-listen!
🎧 Tune in now on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube! Don’t forget to follow, like, share, and subscribe to stay updated on the latest in mental health, veteran advocacy, and trauma recovery.
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Chapters
00:00 The Challenge of Business vs. High-Stakes Environments
01:58 Mental Health Awareness and Personal Journeys
05:54 The Impact of Isolation on Mental Health
08:56 Navigating Traditional Mental Health Systems
11:47 Finding Joy and Purpose After Trauma
14:49 Innovating Mental Health Solutions for Veterans
19:01 Understanding Traumatic Brain Injury
22:40 The Healing Process: Nutrition and Therapy
25:24 The Importance of Time in Healing
29:06 Integrating Modalities for Effective Treatment
35:43 The Journey to Healing: Personal Experiences
38:52 Mind Spa: A New Approach to Mental Health
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LinkedIn: Sam Peterson
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Produced by Security Halt Media
Security Odd Podcast. Let's go the only podcast that's purpose-built from the ground up to support you Not just you, but the wider audience, everybody. Authentic, impactful and insightful conversations that serve a purpose to help you. And the quality has gone up. It's decent and it's hosted by me, Danny Caballero. It's decent, it's hosted by me, Danny Caballero.
Speaker 2:We don't have to worry about that man, we're just going to keep it in the moment, authentic conversation between two dudes that used to do cool stuff. Hey, we still do cool stuff. I mean, hey, like you know, building a business is still cool. It's just I'm so fucking ludely man, fuck man, you know, building, building a business is still cool. It's just a fucking literally man, fuck man, you know, I think it's it's harder. It's, for me at least, like building, building this business in a sustainable way is is actually harder than diffusing bombs.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and a lot of people.
Speaker 1:They hear that and they're like get the fuck out of here. And it's like well, yeah.
Speaker 2:And here's why, here's my thesis on this. So, as a bomb tech, if I, if I fuck something up very, very, very, very, very, very quickly, it is no longer my problem. If I do that same, if I do the same level of fuck up in my business very, very, very quickly, I have a lot more problems. My problems compound, you know, all of a sudden, you know the house is on the line, I'm, you know, having to go find another place to live, sell some assets to pay off debt, Like if you screw up in these highest stakes environments doesn't really matter because you're dead. You screw up in a business environment. You got to live with that shit and that's the scary part.
Speaker 1:And there's nobody showing up to the transition brief with a whiteboard to write that out. We just have to figure it out.
Speaker 2:No, there's. Also, you know, there's no calling in close air support Like, oh shit, you know we're pinned down, enemies got us by the balls. We're taking rpg fire from three sides, cool calling an a10. No, no one's, uh, no one's bringing like an ac 130 specter gunship to come save your ass in business. It's uh, here's my rifle, here's my gun. I'm gonna, you know, trek out of this hole that you, you know, a lot of us started.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, sam, I mean, thank you for coming on the show, man. It's exciting to have somebody that has made this dive into this world but also chose to go into the mental health space, into the TVI, the brain space. That, to me, is like that's what we need a lot more attention. We arguably, I would say that both of us came from the same background, same area, where mental health and brain injuries, blast wave exposure really wasn't talked about, and then, on the backside and the outside, in this world that we're now in as civilians, now we're learning just how impacted by all these things we truly are. So today, man, I want to dive into your journey and what you're doing now as an entrepreneur in the space, but first I want to know what led you into it from as far as, like your background, like what did you go through and what was your transition like?
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, thanks for teeing that up, denny. I think it's really. I'm really glad that this conversation is happening more and more. We're learning so much more about the effects of blast on the brain. Not in the not too distant past it was oh yeah, I should. You know, hey, I get headaches every morning. No worries, I'm just going to show up to work and, you know, bang out, reaching that door 30 more times to make sure that you know when I do it for real, it's perfect. And you know, what we didn't realize in doing all of that is we were doing just as much, if not more, damage to our brain as that nfl linebacker who's getting, you know, his, uh, his head caved in every time he comes across the line of scrimmage.
Speaker 1:So I think, it's, yeah, it's.
Speaker 2:It's really important to put this in the proper framing of the kind of damage we're doing to our brains and not realizing it and then having to live with the consequences after. I mean, you know my, my personal journey. You know I just got back from my second deployment. Got to deploy with a with third group special forces up in the Kunar province in the J-BAT area. Got to run a lot of really fun missions, but I got hurt over there, got sent back and just just had a lot of issues. The hypervigilance was a huge problem which led into developing a panic disorder. I kind of got deer johnned over there so my fiance left me for an insurance salesman.
Speaker 2:Um fuck, oh yeah, dude that's like a horrible country song yes, it's like, it's like whiskey lullaby, with a bang at the end. Yeah, um, so yeah, that, uh, just there were a lot of factors that compounded into just making life really unlivable. And you know, for for someone who's suffering from, you know, constant panic attacks and that hypervigilance, hypervigilance. It does not take long before you're like shit, dude, I don't want to play this game anymore.
Speaker 1:This sucks, yeah, yeah, I want to I want to pause on that, reflect, reflect a little bit longer. For those of you listening today, that's often something that we mask and we don't really talk about. It's that anxiety, that panic attack. That's one of the few moments of vulnerability that I had with a lot of my friends or counterparts, before I even went and got help, like I remember having candid discussions with other people that had the same paranoid, anxiety-driven ideas that we had the sense of impending doom.
Speaker 1:I remember driving home, experiencing that panic and thinking like am I having a heart attack? It's like these two things are, like it's not really correlating. And then your mind just takes it and you go into these weird freaking, uh left leaning ideas of, or left that like just out of the left field, like ideas of what could be causing this. What am I scared of? What's going on in my life? So it's it's absolutely insane to experience it, but in the vacuum of our service, we have nobody talking about this, nobody's explaining this. So you think, oh shit, something fucking wrong with me. I can't talk about this.
Speaker 2:Well, I think there's a couple of things there. So first, you know, a lot of times these panic episodes are happening in isolation. When we lose that sense of community, we lose that sense of brotherhood, we are put in a situation where we're not being as good of mammals anymore. We are meant for that social connection, and when you're in that shared struggle with the people around you, whatever it is, whether you're in training or you're on the battlefield, you get to connect on a deeper level with other mammals that are of the same proficiency as you. So, hey, I got to go charge that machine gun nest. Yeah, but I'm doing with the 20 dudes that I've been training with for the past couple months to a year. We're all connected, let's go.
Speaker 2:It's different when you're alone trying to charge that same nest. There's not that same backing and it can become really easy to slip into that anxiety and panic state because you don't have anybody else around you to bounce these ideas off or to just go. Dude, man, I'm just not feeling it today. I'm kind of fucked in the head today. That conversation happens all the time in the team room. You're like man, I'm just not in the game. Well, what not in the game looks like when you're alone and you've been isolated for a while is the start of a panic disorder. And you know, we need to normalize that shift and realize that this is in fact happening for a reason. It's happening because of that isolation, and realize that this is in fact happening for a reason. It's happening because of that isolation. And you know, one of the tools that really helped me get over this was this was bad boy right here, like having a Fitbit, cause, as soon as you can kind of draw attention into your body, you can go wait a second. Okay, I'm, I'm, I'm having these, these, the stream of consciousness, that of consciousness that's spinning me up. I'm getting kind of spun up. Is this something that's just happening in my mind or is it happening in my body simultaneously? All right, shit, I'm sitting here and my heart rate's at 109. Yeah, all right, I know that I'm at that threshold of that panic episode.
Speaker 2:So what can I do about it? Well, the first thing we got to realize is that you might be not using your physiology properly to self-regulate. So one of the things that humans do that no other species does is we change the pattern of how we breathe after we're born. So, just right here, like I'm breathing through my chest, my traps are pulling my lungs up. That's how I'm taking oxygen into my lungs and that helps drive that disorder, this movement here, having your shoulders tensed up and ready to go, that's setting up your nervous system to be in that state. So what can we do about it? You know just, it's as easy as sitting back, relax, stick a stick a hand on your belly and do what's called diaphragmatic breathing. So belly breathing, yep. And that, just right there, can slow you down. And and that was, you know, something that helped me a lot was just okay. Let's realize these triggers and then actively help self regulate down. And it's a muscle you got to work on it After a while. You can bring yourself back down after a bit.
Speaker 1:Going on through this journey, man, what were some other things that you were seeing come to the surface?
Speaker 2:One of the big things and it was one of the main drivers that got me on the path of mental health was going to the traditional system, like going to see a psychiatrist in the army, going to see a psychologist and just not getting anywhere. I got thrown a bunch of SSRIs, a bunch of beta blockers and all right, cool, here, go back into the field, you're good enough. And then just the whole world turning this opaque shade of gray and I was like I can't live like this. I'm walking around like a zombie here. Yeah, there's no super bad lows, but there's also no super highs. I'm not feeling life to the same degree. Life's muted.
Speaker 1:That's something that all of us that have been on this journey reflect on and talk about. It's literally like, like I can't. I'm not having the panic attacks, I'm not having the moments of rage, rage, but I'm also not experiencing, like other emotions yeah, there's no joy here yeah, there's no, exactly, there's nothing.
Speaker 2:You're just like, okay, this can't be the rest of my life, yeah now and you know, you know, going from that place, I was like damn it, but I almost rather have the damn panic attacks because at least then I could feel something, um, and you know, finally just quit doing all the drugs. The panic episodes came back and, um, it eventually got to the point where I had my gun in my mouth and I was ready to pull the trigger and the only thing that saved me from doing that was my phone went off my pocket and, uh, as one of one of my very good friends, uh, invited me over to, uh, to his place, for it was like a christmas dinner get together. This was on christmas eve, uh, 2014, and uh, you know, that night, um, and a little, just a small bit of backstory. Like I, I used to be very, very, very anti-drug. I thought that everyone who wasn't you know, everyone that did drugs was putting holes in their brain. I thought the dare line was telling us the truth the whole time in our childhood.
Speaker 2:And, uh, you know, so we, you know we get there, you know, I put, put the 45 down and I'm like, all right, you know what? Hey, I can always come back to this. So I get there and, you know, after a while hanging out, you can here's, there's an empty man in this bag and he pours them out on the counter and he's like, take what's in that bag, sit down on the couch and tell me what's bothering you. And I was like, well, I mean, hey, if I'm gonna, I was about to put a really big hole in my brain, so fuck it. Uh, so I did, you know, I took it and I sat down on the couch and I like bawled my eyes out for three straight hours and it was the that experience. You know, I grew up in kind of a broken home. My dad had a traumatic brain injury Like it. It was not childhood, it was not fun. That's why most of us get in the military anyway.
Speaker 2:We're just uh we're just a bunch of we're a bunch of B team male strippers with like an extra sprinkling of daddy issues especially especially on the teams, and uh, so you know this, this I got to feel joy for the first time.
Speaker 2:It was like someone literally took my soul out of my body, just power wash that fucker with bleach and stuck it back in, yeah, and it completely changed my perspective. I was like, oh my god, it's possible to feel this joy that I thought was gone and that I did not have access to. So it was like, oh wow, I do have access to this other state of consciousness, which is like more of where I want to be, and that really helped me get on a solid upturn. It really changed my life, got out of the military, pursued some contracting and then the whole time was studying mental health. And another driver behind that was about five months after that. You know, I was like cool, getting ready to get out, doing all the final out for the military, and on Memorial Day we were supposed to go to the field. And I remember getting that call on monday morning um, one of one of my, my mentors, someone who, like I, really looked up to at the unit uh, I was the actually the last guy to to talk to him at the unit and walks out, and walks out into his backyard and shoots himself in the head with his three-year-old son in the house. And you know it hit extra hard because Neil was one of those guys. He was that E8 that was just always at your back, always happy, always encouraging, like hey, man, how you doing, like just the straight up Robin Williams style dude, but like an excellent leader, and it just it floored me and I was like, oh my, my god, like if this could happen to him, like I was right there too, that there must be so many more of us who are dealing like fighting these battles, fighting these demons that none of us know about. No, uh, because there were no signs, like it was smoking and joking, happy-go-lucky, talking about the future, everything.
Speaker 2:Neil had an undiagnosed traumatic brain injury and had no hope of getting relief from the pain he was in, and that just lit a fire in me to just say you know what Fuck this? We can do better, we can absolutely do better. There's no way that there isn't some first guiding principle here that everyone else is missing and I'm going to find it. And so I went on this journey to figure it out, started a nonprofit for vets who are suffering from traumatic brain injuries, raised a bunch of money for that, helped develop an internasal stem cell protocol. So we can, you know, put stem cells into your brain and actually heal your brain.
Speaker 2:We were able to do that for my dad who had a traumatic brain injury, and then that led into the starting of this business, an outpatient psychiatry clinic where we use more effective treatments for tbi, ptsd, depression, anxiety, and as well as the creation of Patriot Power Up, an inpatient program up in Idaho where we do all these same, the same treatment protocol. Yeah, so it's. You know, it's just been. It's been this journey of like Just really thumbing my nose at the system and saying, no, we can do it better, and if you're not on board, that's fine, get the fuck out of the way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, it's. It can be shocking at first when you uncover or dive into this world. Whether you're, you know, at the forefront creating a business or as a practitioner, you know better. And it gets into the health space and, uh, is there treating patients firsthand, or somebody like myself that has to study it because I run multiple podcasts that cover this?
Speaker 1:It can be jarring at first to understand that we have a system that's been built to ignore it within the military and they solely rely on benevolence and ingenuity in the private sector, and that has to stop.
Speaker 1:We have to stop this idea that we can kick the can down the road and push it off on our civilian counterparts and just talk and put up pretty looking slides and have little conventions where we state how great we're going to make the next generation of warriors because we're so better educated. And I do care about those guys, but they're kids right now, yeah, and the reality is they're probably not going to have the same exposure as the e8 in that team room, the e7 that has been been an 18 Charlie for 13 fucking years, that has been instructing and teaching breaching mechanisms for five years straight and has eaten more charges than any of us could ever document. Those are the people that need help now and I think when we get on the outside and we realize that there's great innovation, there's great resources out there, but it's how do we get it to the people that need it today? How do we make a difference?
Speaker 1:That's the part that really fucking lights a fire in my ass. Try to bring people such as yourself that have that dual hat perspective. You were there and now you're on the outside.
Speaker 2:Yeah well, I want to go back to what you said about the private sector. I want to push back on the outside. Yeah Well, I want to go back. I want to go back to what you said about the private sector. I want to push back on that idea, like I do think it is the private sector that's going to bring innovation into the space. Anytime you're dealing with a federal institution, you're dealing with the DOD, the VA, you are talking about a battleship. That battleship does not like to turn quickly. Yes, and it is also not terribly, especially when we're talking about the VA. It's not terribly incentivized to turn quickly. So I think the solution to this especially on just on the topic of treating TBI more effectively there are already avenues to get private sector into the DoD. It's called the Small Business Innovation Research Grant Program, the CBER program. I've done a number of them, but what we need to do is programmatically roll more of these out with strategic RFPs to the private sector for the purpose of innovating in this space.
Speaker 2:Because, honestly, man, I've been doing this for almost a decade now and treating a traumatic brain injury is not that hard. Healing the brain is not that hard. You can do it. I've done it myself. I've done it for hundreds of people. Now you have to get back to first principles, and those first principles are one traumatic brain injury is a hypoxic injury. You have, your cells are not able to get oxygen because of inflammation and a couple other factors, and when those cells cannot get oxygen, they switch over from what's called cellular respiration over to anaerobic glycolysis. That's how cancer cells make energy. It creates a lot of inflammation in the brain, further shunts off blood flow in the brain, further shunts off blood flow and if you cannot restore the ability of a cell to get oxygen, it will continue to operate suboptimally. I'm sure you've had people on here that have talked about hyperbaric oxygen therapy.
Speaker 1:Dr Gordon, again, I feel like I'ma broken record at this point I'm always talking about. He's the first person that talked about neural inflammation, that talked about exactly what you just said. Other people are going to tell you you're not going to be able to get X or Y back, but I'm telling you there is so much out there that can help you on this journey.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, and that's the main message that people need to understand is that there is hope, and hope really comes from understanding, understanding that this is an and hope really comes from understanding, understanding that this is an inflammatory process in the brain that is not allowing you to heal. Yeah, and once you take that inflammation down and you give your brain the resources that it needs to heal, it's going to take care of it there. It's going to take care of it itself, and that comes down to having proper nutrition, like the ketogenic diet is very, very helpful in this process of healing TBI making sure that, like your vitamins, all of the different micronutrients that you need in your body are being supplemented, so you have everything there. And then getting that oxygen into your blood plasma using hyperbaric oxygen therapy to help your brain heal and rewire. Because anytime we're talking about healing, we need to understand that healing and rewiring the brain is an incredibly energy intensive process. Your lungs can only take in so much oxygen at regular pressure with room air. We need to supplement that process. Once you do, you can get leaps and bounds further so fast. If you do it long enough, if you stick with it, you can keep those gains.
Speaker 2:The studies out of Israel are pretty clear. They're way, way farther ahead of us on the hyperbaric medicine side of the house. They're doing 60 to 80 dives and their guys are coming away not only good to go, but they're staying that way and that's what we're seeing as well. You just have to take the time, have the discipline to go. Okay, cool, this healing thing is a process.
Speaker 2:Just like if I broke my arm, I would stick it in a splint. Yeah, otherwise, if I'm dicking around and you know I've got a compound fracture and I'm trying to, you know, interact with the world at the same level with that injury, I'm going to make it worse. Yes, same with a brain injury. You have to, you know, identify, identify your strategy, and the strategy that we found very effective is the use of ketamine infusion therapy combined with transcranial magnetic stimulation, combined with hyperbaric oxygen therapy. You bring that and proper nutrition, some exercise, you know, into the fold and boom, I now have a magic potion that will heal your brain. The only thing is you're going to have to sip on this son of a bitch for 60 to 80 days in a row, and then the nice part is, you're good.
Speaker 1:But that's that's. That's a key to though A lot of people are advocating and they're throwing these things out in the sphere you need to do ketamine, you need to do HBOT, and they're saying doing all these things, but they never talk about what really works is what you just said bringing these modalities to bear together together. That's the important things to take away. You're not going to get the same, I'm sure. Yes, it'll help, but you're talking about diminished return, Like if, if you really want the biggest impact, just like when you go to a treatment center, it's far better when you have a collaborative team addressing the patient versus going on one appointment here on Tuesday and then maybe months later you go to another appointment for another doctor, bringing all the resources to bear at one place and, yeah, seems like a long time, but what's more important, Like healing and being able to stay on that journey or being frustrated that you have to go to this facility for a couple more times.
Speaker 2:Well, I think it's. I think that's a very like cogent point. It seems like a long time, but when you really look back peripherally, like two months of concerted effort is not a long time. Yeah, it just seems like a long time. Looking forward, looking back, you're like, oh shit, that was a, that was a speck of dust, even in my year.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so you know, anytime we're talking about biology, though we're talking anytime we're talking about building a human, we are talking about building habits, we're talking about taking time. Hey, you can, you can go have the craziest workout of your life and no matter what you do, that's not going to build muscle, that's not going to make you bigger, that's not going to give you a six pack. It's going to the gym every day that gets you that result. And you know I just challenge people because I hear this all the time. You know, oh, I don't have time, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, or I don't have time, or you know, say, well, I can't afford to take that time off work. And I was like, actually you can't afford not to take that time. Because you know what happens in your brain If you don't take the time, the time your, your brain, builds up this detritus, all this inflammation, all of these cells making energy in a, in um, in a non sorry, I'm gonna let me restart that all of these cells making energy in a dirty fashion, through anaerobic glycolysis. That causes cellular, the detritus level in your brain, in your intracellular space, to build up, and you know what happens when that happens. Not only does it cause more inflammation, but it causes a toxic brain injury that then kills your neurons slowly. So that's why you'll see someone.
Speaker 2:Let's just talk about this from a level of functionality perspective. You know someone starts up here on their level of functionality and then they get hit. You know they get, they get blown up, they, they see a significant drop in their functionality and then they get better. Like they kind of plateau right about here. They've lost some serious core functionality. Might be having headaches now, um, inability to focus, brain fog, but like they're, they're functional, what we would call functional. And then it's boom, plateau, plateau, plateau. This lasts for 10, 20 years and then all of a sudden it's boom, plateau, plateau, plateau. This lasts for 10, 20 years and then all of a sudden it's like falling off a cliff and they die of dementia. Yep, and you know why. It's because of that process.
Speaker 2:So to someone who says I don't have the time or I can't invest whatever, for whatever reason, you are making it much harder to heal your brain because you're allowing this injury to compound. This is just like sticking money in the bank, but this is not the bank you want your funds in. And these issues on a cellular level are compounding and compounding, and compounding until eventually you get dementia and die. So, no, you don't have time to fuck around, and that's one of the reasons I get so frustrated with the medical establishment to fuck around. And that's one of the reasons I get so frustrated with the medical establishment. Because, look, and I, you know, I this is kind of my tagline when we talk about, when we talk about treating tbi. If you are, if you are a physician, a program or what have you, and you are not affecting the underlying neurobiology of the issue of traumatic brain injury, you are wasting the patient's fucking time. Shame on you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, because you don't have time. It's getting worse every day. If I put $100 in a bank account and I was using that $100 to compound, I want that time. This is the opposite of that. That is compounding in the negative. Yeah, like I want that time. This is the opposite of that, that is, compounding in the negative. Yeah, and as that debt builds up, that compounding debt, you, you are just gonna slide and slide and slide until it gets too bad, too bad to deal with and you're either gonna break or or you're gonna harm yourself or somebody else. We, we've seen it time and time again. So, no, you don't have time. The time is now to step up and fix the damn problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and let's go back real quick. And why specifically? How do these modalities work off each other and help lead to greater healing? And then why do they work so well together? That's what I really want to know.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So let's just so. I'm going to talk about, you know, four main things here. So first one, ketamine, a second one, transcranial magnetic stimulation, hyperbaric oxygen therapy and culturally competent talk therapy. So I think this works better if we talk about this in kind of a metaphor. So imagine that we're trying to build a house. If you are in a bad spot and you're trying to build this house, build a positive mental health outcome, you are coming up to your open lot with a couple of boards, some nails and a hammer. Now, if I go try to build that house on my own, I've got a pretty decent chance of building a rickety-ass shack that's going to blow over the first time there's a storm, you know, bring you back to zero. So if you use let's just start with therapy Therapy provides a blueprint for how we can think about and conceptualize the world. So therapy gives you this blueprint, but at the end of the day, you still got to build the damn house and all you've got are these boards and these nails, and that's one of the reasons that it takes so long, just with talk therapy, to get anywhere.
Speaker 2:There's also, you know, the inflammatory cascade that's going on the cells that we have to deal with Now when you use these other modalities, and we'll start with ketamine. Ketamine is a disassociative anesthetic. It downregulates inflammation in the brain, which is one of the primary issues that we have whenever we're talking about depression, anxiety, ptsd or TBI is that inflammatory cascade? So it downregulates inflammation. It upregulates neuroplasticity, so it helps your brain cells branch out and create new connections, which is what we want. Everything we do in mental health centers around one key principle and that's rewiring the brain. We all just have different ways of doing it. So ketamine sets the stage. We take someone who's got serious inflammation in their brain and boom, we take that temperature down.
Speaker 2:So a great example post-concussive migraine. Someone comes in with post-concussive migraines like, hey, I'm having headaches every day. We give them a couple of ketamine infusions. All of a sudden the pain's gone and the brain fog starts to lift. They get that immediate relief and you know, all of a sudden, you know they're. They're seeing the world through a different lens after 10 years of being in pain all the time. So one of the that's one of the reasons we start with ketamine. Ketamine is also it's got about a 75 to 80% response rate, excuse me for for depression, especially for depression also has about a 67% response rate for PTSD, and that number is also kind of rolled in with the anxiety. So we have a highly effective treatment here.
Speaker 2:But ketamine is a bridging therapy. It doesn't last for that long, even if you you do like six ketamine infusions. You're looking at six to ten weeks of you know that those symptoms being, you know, either gone completely or or brought down to a significant level or a level that's uh, you know, much more manageable. So that gives us a foundation we can take that, take that temperature down, get that person into a positive state of being, and then the second thing we're going to do is get them into hyperbaric oxygen therapy. So we've talked about that at length already. You know we're.
Speaker 2:For anybody who's not familiar with what HBOT is, just real quick. So you get in, you get into this chamber, the chamber sealed, we increase the pressure in the chamber. You're breathing in concentrated oxygen while you're at that pressure. What that does is it hyper oxygenates your blood plasma. So instead of like relying on this red blood cell to carry oxygen to your tissue, I am now hyper oxygenating the liquid that this rides on so it's able to bathe the brain in oxygen.
Speaker 2:Because, again going back to this point of energy healing and rewiring the brain is an incredibly energy intensive process. We are asking these cells to grow. Growth requires energy and this allows us to create more energy. When we combine that with transcranial magnetic stimulation and what TMS is, it's an MRI coil we place on your head in a certain spot, depending on what we're treating, and we create a magnetic field under the surface of the scalp. So we're creating a magnetic field inside your brain tissue and that magnetic field tricks neurons into clustering more densely in a network. Why is that important?
Speaker 2:If we were to look at the brain of someone who has post-traumatic stress disorder and we could see how it's firing, what you would see is an underactive prefrontal cortex, underactive executive functioning center and an overactive amygdala. Why does that matter? Our brains are designed. Our prefrontal cortex, one of its primary jobs, is to tell the rest of our brain our emotional centers, which are an older and more densely populated part of our brain from a neuron perspective. Our executive functioning center is there to tell the rest of our brain. From a neuron perspective, our executive functioning center is there to tell the rest of our brain to shut the hell up, hey, hey, don't fly into a rage because that guy cut you off. It's okay, everyone's in a hurry and you're going to be fine. That's your executive functioning center. So when that gets downregulated, your amygdala that mammalian part of the brain is like no fuck that guy fly into into a rage. So when we're using, when we're using TMS, we're able to upregulate that executive functioning center.
Speaker 2:So now we've got, we've got all these pieces together. So you know, we've got the, we've got the materials and we're supplying the raw materials. Here we come to the table. We've, we've got our, our therapy, we've got our blueprint. So, okay, cool, now we know where we're going and using these different tools. Now, instead of just a hammer and nails, I have power tools, you know, and if you're working with all these in concert, I've got a contracting company that's helping me build this house. And not only can we build it, we can build it faster and we can build it sturdier than if we just, you know, went from that first example and used our hands and these boards alone.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's a perfect analogy. That resonates with the 11 Bravo in me.
Speaker 2:You know what I'm going to have to come up If I really want to talk to your 11 Bravo side. I should come up with a story about a mop.
Speaker 1:Mop and broom. Mop and broom. Mopping the motor pool in the rain oh man, oh god, those are the days dude, oh my god. But we don't have, like you know, we said earlier, we don't have this knowledge when we're getting out or what we're in, like, what brought you into the space, like when you went through your transition, what was this thing that was inside you that said, hey, start moving towards this, this path.
Speaker 2:It was anger, anger and frustration, just just black coffee. No, no, I'm a foofy coffee guy. I love it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know hey, the kids need to think that we all drink black coffee you know I don't want to, I don't have children, so that means I don't have to lie to them. Uh, yeah, man, it was. It was just being pissed off, like just because here's the thing, like we, we have an amazing set of people here, like when we're, when we're talking about veterans. These are people who have raised their right hand, they volunteered to be here and the cool thing about being in the military whether it's, you know, navy, air Force, army, marines, you know you could even throw the Coast Guard in there if you feel, if you're feeling, you know, froggy.
Speaker 2:But veterans have selfless service, duty, loyalty, honor, courage. You get force-fed it, you get it grafted onto your skeletal structure. If you want it or not, it doesn't matter. That drill sergeant is there screaming in your face, just implanting all of those values into you, and those don't stop when you get out. So we have this entire population who has these really, really important character traits grafted onto their skeletal structure and they're getting out into a situation where they're losing community, they're losing their sense of self, they're being driven towards mental health and suicide, and it is such a waste. I can't tell you how many awesome human beings awesome fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands, wives. I personally know that we have lost to suicide for shit that we can treat now, and it pisses me off Not that these people are taking their lives they're in a state of despair, of course they are but that we're not moving fast enough.
Speaker 1:So how I got here was just being sick and tired of seeing good people die for shit that we can fix now yeah, that's a frustration that's felt by so many of us these days and it really takes like the ability to take a knee, refocus and understand that, like did, we can all serve and continue to serve. Like in what greater way than to find work in this space? Find a way to make your next mission being of service to our community. Now where we can do that and I think more of us are starting to find that, whether it's whether it's sitting down and providing somebody with the resources through a podcast or by getting your hands dirty and jumping into this field, like you are, and I kind of want to pivot and focus into your endeavors now. Like, tell us about your company organization.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so my company is called Mind Spa. We're an outpatient clinic here in the Denver area. We do all the things I talked about. So, from medication management to culturally competent talk therapy, ketamine infusion therapy, transcranial magnetic stimulation and hyperbaric oxygen therapy all into a singular treatment protocol so that veterans, first responders and also the general public who has medical insurance can get access to more effective care.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, man Sam, I can't thank you enough for being here. It is absolutely invigorating to see somebody else from our community not just being happy with the cards are being dealt or just settling on just letting somebody else bring innovation in this space, but to really be paving the way and really going into the space and making so much headway. So thank you for being here today. If we want to connect with you, if we want to be able to become a patient and get some help, where can we go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so check us out, Mind mindspoddenvercom. I've also got another. You know another program that I helped found called Patriot Power Up at Idaho patriotpowerupcom. Also check me out on LinkedIn. Sam J Peterson will pop right up. It's a. It's got a headshot that makes me look well, you know, way better looking than I actually am, and those are the best spots to catch us at. If you're interested in treatment, check out one of those websites. We have programs both for active duty folks and for veterans and we're working to expand those all the time so we can serve more of our people who are struggling.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, brother. Again, thank you for being here with us. Everybody, go ahead and pause or just wait till this episode's over and go to the episode description and hit up Sam and check him out on LinkedIn. Appreciate you all for tuning in Again. Sam, I can't wait to have you back on and we're going to bring you on Broken Brains. It's a no brainer man Like you're somebody that unintended.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly, we need more. We need more stories like this man. I think the the ability to connect your service and your passion into this mission, dude, it's. It's something that inspires me and I know it's going to inspire others. So, to all you tuning in, thank you for being here, Thank you for checking this out, Season seven.
Speaker 1:Do us a favor. Head on over to Apple Podcasts. Leave us a positive review, Give us a rating and subscribe to our social media and all our channels. Greatly appreciate it. And, as always, please take care of each other. We'll see you all next time. Till then, take care. Thanks for tuning in and don't forget to like, follow, share, subscribe and review us on your favorite podcast platform. If you want to support us, head on over to buymeacoffeecom, forward slash SecHawk podcast and buy us a coffee. Connect with us on Instagram X or TikTok and share your thoughts or questions about today's episode. You can also visit securityhawkcom for exclusive content, resources and updates. And remember we get through this together. If you're still listening, the episode's over. Yeah, there's no more Tune in tomorrow or next week.
