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!
Healing TBI & PTSD with HBOT: Green Beret Wren Murray on Recovery & Revival
What happens when a Green Beret turns patient, entrepreneur, and healing advocate?
In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with Wren Murray, former Special Forces operator and founder of Revival Hyperbarics, to explore how Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT) is transforming recovery for veterans suffering from TBI, PTSD, and Lyme Disease.
Wren opens up about his personal battle with brain trauma and how HBOT became a life-changing solution. From being a struggling patient to launching a cutting-edge wellness clinic, Wren shares the emotional, physical, and entrepreneurial journey that led him to help others in their fight for healing.
Together, Deny and Wren break down:
- The science behind HBOT and how it aids in cellular repair, brain health, and emotional recovery
- The unique challenges veterans face after service, especially when dealing with invisible wounds
- Success stories of patients treated at Revival Hyperbarics
- The stigma around mental health, especially in high-performing communities like Special Forces
- The importance of advocacy, community support, and holistic wellness in long-term recovery
This episode is a must-listen for veterans, families, caregivers, and anyone looking to understand cutting-edge treatments for brain injury and emotional trauma.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Revival Hyperbarics and Military Background
03:03 The Journey from Patient to Advocate
06:04 Transitioning to Entrepreneurship
08:51 Navigating the Challenges of Starting a Business
12:13 Understanding Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
14:57 Exploring HBOT for Lyme Disease and Other Conditions
18:00 The Need for Research and Awareness
20:53 Success Stories and Treatment Outcomes
24:52 The Science of Cellular Replication and Health
27:20 Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy: Mechanisms and Benefits
29:50 Advocacy and Community Support in Healing
31:41 Personal Journeys: Healing Through Hyperbarics
35:53 The Importance of Emotional Connection in Recovery
39:21 Breaking the Stigma: Asking for Help
42:15 Resources and Support for Veterans
46:50 The Broader Impact of Brain Injuries and Healing
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LinkedIn: Deny Caballero
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LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/wren-murray-941b051a0/
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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, denny Caballero. Schedule Ren Murray from Revival Hyperbarics. Welcome, brother, how you doing Doing good. How you doing Doing good, man? It's, yeah, all day, every day, busy endeavor over here at Security Hall, but I am excited to have you on today, man. Not that any other guest isn't exciting, but it's great to have another Green Beret that's out here changing the lives of our soft brothers and sisters. Because, dude, it's nothing short of amazing being able to see somebody from the community achieving great success and something that also supports us. So today, my man, we're going to dive into your story, all of it, from beginning to end, dude awesome, awesome, look forward to it.
Speaker 2:For sure you have me on here yeah, man.
Speaker 1:So, um, before we start with the story of revival hyperbarics, let's uh take us back to the the beginnings of uh, your military history, where it all started oh yeah.
Speaker 2:So got in in 2009. I was was an Intel guy. I was doing human, nice Chinese linguist. Got attached to the third group, decided I wanted to go switch over. Became a Charlie and JTAG JTAG instructor Damn, did another rotation there and kind of got injured during that last deployment, which is kind of what led me to.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he was kind of doing this and helping people out dude and uh, if you know what, what happened and what was kind of like that awakening moment of like, uh, I need something else, because a lot of people have this misconception that when we get hurt, it's like you have, we have great resources, we do, but it's not as informed as people often think. They think that it's like, oh man, we're going to send you to every resource available yeah, it's it.
Speaker 2:It seems like there's, you know, some good resources out there and it seems like hyperbarics has been kind of this hidden thing that a lot of these non-profits have been doing for years and years and years. But uh, so trying to integrate that into the, into the community and making it awareness, uh, it's difficult but I think we're making making progress. Talked a lot of group commanders groups aren't majors kind of letting them know that resources available. Uh, we take care of active duty guys, we take care of retired guys.
Speaker 2:So it was, you know, with me going through it, realizing the benefit. It was kind of like there's got to be more people like me, you know, that need this, need this in their life, you know, because everything gets affected with the tbi, everything gets affected ptsd. It's like you, your performance, your families, you know kind of your daily life, your friends, and so that's when I realized like I kind of felt guilty for feeling so good after I went through and then decided, you know, I needed to give a good foot forward and try to try to do this and knock it out.
Speaker 1:So yeah, I have to imagine, though, like going through getting injured and finally getting the treatment that works, and having that moment of like oh shit, like this is changing the way like I'm living my life, Like how did you go from being a patient, being an advocate, and then saying you know what? I'm going to start my own business.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. So towards the end of the treatment, the aha moment for me was I was driving up Galena Pass in Sun Valley, phil Rainey with their Sun Valley Hyperbaric Science and Vet Program. So Mission 43 with Albertson foundation group, ray foundation, paid for me to go up there do it. So towards the end of my treatments I was driving up glee to pass. I did every morning because it's just beautiful up there in the sattus and then I was watching the sunrise and I started bawling and I was like oh, like holy shit, like I'm back. You know, like felt it's kind of like I've been a shell of a person and it felt like someone grabbed my hair, like lifted me my head up out of water after I've been suffocating, like living in a world of gray, you know, yeah, and then so kind of going forward, like feeling so good and, uh, man, everything changed.
Speaker 2:so it was, everything was going smooth with doing some contract work, um, but then I just felt like, man, there's got to be more people and that's that's kind of the. Everything was going smooth with doing some contract work, um, but then I just felt like, man, there's gotta be more people, and that's that's kind of the. It was probably a couple of months, six months after I got treatment where I was, just before I go to bed every day, I'm like I need to do this, I need to do this, and finally just took that leap. Took that leap to go for it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, to go for it, yeah, yeah, I can't believe you went into contracting after oh, it's a trap. It's a trap. It seems to be a pitfall that so many of our guys uh go into. I mean it's it's utilizing the skill sets that we have, it's utilizing our background and even if we were coming off of injuries, uh, it's easy money for. It's almost like the default thing. Is that how you felt going into it?
Speaker 2:yeah it was, it was a, it was a good gig. So, being like an intel guy prior, um kind of worked some programs where I did a lot of like digital forensics. So I kind of you know, kind of take down, take down some labs that shouldn't have been doing what they're doing to kind of help it out there, and so it's all. It's all stateside, but it is. It's an easy button to like let's just go contract and get by, yeah, so it's, it's kind of a yeah, it's an easy, it's an easy button to take care of what needs to happen now but it's a trap, yeah yeah, and you know the money's good, the the.
Speaker 1:The one thing we're always looking for is that financial security, and I have to imagine, like making that pivot into the entrepreneurial space, like how did that planning go, where you're like, okay, I'm gonna do a few more, few more months here as a contractor, or was it just like ripped a band-aid off and like leap?
Speaker 2:well actually. So I was doing some uh executive consulting for like a blockchain company here in utah no shit, yeah, so it's kind of like a all-purpose person.
Speaker 2:Yeah, for those guys and uh, super good crew of dudes over there. They took care of me really well and it was kind of it was nice having that that around while doing this to have a little bit of, you know, security, yeah, while you're just putting everything into this. So, but that's, yeah, it's all hands on deck trying to seems like open up your own business. You know, especially dealing with regulations or rules and inspections.
Speaker 1:Dude I can't even imagine. And inspections and dude, I can't even imagine. Like what was like. We now have so many different areas and streams of information where we can get informed and all this care, but it's surface level right. It's not giving you the the nitty the gritty breakdown as how to like go about utilizing something like hbot, how to like get the insurance like how did you start this process of like okay, I gotta get, I gotta get spun up on this, I gotta get. I gotta make sure I am not liable for somebody getting injured oh yeah, I think I think you should have to weaponize.
Speaker 2:You should have to weaponize your autism yes, it's just lock yourself in the basement, get out all the law books you need all the nfpas and just start. Just start grinding at it. Yeah, grinding at all the sections you know between we have a 1500 gallon liquid cryo tank. Outside of liquid oxygen. It's like those rules are different than like compressed to, gas to, and it seems like it's one of those things Nobody cares as much as you do, so like no one's going to go do the work for you, and so it was. The only option was to try to figure it out and make sure we're good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, kind of go through. I can only imagine.
Speaker 2:Yeah, the space it was, I mean it was a good experience for sure. Yeah, I definitely learned, learned a ton. So if I ever need multiple like duplicate this effort, it'll be so much easier. Kind of knowing, knowing how it works, what they're looking for. You know things to do, not to do. Yeah, it's like the next time I'll be way more efficient.
Speaker 1:How long did it take to get it off the ground to where you had like the ability to finally start, like having people come in?
Speaker 2:Between the SBA, sba finding a lease and construction probably, I'll say, around a year and a half.
Speaker 1:Really.
Speaker 2:Yeah, probably a year and a half.
Speaker 1:That's pretty fast. That's a quick turnaround.
Speaker 2:I was trying to do everything as fast as possible.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Because the SBA. I feel like if you just wait till another day, that will just keep happening forever. There's never a good time to be stressed and busy and work hard. There's no magic time.
Speaker 1:Just like you know what's the best time to do anything.
Speaker 2:Well, you know, now's the time. Probably it's like, yeah, that's time to have a baby. It's never gonna be perfect, it's never gonna. You know, it's gonna suck one way or another. So I'll just rip the band-aid off and just go for it yeah, and it's, it's.
Speaker 1:I have to imagine it's one thing for us to like in it from every time, every every time I've talked to, somebody has this great idea, this great endeavor. It's like that itching or that gnawing in the back of the head and we're just like really quick to dive into something, but we, we don't highlight the other, the other half of the equation, when it comes to like making the stuff happen. That's oftentimes our spouse. What was it like bringing that up to your wife and being like hey, like I really want to do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well. So she knew I really wanted to do it and I was already in the process of going for it and so. But so we're on our honeymoon and we're on our way back and we're in Dallas and her sister gets in a car wreck.
Speaker 1:Oh shit.
Speaker 2:And so she's developing. She developed a stutter and the stutter sounded exactly like my team leader. So after the blast, like he would just stutter his way through a conversation, you know, start happening like five days after and just went downhill. You know, spent a year in Walter Reed, you know. So it never went away for him. And then he's the one that actually called me speaking full sentences and the ass told me hey, rin, you need to do this like. I got it lined out. There's this sources. So it's with jenny, you know we got.
Speaker 2:So we got delayed in houston, you know, delayed houston today and then, and then the stutter happened and I'm like we're in ari, that's why we got delayed. There's something happening. So, uh, dr Borsan, down in Arizona, it definitely helped us out. And uh, you know, they want to. People want to go to the Mayo Clinic, they want to go do speech therapy, they want to go do. This is what they're going to tell you when you get a brain injury. And I had to go show up like a crazy person, like talking about this random technology or this random thing, I'm like, no, no, no, we're not going anywhere like that. All they're gonna do at the end of the road is tell you you have brain injury and throw prescriptions at you. Yeah, like, let's go do this.
Speaker 2:So after dive number seven, like her stutter gone, wow, and so with jenny, it got a lot of the buy-in so it drove her to try to help me more. So it all kind of, you know, terrible that it happened, but kind of like worked out to really give jenny the understanding she's super supportive, she's awesome, yeah, but uh, really gave her the understanding of what this means to me and like how it works and how it helps, because it was so personal to her. You know her sister's like the best friend, yeah, and so getting her back, she has three kids and uh, so that was a awesome experience. You know, again, not good to have a car wreck, but good experience to go through with her family. Kind of see what this is about and you know, seeing what it looks like on their side. Yeah, kind of like giving them, letting them know the perspective of what could have happened. You know, if someone's not getting treated, you know it changes your personality completely.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it's crazy that and you hit on it right when you go to the treatment centers, the first thing for speech-related issues is speech pathologists to go through exercises and it's sometimes treated like a check the box situation oh, you have a tpi, we're going to make sure you go through speech pathology, we're going to do soft palate issues and work through all that. And it's like dude, I don't, I don't have issues swallowing, I don't have issues with, uh, you know, like the forming of the speech. It's deeper than that and I think HBOT still doesn't get a lot of recognition in certain programs. It's almost treated like well, we're still trying to understand it. I'm like, look like there's lots of people are walking around from our soft community that are now functioning and back to a normal life because of this, and I think it's important to have this like this conversation, be able to discuss it.
Speaker 1:It's not just a myth, it's not just, you know, this woo stuff that's going on, like real change occurs, like we're now just starting to talk about neural inflammation as the issue, the culprit behind it and I mean just recently we had the 60 minute report on blast exposure and what's happening to our guys uh, because we have this idea that it's only in combat, that it's only in combat. We completely ignore the exposure and training and like this is something that we could have at swick. We could literally have this at swick to treat our guys yeah, and it would be you.
Speaker 2:You know incredible resources, so I'm working with some local SWAT teams trying to get in with them. You know their demo teams. Yes, hey, here's something even if you're whatever you're doing clearing rooms and hit your head on a concrete, you know, like, whatever it is, if you treat it ahead of time, like the amount of treatments you need is significantly less. Yeah, you're waiting years, you know you could, to prevent the injury, prevent the fall out of your family, prevent the anger, prevent you, not even to deal with all those issues.
Speaker 2:It's like, so if and that's the goal, if I can find I'm trying to work I've talked to, you know, group commanders, to. You know I got an email up to the first to bit commander, you know, asking how, how does TBI, how does HBOT help with TBI. So there's there's kind of seeing the interest and it's trying to just force my way into whoever will listen to me. You know absolutely babble, babble on the benefits and how this works and, like just became a huge, huge passion, you know there's let's dive into that how somebody walks into the front doors of revival hyperbarics.
Speaker 1:What is the protocol? How do you assess and how do you treat that, that patient?
Speaker 2:so it varies. It varies depending on what we're treating, you know. So Lyme disease would be, you know, a completely different protocol than a TBI, which would be completely different than long COVID. So it's all very tailored to what we're treating. How many guys do they need? Because it's kind of more or less, I'd rather people save money and get what they want than just throw big numbers at them and hold them accountable. Numbers at them and hold them. Hold them accountable, yeah, it's, it's, uh, because really getting the results are are the most important thing to me. That, rather than making this a subscription-based yeah, you know what type of thing dude, you're blowing my mind.
Speaker 1:I didn't have, I had no idea that, uh, this could be used for things like lyme disease, like we're gonna. Let's segue into that. We'll come back to the blast exposure. How did, how did we find out that this is something that could help, uh, people suffering from lyme disease, which is, like it's one of those rare um diseases that affects humans in such in vastly different ways and it's like borderline crippling for the rest of your life. Like it is fucking insane. What's happened to some of the people that I've known that have become afflicted by it from changes like radical changes in anything they can eat joint issues, pain like it's insane.
Speaker 2:What lyme disease does yeah, yeah, it definitely wreaks havoc. So if someone comes in saying I have like fibromyalgia, joint pain, you know, like arthritis, you know, my first question would be like, have you been tested for lyme? You know, like just just to see if that's what we're treating? Because the protocols are completely different with lime really than anything else, because instead of kind of gradually building up to pressure, making sure everybody's good, you just need to hit it hard, because what you're doing is with, with, with every atmosphere you go down, you're reducing kind of like the, the molecule and how close they're allowed to be together in half. And so you know now, your 12 car highway, your two car highways, a 12 car highway, and your fibers are shrinking.
Speaker 2:You're able to get a lot of oxygen around, kind of penetrating everywhere, and the deeper you go, the more dense tissue you can penetrate. And so, with, with Lyme disease it's a shape shifter. It's kind of a little shapeshifter and then almost a similar like dog syphilis. But when you go down to three atmospheres, you're getting a ton of oxygen, but you want to kill as many as you can, as fast as you can, and then eventually they'll get wise to it and encapsulate themselves with protein and go dormant.
Speaker 2:Oh shit protein in the dormant, oh shit. So it's trying to figure out like how many, how much? How many dives do you need to not never have it ever come back? It stayed dormant. So still kind of a still kind of trial and error, that one like we'll hit it hard and get them done, but you're trying to figure out like hey, once every other week, once a month, what's the minimum amount we can do to keep this lyme disease from bothering you damn you, you're blowing my mind dude.
Speaker 2:That is insane, it's wild, not to try to make this sound like the magic bullet, but it's super awesome, like all the different things that can treat. You know treating a five-year-old with kidney failure. You know, doctor says she's going to get a kidney transplant and she calls me and you know we treat her. And she's going to get a kidney transplant. And she calls me and we treat her and she's at home now she doesn't have any kidney, new kidney to even cancers. They used to think that hyperbarics was just going to increase the tumor, but really tumors are inherently hypoxic. So you need to get, you know, your white white blood cells, t cells, in there, and this, this is what can help you do that.
Speaker 1:It's. It's insane that we don't have more people writing and doing studies on this. Like there's a lot of people that in the peer reviewed community, which it's not everything Like. So one thing that really pissed me off we we harp about peer reviewed studies and research. So one thing that really pissed me off we harp about peer reviewed studies and research, but within that research pool, within those protected and almost like sacred cow communities, some of those research researchers and the studies are conducting are full of shit because they're paid for by certain industries and by certain individuals.
Speaker 1:So, like you have to be so, you have to scrutinize even further down. Have to be so, you have to scrutinize even further down. But I feel like we don't have enough people that are not looking at this through a lens of like hey, let's just not be biased, let's just look at this medicine, look at what it's doing, be objective and be able to produce like a research that can actually like say like hey, we've measured this, we have data that shows that there's truth and there's efficacy in this treatment. I'm just blown away. Have you had anybody from local college or local community that's come in and been wanting to be able to say, hey, let's partner up for a research study.
Speaker 2:The crazy thing is, if you start digging, then there's a ton of research that never goes anywhere. Yeah, there's. There's a ton of research that never goes anywhere, yeah. So yeah, if, like, I have a white paper on different studies done for cancer like goes over all the studies that have been done for different, uh, anti-fungals, to, you know, nutrition, to diet, to keto, to HBOT, and they're all cited studies, and so they're out there, it just seems like nobody really wants to listen.
Speaker 2:It seems like it's, as much as I don't want to believe it. It just seems like if you could keep somebody on a monthly subscription, you know, and keep coming back, you know that's what they're looking for, whereas here, you know we're probably know that's what that's what they're looking for, whereas here it's, you know we're putting a solution like I haven't treated any veterans that haven't quit all their prescriptions and they're usually all done by a 10th dive. Damn, and because, like it also helps you know you're not going to withdraw because you're really detoxing so hard and resetting yourself in here you can, it's a perfect time to pull off of all that stuff, if that's we know what, something someone's willing to do.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's, that's something that I think all of us are starting to push back against the uh, the hyper uh, in rapid diagnosis and then you're constantly just fed with pills, just prescription, just everything through the va is nothing but a damn prescription-based model where it's like fuck, dude, like we're now starting to see like a little bit of like their holistic approach to it, like hey, like offering some yoga and some meditation stuff, but it's still like very small and it's not done at every va, it's just constantly.
Speaker 1:Like every, every veteran has that same uh story of receiving their monthly box or boxes or going to the VA and picking up their bags of fucking pills. And it's like fuck, dude, like nobody stops to think and I saw it too You'll be prescribed multiple medications and they all have to a varying degree, have to a varying degree. They have results that are negated by the other pills that you're taking, or some of them have side effects that are now, you know, conflicting with the other pills you're taking. So it's fuck, it doesn't make sense. Like, oh wait, if I'm going in and I was like a veteran goes in he's like, hey, I'm suicidal. It's like, okay, we'll give you this, but then some of the side effects are like not warning may increase suicidal ideation. It's like what the fuck are you doing?
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, and then you're going to call the suicide hotline and they're calling you back a couple of weeks later you know, yeah, yeah, being put on hold through a.
Speaker 1:What is the fuck? What's the name of the? Uh, the one source, the military one source. When they put you on hold, it's like fuck, this is insane, like we have. We have a crisis and here we have something that can help. And to take it back to the, the TBI, with those protocols like how, what is the success rate and what are you seeing when guys are coming in and how long does it take for them to have that, that shift in what they're presenting as issues?
Speaker 2:Um, so it kind of depends on how far away and how severe the injury is. You know, but I haven't. I haven't treated anybody with TBI that hasn't been happy with the results. So it's. But it seems like the, the people that are willing to develop, to devote the time you are in a place, to want to get better. You know they're, they're going to do the right things, they're going to, they're going to work out and eat and try to be healthy and devote their time. It seems like because no one's really willing to change unless the pain of your present is unbearable you know, and you've got to find that breaking point to where you know, know you're willing to sacrifice your time.
Speaker 2:So it's, it's a bunch of vets that we've treated. You know really well, all the vets we treated really needed, needed the help, you know, and they're wanting that change. It's like you know, we were in that mass count 17 and I've slowly almost got every single person on my team through no shit yeah, so it's it's a better ending to the story to me, you know, for than ending in a mass cow and you know everybody's off, yeah, doing whatever, just you know.
Speaker 2:And then we all had kind of similar symptoms. You know it's the, the emotion regulation, the dizziness, the sleep issues, the testosterone issues, cortisol issues, to empathy, you know, like emotions, emotions is a big one, yeah, it's like a lot of vets, let's say most people we treat. You know you start really seeing a curve right around 20, 20 to 25 dives, I would say, because right at 20, 20 dives consecutively, your stem cells go to roughly 800%. So the what, yeah. So there's really there's light years 20 dives consecutively, your stem cells go to roughly 800%. What, yeah. So the Israelis are light years ahead of us on this stuff. They have, you know, dr Afradi published the hypoxic paradox. He kind of talks about this stuff. He even goes to talking about doing 60 consecutive dives even lengthens the telomeres on your DNA.
Speaker 1:Oh shit.
Speaker 2:That's the marker. You look to determine it, like how your dna is aging yes, that is.
Speaker 1:That is insane. I want to pause on that. Telemeters, that's like when you replicate, that's the, the shoestring strands that kind of allows your, your, your cells to have a little bit of waste of. When you duplicate, when you recreate, like those telemeters are vital because the longer they are, the more you know. As you replicate they, you're not losing that vital data. When they're super short, you're going to lose a lot of that. That's where we get the aging. That's a little bit of that replication process where it gives you a buffer to have healthy, good continuation cells, which is something that they're now seeing within our demographic of guys, our soft community.
Speaker 2:That's completely fucked, oh yeah, yeah, are you saying we haven't made unhealthy choices and exposed ourselves to things we shouldn't have?
Speaker 1:no, telemeters are. They're just like that long. It's like that. That that data that we hate to call it's it's you know, it's, it's me. It's a buffer. Uh, best way I can explain it in in my layman uh, 18, bravo. What if somebody called it? Uh, recently, 180, bravo. Uh, knowledge is like that extra bit of data that it's afforded you and yourselves to like be able to cut off as it replicates and grows and as you get older, those telomeres get shorter and shorter, but being able to actually create and lengthen them like that is insane. That is insane. That is like that keeps you looking and feeling better for longer. Um, not that we're trying to be like that weird guy that wants to live forever. I forget his name. He's been on the news lately, so brian johnson.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, I think it takes like takes his kids yeah, I think he has a blood boy yeah I'm like, yeah, this is wild yeah but funny the jokes on us. He's lived forever yeah, we think, like we think he's nuttier than squirrel turds, but no jokes on us dude.
Speaker 1:I guarantee he does hyperbaric. I guarantee he does.
Speaker 2:Guarantee he does it's getting really big in the biohacking community. So, yeah, it's kind of randomly, because you know, traditionally hyperbarics is that they're in every hospital. Like these, peris are super popular in most hospitals, um, but they do wound care, so the only thing they'll actually cover is like diabetic lesions, radionucrosis, crushed wounds, uh, necrotizing yeah necrotizing wounds, that you know, all sorts of diabetes things, but for brain health they don't want to touch it.
Speaker 2:So hopefully, hopefully, eventually we'll get there. Because it seems to me like if you so, the argument to them would be you know, like? So first, first I'll explain kind of the mechanism. So when you go down to depth, say you're at 1200% oxygen saturation and when you come back up your body will think it's suffocating. So start producing your vascular growth factor, all these growth factors, because it's called the HIF-1 response, so hypoxic induced factor. So with that factor you can actually rego capillaries, you can get blood flow back to parts of your brain, a limb, so you can create new capillaries and find those you know, identify the hypoxic area and make capillaries to bypass those, those places to get get activity of blood flow back there. So if you do a nuclear spec scan on someone's brain, after 40 dives you can see the shift of blood flow and it's permanent because you created new pathways so it and you know your neural, neural is, it can grow factor. You'll see you're kind of mate, rerouting your neural network, getting rid of that neural inflammation, Like cause you, you know your body keeps the score and it's. It's crazy.
Speaker 2:The way I think about PS, PTSD now is, you know, completely separate than than I? Is you know, completely separate than than they used to? Yes, um, but I forget. I was going on a tangent about explaining the science, but right before that I can't even remember anyway, you're good.
Speaker 1:Hey, it's uh, it's a tbi. This show's brought to you by tbi. We, uh, we segue in and we segue out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but the old wet brain yeah but to go back back to that earlier conversation we were having, it's remarkable to see individuals within the scientific community pick and choose where they apply this. And we do have some advocates, we do have some amazing advocates that are coming out and standing by and championing this. But we need more individuals within our veteran community to take the bold step forward and try it out for themselves. Because when you create not only when you heal somebody, but you create somebody that's willing to advocate for it. And we in our space, in our community, if something doesn't fucking work, we're going to, we're going to talk about it and we're going to share it. And we're going to say don't fucking work, we're going to talk about it and we're going to share it and we're going to say don't fucking do this. Whatever you do, don't fucking do it. But it works in the opposite way too. If something works for us, we're going to advocate for it, and we're seeing that with psilocybin, we're seeing that with all sorts of plant medicine and psychedelics. Everywhere, guys are willing to try it and then they're coming out of the woodwork and championing it. And yeah, podcast helps, blog op-eds, all that stuff's important because if we don't have the advocacy at the university community, at the doctor level, the advocacy at the grassroots and the veteran space is going to be just as powerful. That's why it's so important to have discussions like this, to show people that like, hey, you can find this within your local area or, if not in your local area, you can travel to one of these places. Because non-profit network is also very powerful. You have it, you have non-profits are willing to help you get there, to get the treatment that you deserve. So it's not, it's no longer a cost, you know, it's not a barrier to entry. Like, you can find ways to get access to care, and that's a beautiful thing is again, guys and gals are seeking it and they're seeing a change.
Speaker 1:When I was first going through my journey, I didn't hear shit about HBOT. I didn't see anybody. Now, just about every good nonprofit that's out there helping has a way to pay for and get people connected to it. So I think that's also something that we have to celebrate and be able to say like, hey, we might not have backing from fucking everybody, but the guys and gals are healing, they're speaking up and they're sharing it and it's remarkable dude people are sharing their stories of. I think it's sad to see how long people have suffered and being able to see the journey of certain individuals where they're like hey, I wasn't able to function, I wasn't able to go outside, I wasn't able to be part of my own frigging family. But look at me now, like got my life back together, I got my family together and I'm able to be a functioning member of society. All from being able to go into a chamber and have a set number of dives and be able to get their life back. Dude, that's huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's super impactful. I mean, when I went through so I'd already tried you know I went to every therapy program the VA had, I think like six 10-week programs, maybe because I didn't like who I was. You know, I knew who I was before and everybody in the VA community, healthcare community, they'll say PTSD and TBI are synonymous. You know it's the exact. You know the symptoms are the same so we can never differentiate. So, I'm like well right.
Speaker 2:Right, yeah, and uh. So for me at the time it's like, well, I'll do whatever they have to offer. Maybe it's, maybe it is in my head, you know, maybe maybe it's a me thing. And then so, you know, but going through that nothing, even you know, doing psychedelics, it was kind of a temporary relief and then it would almost fade as quickly as it came. It's like, oh, I get it, I don't keep it. But it's uh, you know.
Speaker 2:So with hyper barracks, I never heard of it till, you know, I kept team leader hit me up to do it and super, super grateful that he did, super grateful and he's, he's kind of helping spearhead mission 43. And now they have you know, big multi places up there because of how it affected, him affected. But you know, so it's, um, yeah, there's, it's what's wild, that's just not more known, and so not more known about or not more known. So for me after hyperbarics it was I got all those things back. It was like the empathy's back, the emotions back, but for me it was like, you know, a moment, moment, it was like just snapping into, like consciousness is what it felt, like yeah, and I was like, holy shit, like, because you just feel like a shell and then.
Speaker 2:So to me it seems like hyperbarics is the. Is your foundation, you need to start, you know so it's. If you've got these injuries, like, and you want to build a tower, you need to start your foundation. Or you want to build a car, it needs to run. Don't tune it if the cylinders are blown. You know like, make you get, get the basic mode of running and then I think some of these other modalities can really tune it in.
Speaker 1:You can really benefit from those lessons and you know, when you went through hbot and you finally had that, that moment of like clarity, of like oh shit, this is changing my life, what were some of the other things that you leaned on to help you get back to that 100%? Because I think one thing that I always share and talk about a lot, it's not just one tool, it's always having the best and biggest kit bag with every resource that works for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah With with hyperbarics it did. It did a lot of the heavy lifting, cause I went to a speech pathology, learned all those lessons and then to like, uh, you know, cognitive therapy, you know cause you're like, this is put your keys in this spot. Every time you put your thing here, every time you take a notebook, and you know, and then all of a sudden, after a spot, you know I was not eating a notebook and then I was remembering where I put stuff, like my memory was, you know, I don't know what. Obviously I wouldn't be able to tell what 100% is, but in my mind it's as close as I can remember to being 100%, from salmon bowl therapy to, you know, doing meditation, to psychedelics, to really anything I get my hands on. You know it's it's just putting a good foot forward to try to make sure it works. But I think you know, with with hyperbarics it's hard too, because I went to all the therapies before and I think I probably learned all these tools. But with, like, when you don't have emotions, they're just tools. It's almost like you borrowed tools like I could, I could teach somebody what all this mean. But like, without emotion, you're kind of stuck with just being tools you can't use, yeah, and so I think when went went through, it finally clicked.
Speaker 2:But it's hard to I mean even having empathy. Like like a lot of people will come in here like uh, out of command staff coming here and I was like you guys been any blast injuries, tbi? Like no, I'm like do you guys sleep well? They're like, oh, I'm like, do you guys have empathy? And they're like, yeah, I'm like organic empathy. Or do you know what you should be? You know we can all, we can all fucking figure out how to think we should feel bad. Yeah, you know, show like a what would ren do in this scenario? Like what would be compassionate? Like you shouldn't have to do this mechanical process. Or like you know you're going to a room and it's stressful because you have to be thinking what, what, how should ren be acting and what should ren do, versus just feeling a room and so, like there's a lot of those people that you know like woo, woo, you know like I'm not injured, I'll never be injured.
Speaker 2:It's like what would your wife say? Would she say that? Or is that just you? You know what I mean. So I think there's there's an important to spouses speaking up. There's important to battle buddies speaking up. Your friends, you know, and really like when I went through, so I did 40 and then I did another session of 40 but one of my buddies was kind of pushing me. He's like, dude, you're being a fuck up, you know. He's like you're acting like an asshole. In my mind I'm just trying to get by, yeah, and so I don't. I don't feel like I'm doing that. So it was. It was frustrating to go through all these therapies and all these modalities and still it's like oh man, you know, I'm still a letdown. And then you kind of start getting in your own head a little bit Cause, like you know, for a long time you know it's like I'm going to get better, I'm going to get better. When you stop running out of things to try, you're like oh no, oh no, this might be my new normal.
Speaker 2:And so you're like I don't like this new normal. This new normal can't go outside without a migraine. Look at a screen without a migraine, has vertigo issues. You know it's like sleep issues, it's like all sorts of things. And then you're like so what? You know what is quality of life? You know, like, what does that mean to anyone? You know if you're here and so it's a good thing to identify. I feel like if anybody can identify someone losing purpose, you know that's a dangerous spot to be in. And like you know feeling like you're a burden and losing purpose, like that's what dudes need to be aware and reach out or not be afraid to ask for help. You know there's all this stigma about big, rough, tough. You know whatever it's like dude admitting your problems like a I think, a more masculine thing than hiding it. You know, like stepping out to take care of yourself. It's it's like embarrassing. You know it feels like you're showing your peepee in public absolutely dude, nobody wants to do it, but it's important dude.
Speaker 1:It's the the greatest strength that we can, and especially if you're listening and you're a father, if you're a father figure and you have to break this cycle of of what it means to be a true, like, strong, masculine man, like ask for help, be willing to say, like okay, I I'm not at a hundred percent. I want to be at a hundred percent, like the days of just gritting and taking everything to your deathbed like that's horrible man. Like you, you have to be a present, functioning member of your family to lead your family to be strong for your family. And you're only going to get there by fricking, rallying, you know, getting the family together, telling your spouse but hey, I'm I, I gotta go get help. I'm going to go to frigging revival hyperbarics, I'm going to do some chamber dives. I'm going to get back to being the strong fucking leader this family deserves. Like I owe that to you, like that's strength, like I'm not okay, but I know, know I can get better.
Speaker 1:You don't have to have a breakdown in public. If it happens, get it. I've been there myself. That's not what you want to have. You want to have the moment of clarity with your family, be honest, be open to the people you trust. Your best friends, the people in your team room trust me. They love you, they want you to get better. There's nothing wrong with taking a knee fuck. If you got shot in the on a on a mission, you wouldn't just be fucking walking around. No, you'd be like, hey, I need an 18 delta, I need somebody to fucking take a look at this. I got a sucking chest wound.
Speaker 2:You'd advocate for yourself, so do it now oh yeah, and I've told veterans you know, call me on a group call with your wife, like I'll tell you what this is all about. I'll tell her what it's's all about and then she can have a more informed decision and she can get the support. Because you need the support when you're going through doing anything Like. If your spouse is not supporting you through what you're doing, then you're going to be negative and going to be stressed and going to be but someone, come here, chill out and be happy they're doing it, instead of being like, ah, you know, yeah, so it's, I'm spending time away from the kids, spending time.
Speaker 2:But to me it's like you know, how can you give to others when you can't have the capacity to be okay yourself? You know, like you got to take care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else. So you know, my argument to them is you know a month of your time for the rest of your life being better. It's like you're going to be able to be present. You're going to. It'll be not frustrated, you're not going to want to. You're not going to get flustered when you hear your just the sound of a baby crying. You know, it's like the patients. It seems like with TBI and stuff, the thing they leave you with is like nothingness, nothing and anger. That's like nothingness. Nothing and anger. That's like it's a free one. You can have all this you want, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1:Have as much anger as you want. That's your only emotion.
Speaker 2:Let me take some joy, let me take some this, but we'll give you all the anger and all the nothingness, and I'm going to take your memory too. Yeah, but yes, yeah, tvi is a greedy little piglet, you know, but yeah, so it's, it's. Yeah, it's a, it's a. It's awesome to see and there's some really like good spouses that have really helped their you know, their partners be here?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's. You gotta remember your home team. You gotta remember, and they're the ones that know and understand the change. And we tend to think, though I know who I am, I know I'm changing. No, you're not that hyper aware. If you were, you'd know that everybody around you is walking on eggshells and that's why I always say, like that's the canary in the coal mine.
Speaker 1:You ever hear your wife say that in a counseling session, in a therapy session? Take it to heart, be humble enough to hear that phrase and say, okay, I need to change, I need help. Give yourself some grace. You weren't born a complete asshole. Things have changed. Things are going on that you can't comprehend. But if they say things like, hey, I think you need help, be willing to take a knee, take that criticism and understand it's come from a place of love. They didn't love you, they wouldn't be there. They wouldn't be sitting there with you in the fight. You deserve to get better. All you listening.
Speaker 1:If you're struggling, please understand that there are resources out there. There are people like Ren who are operating amazing facilities for your help, to get you better, to get you back in the fight. And if you're still in you're not, you're not going to be out of the fight. It's going to take a little bit of time for you to get back to 100, but you can still continue being that team sergeant, that 18 charlie, that friggin awesome breacher, that amazing teammate. You can still do all those things. You just need help because, remember, it's not just combat, it's also stuff that's happening in training the 18 Charlie instructor that eats a million wall breaches, trying to teach the next generation of great green berets. Yeah, you need to be wary of this stuff. You need to be informed. It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when, and you don't have to wait till it all falls apart. You can get help today, rand. If people want to check you guys out and get some treatment from you, where do they go?
Speaker 2:Yeah, one thing I'll say before that is don't save for the next team, I'll extend my hours, I'll do whatever. If we're busy enough, I'll get into the machine. Everybody always is like, no, there's always a guy worse, there's always somebody worse. I don't deserve that. I don't deserve that. I'm like bullshit. You know there's like there's a handful of people that'll actually take the time to do this and we'll make space and time for anybody. You know who wants to do this, because if they're committed, I'm committed. You know they want to come on Sundays too. Like I'll, I'll do it. You know, if you're that committed, I'm down. You know, like that's motivating to me to like see somebody try to grab it hard and, you know, go for it. But so, so if someone would come do do some treatments we have, you know, instagram, whatever Revival Hyperbaric site, what what I would then do? Get in contact with me.
Speaker 2:We work with two nonprofits right now. It's America's Mighty Warriors, you know, shout out to them. They've been super awesome at paying for people's dives. Debbie Lee's the founder or owner. She was the mother of the first seal to die in Iraq and she kind of took that and then opened up this, this organization. So they'll pay for all their dives. You know they'll get their blood work done, help with test therapy, vitamins, you know all sorts of stuff like that and they're super cool guys. You know Callie, who I deal with a lot of time over there, is super rad guy. He went through it himself. So you have a lot of people who really understand it and really are passionate about it and they're, you know, really awesome work with it and the other non-profit locally to utah, uh, silent wounds warriors, and that was our.
Speaker 2:That was the first bad I bet I treated here. So it was. He got done and just wanted to help, you know. So he's a super good dude. You know like no interest in making money at this, he's just. You know, it worked out so well for him.
Speaker 2:He got blown up in Syria and so one of my buddies knew him and he's like, hey, man, randy, can you reach out to this guy? And he was, uh, what was he? Artillery, something like that, yeah, but he uh, oh, he's a fister. But so I reached out to him and he had the same thing of. You know. Oh, you know it's not that bad. I'm like bullshit dude. I'm like you don't need to be an 18 series to have not have a TBI right Like everybody's human, so like it doesn't matter who you are, what your job is like, a brain injury is a brain injury. So he's, like you know, finally got him in and realized how bad he was, kind of coming out of it. You know, like the type of thing where you're contemplating, contemplating your own life, taking your own life, because you feel like you're that burden.
Speaker 2:You know, you feel like you're not the man you want to be. You're like you don't enjoy life anymore. You're angry and then kind of like seeing the other side, you know. Then he started to open up that nonprofit and dude's crushing it.
Speaker 1:So yeah, Super good Dude it's. It blows my mind and it breaks my heart too, to hear that other veterans that aren't soft aren't part of the soft community. Um, whether you support or and you know 18 series like it's not just exclusive to this community. In fact, one of the the studies that first gave us an understanding which the military then didn't publish or didn't acknowledge for a long time One of the first studies that showed us how vulnerable our brains were to blast exposure was conducted on a National Guard field artillery unit, and that unit had no direct combat that's behind the lines but they were sending fire missions day in and day out and when they rotated back stateside they were experiencing more suicides and more issues with not being able to adapt and dealing with PTSD than units that had direct combat experience. And that's when we first understood that it's not PTSD, it's blast wave exposure, blast wave exposure.
Speaker 1:So don't think that because you weren't a soft guy, you weren't a green beret, you weren't a ranger, you weren't a seal, that your injuries don't matter, that you need to minimize your experience. Fuck that. You deserve to get treatment. You deserve quality of life and there are people out there and people championing your cause and trying to get you help. Know that. Please know that If you're listening to anybody that says otherwise, they're fucking idiots. Don't listen to them. Your service matters.
Speaker 1:Your injuries are important to get addressed and you should 100% be reaching out and getting the resources you deserve because, fuck man, like 20 years at war, a lot of us were exposed to some horrible shit and it's you got to prioritize yourself.
Speaker 1:It's the only way we're going to be able to make this country better is that we take care of our veterans and get them in positions of power and get them involved in the local community to be able to give back, because I absolutely believe that we are better served within our communities when we have veterans leading the way. Whether you're working at your local community as a teacher or working within civil government, like whatever you do like be able to give back, because I do believe that veterans are some of the best leaders our country has and we need you guys sticking around. You make a making a change, because I'm in been able to see what happens when veterans are excluded from leadership positions in the civilian world in the last few years and, wow, we need help, yeah there definitely needs to be, definitely needs to be some unfucking.
Speaker 2:You know, absolutely dude. Yeah, man, yeah, it's like bizarre, bizarre world almost yeah, make it make sense. Whatever it is, make it make sense, for god's sake.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know we just got way too far off the left field and I think America needs to just kind of like rain it all back in, put some smart people in places of of leadership be able to say like, hey, let's, let's get back to normal things, Like mom and dad are back home, let's straighten things out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no for sure. Oh, things out? Yeah, no for sure. Oh, to your point of helping out. Uh, you know, like non-soft, yeah, um, anybody out there that needs. I know we're helping like a SWAT team guy. So if there's somebody out there that needs help, you know I'll do my best to find the funny whoever it is, and it's. It's really incredible how many non-profits doesn't don't exist for law enforcement first responders, like I've been searching, searching, searching and it seems like there's a lot of dudes there that really need some help. Yeah, you know, so it's, and that's the cool to Simon was a warrior, just kind of left it broad. Yeah, you know, kind of broad case to athletes, to car crash, to whoever. It's kind of that silent wound. But you know, I think there needs to be, needs to be some programs, there needs to be some non-profits that you know help out these law enforcement first responders, because you know, absolutely dude they're doing.
Speaker 2:They're doing a lot for the community. Lots of head injuries, lots of trauma, yep, you know, and it's all taken for granted. But you know, if there's somebody like that who needs the help, I'll definitely try to find find some funding somewhere because, like you say, I think everybody deserves the chance to be better and get back to who they want to be, who they knew they were.
Speaker 2:You know what I mean? Because it affects, affects everything. Yeah, it's your, your, your relationships, you know. So who would you say? Like they don't deserve that? Everybody deserves that chance.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, brother Ryan, I can't thank you enough for being here today with me. Again, if people want to connect with you, where can they go?
Speaker 2:Just look on our website, revivalhyperbaricscom, or Instagram I think it's just revivalhyperbarics and then give me a call or shoot a message and we'll definitely take care of them and then direct them to the right nonprofit and try to help them out best we can.
Speaker 1:Hell yeah, man. And to all you listening at home, go ahead and pause the episode. Go to episode description. Look at all those links, click them. Send Ren a friend request on Instagram, connect with them on website and, last but not least, do me a favor, hand over to spotify or apple podcast. Give us a five-star review, let us know you enjoyed the episode and then follow us on instagram. And, uh, if you need resources or just want to hang out, send me an email sec hot podcast gmailcom. I'll uh, I won't be there to hang out with you in person, but, uh, maybe I'll hang out with you in virtual meet, unless you're weird. But yeah, send me a friend request and you'll always get one back.
Speaker 1:I'm Danny Caballero. Thank you for joining us today. We'll see you all next time. Until 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.
