By Lori Stacy
The waiting room atbrCerebrum Health Center, a leading integrative medical facility for brain healthbrtreatment and rehabilitation, is not unlike most other doctor's office waitingbrareas. There are a few comfortable seating areas and plenty of magazines tobrread while you wait.
But there's anotherbrwaiting room, just beyond the front, which is reserved for veterans seekingbrtreatment for traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorderbr(PTSD). In this waiting room, lined with comfortable leather chairs, the wallsbrare filled with handwritten sentiments, testimonials and words of encouragementbrfrom the many veterans who have come through these doors. There, in addition tobrseeing “Semper Fi” scrawled on the walls, you see notes such as one that says,br“Never above you, never below you, always beside you,” or one that lauds,br“Before brain treatment, Zac sucked at life. After treatment… not as much.”
Between 11 to 20 percentbrof veterans will experience PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD. Sincebrthere are about 2.7 million veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, thebrnumbers of those with PTSD are significant. And those numbers don't reflectbrveterans of the Vietnam War, an estimated 15 percent of whom were stillbrafflicted with the disorder more than a decade after the war ended. For thesebrveterans, Cerebrum hopes to help at its innovative center. And they treatbrveterans free of charge.
“We want to give lovingbrservice to people who have helped us,” says Cagan Randall, one of thebrclinicians at Cerebrum. The list of symptoms associated with traumatic brainbrinjury and post-traumatic stress disorder is staggering, and Randall has seenbrenough of these patients to be able to recount the lengthy list by heart.
“Sleeplessness, rage,bremotional trauma, problems concentrating, problems with comprehension, balancebrand coordination issues, confusion and having less of an ability to heal anybrmore,” he says. Some, he notes, are even afflicted with hormonal deficiencies,brmeaning, “you'll see a 20-year-old in the same hormonal stage as anbr80-year-old.”
A High-Profile Journey to Recovery
Randall specializes inbrFunctional Neurology (FN) and the treatment of traumatic brain injuries,brAlzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia and sports- andbrPTSD-related concussions. Which is how he came to be at the other end of a callbrthat changed the course of his life and changed the life of Marcus Luttrell.
If the name MarcusbrLuttrell doesn't ring a bell at first, you will almost certainly recall hisbrstory—one immortalized in a book and on the big screen. Luttrell was a UnitedbrStates Navy SEAL who, in 2005, was the lone survivor of an attack against thebrTaliban in which three members of his SEAL team were attacked and killed, asbrwell as all on board a SEAL Team 10 helicopter sent in to rescue him.
After being medicallybrdischarged from the Navy in 2007, Luttrell wrote the bestseller, LonebrSurvivor about the experience. The book was adapted into a 2013 film starringbrMark Wahlberg as Luttrell.
While the book and thebrmovie brought him success and, perhaps, fame, it would be naive to assume thatbrsomeone who experienced what Luttrell went through would come home unscathed.
And that's why one day Randallbrreceived a call from former Texas governor Rick Perry, who had heard aboutbrRandall and the center through another vet who had visited Cerebrum. Since hisbrdays as governor, Perry, a former Air Force pilot, has been an outspokenbradvocate for veterans' rights and is a close friend of Luttrell. Governor Perrybrasked Randall if he had ever heard of Marcus Luttrell.
“I didn't know him,”brRandall admits. “I lead a pretty boring life.”
Through Perry's call,brLuttrell came into the center to meet with Randall and begin Cerebrum's program.brAs with other patients, Luttrell was given a series of tests and health examsbrto assess his condition and determine and begin his individualized plan ofbrtreatment.
“We helped him sleep; gotbrhim out of pain,” says Randall. “Within three days, he was sleeping eight hoursbragain. And we didn't use sleep medications.”
Now, Luttrell and Randallbrhave become good friends, and Luttrell has become both a proponent of thebrprogram and of helping other veterans, many of whom come home from combatbrhaving suffered some form of traumatic brain injury, which makes it difficultbrto function normally, to sleep, to be pain free, to have their health.
“Once my head got fixed,breverything else kind of fell in line,” Luttrell says. The product, he says,br“speaks for itself.”
“It all stems from thebrbrain injury, so if you go in and fix the brain, the other stuff goes away,”brsays Luttrell.
Now, Luttrell is involvedbrwith the center's InvisibleVet program, helping raise awareness for vets withbrtraumatic brain injuries.
“For whatever reason, hebrwas not taken, and he has to go forward,” says Randall. “And now, I've neverbrseen anyone more dedicated to a cause than him,” he says of Luttrell'sbrcommitment to helping veterans. “He has the tenacity to never quit, whether it'sbrfor his own recovery or helping some of his brothers who have been affectedbrwith traumatic brain injury.”
Specialized Healing for the WholebrPerson
Cerebrum's reach extendsbrbeyond veterans dealing with traumatic brain injuries and PTSD. “Yes, we treatbrvets, but we also treat autism, dyslexia, ADHD, dementia and stroke patientsbrwho have lost functional ability,” says Jimmy Matthews, president and CEO ofbrthe company.
“There are so many timesbrpeople can't find help with traditional medicine,” he says. And that's wherebrCerebrum's not-so-traditional methods come into play. The clinic providesbrholistic, innovative and individualized treatment programs with the goal ofbrimproving the quality of life for patients suffering from degeneration andbrinjury of the brain and central nervous system.
Patients who come intobrCerebrum go through three major tests to determine the extent of their brainbrdamage or disorders. These tests provide the clinicians with a unique picturebrof each patient and determine the individualized treatment he or she willbrreceive. “There is no blanket protocol,” says Randall. “Every patient isbrdifferent and every patient needs a unique plan of treatment.”
One piece of equipmentbrused for treatment by the center is the futuristic-looking OVARD (off verticalbraccess rotation device), a chair that rotates 360 degrees and is used forbrvestibular rehabilitation by activating different parts of the brain.
“We focus on what we canbrdo to activate specific parts of the brain,” says Dr. Paul Shrogin, Cerebrum'sbrdirector of operations. He explains that with some injuries, such as stroke,brthere is a permanent loss of neurons. But with other injuries sometimes groupsbrof neurons simply change. “It's our goal to properly rehab those systems,” hebrsays.
Diet and nutrition alsobrplay a large part in a patient's recovery plan. “It's like the old adage,br‘garbage in, garbage out,'” says Randall. “While some people can burnbrcarbohydrates, some cannot. And if you can't burn carbs effectively, what you'rebrdoing to your brain is creating inflammation. So we pay close attention to helpingbrdecrease inflammation through diet and nutrition.”
Changes to one's diet andbrnutrition require a lifestyle change, not just a visit to the clinic, which hasbrmeant that Cerebrum not only assesses patients and devises a plan of action,brbut also follows up with patients after they leave, getting them back on trackbrif needed.
With such a holisticbrapproach, it's no wonder the center has attracted not just vets, but patients frombrthe world of sports, including Olympic athletes and stars from the NFL, MLB,brNHL and UFC. Sometimes, says Shrogin, patients come in just for physical maintenance.br“We've treated athletes because they're having trouble focusing on the ball,brand we've had athletes come in prophylactically, for a tune-up,” he says.
The physicians have alsobrtreated celebrities outside the world of sports. Talk-show host and punditbrGlenn Beck, who considers himself a friend of Luttrell, learned about thebrcenter from Luttrell and visited it to treat a brain-related ailment thatbrtraditional medicine was not healing. He says he went to Cerebrum “afterbrgetting to a point where I really wasn't able to work anymore.”
“When I first sat downbrand talked to the doctors they told me, ‘We want you to know they're doingbrstuff here that's very unconventional, very different, and a lot of peoplebrdisagree with it,'” he says. But having previously seen 15 doctors, Beck wasbrready for something unconventional. The treatment worked. “In just a few shortbrweeks, they put me back to where I needed to be,” he said at a recentbrfundraiser benefitting vets.
Now Beck is convincedbrthat the center is just what America's veterans need. Beck says he hopes thebrcenter is able to “get our veterans so they're functioning again,” just as thebrcenter did for him and continues to do for others. “I've seen people withoutbrhope all of the sudden be revitalized again,” he says.
But while famous patientsbrsuch as Beck and Luttrell talk about how the center has helped them and isbrhelping our veterans, Randall is getting something in return as he seesbrpatients go from hopeless to healed. In particular, Randall was impacted by hisbrrelationship with Luttrell. In the process of treating Luttrell, Randall becamebrgood friends with him. The two talk regularly, hang out and hunt together. Spendingbrtime together, Randall got to know Luttrell personally, and saw firsthand how hebrhas not only been healed but also uplifted.
“He helped me become a better American, to knowbrand love my country,” says Randall, fighting back emotions. “He taught mebrresilience. I'm a better dad because of him; I know how to love my wife better.brI'm thankful every day that I know him. He helps me live my life at a higher level.”