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The HeadRush Podcast with Paul Frase and Corey Berry takes you inside the reality of Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) through the lens of football and rodeo. With firsthand experience in two of the most punishing sports, Paul and Corey share their stories, the lasting effects of head trauma, and the fight for awareness and support.
This is the Head Rush Podcast with Paul Fraze and Corey Berry.
Welcome to the Head Rush Podcast. I'm Paul Fraze, and I played 11 years in the NFL, and our co-host, Corey Berry, rode professional rodeo for nine years. At the Head Rush Podcast, we talk about everything related to brain trauma and brain health and wellness. We focus on traumatic brain injury sustained through repeated head impacts and repeated blast exposure for our men and women who served in the armed forces, and we talk about traumatic encephalopathy syndrome and chronic traumatic encephalopathy, CTE. And we cover how traumatic brain injuries can and will cause mental health issues such as depression, addiction, lack of executive function, memory loss even, suicide ideation, as well as degenerative neurological issues. Our mantra is how to cope and find hope, and we focus our energy on finding therapies and sharing hope through education and by raising awareness.
You did pretty good that time, Paul.
Corey, how, how are you doing, Corey? Thank you. That, that was a very nice compliment.
I appreciate that.
It's doing good. It's hot here in Texas. How about there?
Well, it, it's, it's warm. It's not as hot here as, as, as there, but I think it's coming our way. You guys usually send, uh, your weather our way.
Yeah, and we're supposed to be in the 90s all week.
Okay.
Rain again on Friday.
All right. Well, I'm glad we're not-
Um-
... recording on Friday.
But we are going to shift gears
in, in two weeks and focus more on current events in the world of repeated head impacts and repeated blast exposure. But today we are gonna have a recap of the past six months. You've heard us talk about Millennium Health and Dr. Gordon, as well as the Brain Well Program and Dr. Mizelle DeMayo. Today we are gonna go deep with both of these programs and how they have helped us.
We talk about the details of each program and give some examples of blood draws and results. We'll also talk about the different modalities and therapies we have been learning about, and I have personal experience with a few m- myself,
and I'll share my experience.
We're also gonna talk about, uh, supplements and food and what role each plays in our brain health and overall health and wellness. And Corey, since we've talked about modalities and treatments on previous episode, a, a previous episode pretty recently, uh, why don't we start with the, uh, Millennium Health protocol and the Brain Well program? And I do wanna start with the Brain Well program. It was created by Dr. Mizelle DeMayo, and our own personal doctor of psychiatry. Dr. DeMayo is the founder of Paradise Behavioral Health in Punta Gorda, Florida, and the creator of the Brain Well pro- program.
And what is the Brain Well program? And, and one of the things that she added, actually added, Corey, and you have experienced it, the AI part, part of her program, is that i- I think I was listening to, uh, one of your-
My podcast
... yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Yeah, my personal podcast that was built str- for me to talk about all of my
levels, what needs to happen, my diet, everything to get things back in order, and that I am still
in
major inflammation and in TBI mode.
And that's-
I will be for a while
... yeah, and that, it, it, it takes a long time to get r- rid of that inflammation sometimes, especially, I mean, some of the trauma you've been through more recently. Uh, I think it was in 2022 when you had your, uh, your auto accident.
Correct.
Yeah.
Okay, so what is the Brain Well program? From the website, pr- paradisebehavioral.com/brainwell. Paradisebehavioral.com/brainwell. Okay, discover the root cause of your mental health issues. Get a comprehensive treatment plan based on your genetics, hormones, and blood work.
Live your best life with precision psychiatry and the Brain Well program. And what is precision psychiatry you might ask? The Brain Well program uses precision psychiatry to identify the root causes of your mental health issues. Braced, based on your lab res- results, Dr. DeMayo will create a personalized Brain Well treatment plan that uses a more natural and holistic approach to treat your mental health issues. Precision psychiatry personalizes mental health treatments to each person's unique genetics, biomarkers, and environmental factors. Moving beyond the one-size-fits-all approach found in traditional psychiatry. Corey, let me ask you a question.
I've, I've, I've personally been a, to a psychiatrist before Dr. DeMayo, probably five or six years ago. You, you've been to a personal psychiatrist before Dr. DeMayo as well?
Yeah, and still seeing him.
Did he ever talk about blood draws and uh, uh, about genetics and all of these things that, uh, Dr. DeMay- DeMayo talks about?
Oh, no. He, he knew about CTE, and he's, uh,
knows about a lot. A very, very smart man.
And, uh,
Dr. Narayan is very well educated in the world of brain trauma. But to go-
Mm-hmm
... to gen- genetics and hormones, uh, when I first got tested, I took him my, my DeMayo bible.
Right.
And, uh,
he looked through it, and he thought it was pretty well interesting.
Speaking of which, I just-
Yeah, you-
... talked to DeMayo yesterday.
Right. Right. And we definitely wanna get into that. Yeah, you started, I remember a year ago, or, or 14, 16 months ago-
A little over a year
... yeah, just a little over a year, you had, you had a three-ring binder, and like you said, it was your, your DeMayo bib- bible. It was a, a large three-ring binder that had your blood results and your blood tests and genetics and all that stuff. And well, that's, that's cool that your current doctor of psychiatry actually, uh, took interest in, um, you know, the program that you brought to him.
Oh, all my doctors have, both of my neurologists, I mean, Crystal, I mean,
the, the vestibular therapist. I mean, they've all taken
into the genetics and hormones and looking at everything, and I put all my updated ones in that three-ring binder still to today. So when I go to the doctors and I got new ones, I take it to them.
I wonder, I mean, I'm just kind of thinking out loud. I wonder if it was, it is because you s- are so proactive with your personal health,
and you're, you're progressive, and you would, you were w- willing to try, try, you know, different modalities.
And
I, I, I don't know. I mean, the... Normally, I thought of a doctor of psychiatry as you go in and they, you know, they diagnose you with depression or bipolar or schizophrenia or whatever, and then they suggest a drug.
And, um-
Well, he definitely, I mean, he has TMS, and he's got that, what is it, Saprovito and-
Yeah
... all of that, just like DeMayo has.
Right.
So, you know, it's all about doing your own homework and doing your research so you're not just going to any old quack. You're going to one that's based on repeated head impacts. You know, my psychia- my doctor of psychiatry at SciMed Solutions was recommended to me from my very first neurologist when I moved here in 2019,
and
we've done our research. He's done his research, and yeah, he's...
You gotta find doctors that are knowledgeable in the repeated head impact. It's just like I was talking to a guy today about finding the right doctor, and I said, "Well, you gotta interview them."
If they don't know about RHI, TES, RBE, concuss-
if they're not a concussion specialist, if they don't study and know about repeated head impacts, then fire them. Go to another one.
So that's, that's something that we've heard frequently on the support help, help groups, the support groups and stuff that, um, guys and gals don't find the right doctors or they, they've been through many doctors that don't even have a clue about or they don't concern themselves with, um, uh, RHI and, and RBE. Um,
um, but did you, did you luck out in, in the first, the, the, the first time that you were able to interview a doctor, or did you, did you just call and start interviewing doctors until you found one that had, uh, success or experience with TBI?
Yeah, I-
And you're gonna get that flower.
Yes, I am. I, uh-
You gotta remember, Paul, I've been in this battle since 1999.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
And so when I go see doctors, I ask the questions, and
then I reach out to the people in the rodeo world, and I reach up to, like, doctors like Tandy Freeman, who's head of the PRCA for a lot of us. That's our go-to doctor, and he says, "You need to go see him. You need to go see him." He's the one that sent me to Dr. Jorgensen.
Um,
and so you just really gotta do your homework and learn and m- find the right doctors. I mean, Dr. Cater and Doc-
Dr. Tanner, two of the best in Texas
in the realm of repeated head impacts, and that's why I go to him. If they don't know, I say, "No, sir. I ain't giving you no more money."
Who guided you to Dr. Katzer? And, and, and remember, Dr. Katzer, i- you know, for our audience, is one of our, uh, basically our house doctor. He's been on the Head Rush podcast two or three times.
Yeah, matter of fact, I invited him on June 19th, but he's giving a spe- or he's gotta testify.
Oh, okay.
Yeah, he's testifying in a court about something.
Mm-hmm.
Um,
but I found him by doing the research and looking up online and just scouring it,
you know? And then it said sports concussion specialist, and then so I made an appointment, said, "Okay, he's a concussion specialist." Went in and talked to him, and
I told him, I said, "I'm gonna go see Tanner here in October," and this is, like, June of the fir- before I saw Tanner.
And, uh,
he was very skeptic about clinically diagnosing me TES. He goes, "I'll let Tanner do that."
Right. He didn't have quite the experience with a P- TBI patient or possible-
Oh, no
... TES patient.
He did. He just didn't have the confidence in himself at the time to...
I mean, you're pretty much granting someone a death sentence.
Yeah. Well, I, you, you, you, you and I actually were, we were just, uh, we just got a text from Chris Nowinski. We were talking about we thought that, uh, there might be seven or eight centers or institutions around the country, that there's only five, right? Yeah, there, there's only five. And, and, and Tanner's, y- the group that you go see at UT Southwest, right? They're, they're, they're one of the five.
Uh, no, no, no, no, no.
No?
UT Health.
UT Health.
At the Glenn Briggs Institute.
The, okay.
In San Antonio.
Okay. And they're one of the five.
Yeah.
Well, so let, let's, let's get back on script a l- a little bit, Corey. You know, um, tell, tell, I mean, Dr. Amen had some interesting things to say.
Yeah.
He-
We listened to Dr. Amen, in that he's licensed to diagnose crazy.
And he says psychiatrists are crazy because they are the only doctors who practice without observing the organ in the body that they treat. Dr. DeMayo solves a big part of the issue by studying blood, genetics, and hormones.
You know, and yeah, I mean, for the most part, that's what psychiatrists are there to do, is diagnose crazy.
That's right. That's right. And the- and yet he says that they're, they're, they're the only doctors that actually don't, uh, study the organs that they, you know, uh, they, they actually don't look at the organs that they study.
Um, well, so, so y- you go to the,
the genetics, and we, we a- I actually have, uh, the, the, the 28, the panel, um, 28 hormones that the, uh, um, you know, Dr. DeMayo works with the Millennium Health Centers with, uh, Mark Gordon. The Millen- Millennium Health Centers, uh, Millennium Protocol. Millennium Protocol, gosh. And they use, um, 20, a panel of 28 hormones, and they check your blood.
Right, but that panel, you got theirs from what, a year ago? Six months ago?
No, no, no. This is, this is not, this is not the, uh... I have, uh, my last blood results came, um, from a September 2nd, 9, uh, 2025, um, blood draw. But this is just a list of the actual 28, at the panel, the blood panel. I don't, I don't have the results.
Okay, 'cause I was gonna say, DeMayo doesn't have your current blood panel.
No, no, no. I, no, I, I just actually sent it to Charlene. Uh, so if, if any of you out there listening decide to go through the BrainWell program at, um, at the doctor-
Do it online.
Yeah. And-
Do it online, because they're getting busy enough now that they want you in the queue. They don't want you calling in to where they can forget. They want you to do it online.
And that's the paradisebehavioral.com/-
Paradise Behavioral Health
Okay. I thought I just looked it up, uh, I thought I just looked it up. Um, we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll clarify that. Um, actually, you're good at looking that up really quick.
Well, I can't, because I'm not on my phone-
No problem
... or laptop.
No problem. Well, we'll clar- We'll, we'll clar- we'll clarify it, um, at, you know, um, uh, after we edit the, the program out. But anyway-
Well, it'll be here, and just pay attention to the commercial for Paradise Health
when we spotlight 'em. It'll be on there.
Episode of the Head Rush podcast is brought to you by our personal doctor and team of doctors, uh, Dr. Myz- Myzel DeMayo, and she's with the Paradise Behavioral Health. And we are in the-
BrainWell program, which is also part of the Millennium Health Center Uh, Dr. Mark Gordon, you've seen him on Joe Rogan and even on our show, the Head Rush podcast. Um,
and, uh, hormones, and Mizelle is awesome. We love her.
She's, she's our doctor of psychiatry. She works with Mark Gordon program with the hormones, and, uh, and she j- she adds her twist of genetics and, um, and it's, it's... It basically is melding two wonderful, uh, uh, mediums together, and we're getting great help from Dr. Mizelle DeMayo.
So please check out her website at paradisebehavioral.com.
She's-
Look up the Brain Well program. Get involved. She-
She's sponsoring us. They're, they're sponsoring us for the next year, so we are excited to have them on board, and, uh, and, and shout the ne- the good news to everybody, uh, th- that is watching these broadcasts, so.
Is she helping you, Paul?
Absolutely. Absolutely.
She's helping me, so go check her out, paradisebehavioralhealth.com.
Absolutely. So-
But I mean, yeah, so it's like my testosterone is showing 705, but my free testosterone's at, like, 23%.
What is the... So the number that came back from the Cleveland Clinic, um, it, it wasn't... It didn't show a percentage. Well, let, let's go back, Corey. If the, if the free testosterone is only 23%, what does that mean?
Not getting to my brain.
So the free testosterone number
needs to be higher. Is, are you wi- within range or low, low, low range or out of the range?
By, by normal blood draws, I'm within range, but by Millennium Protocol, I am not.
Okay. Well, that's probably... I, I just took the, the Cleveland Clinic, and, and they had numbers differently. My total testosterone was, uh, 578 or 98, and then the free testosterone was 4.7 or whatever it was, and it was-
That's wicked low, dude.
Well, it's not 4.7%, but I was in the high normal range of Cleveland Clinic's little...
So, so I ha- Yes, you're, you're talking about I haven't done the full blood, um-
Workup
... p- panel workup through, uh, DeMayo, uh, recently.
Right.
So I'm going to be comparing, and I'm actually... I already t- sent it in to Charlene to find out which hormones I did not get tested, um, at the Cleveland Clinic for their normal blood draw, and that was actually, uh, uh, actually-
Now, your regular testosterone's only at a five something?
598, you know, and that's, they, and they say-
You need to get back on supplements, dude. I'm at a 700.
Well, yeah, I was seven, uh, 797, um,
two years ago, so, but interestingly, I think the, the free test- testosterone, and I'll, I'll be talking to Mizelle about it, was in the high range. So,
um,
i- there, there's not, I mean... A- and the, the five,
whatever my l- level was, was actually, um, spot on f- I don't know if it's for my age or, uh, I don't know, so.
That's what they go off of. That's what Quest and Cleveland all go off of, is the average male, what's acceptable for a 61-year-old man.
Right. Right. Yeah, exactly.
And so they're saying 61-year-old man testosterone should be
4 to 600.
Right, yeah.
If you ask Mark Gordon, DeMayo, or anybody, we should be higher,
not only that, but because we are also athletes.
Right.
Even though we're retired, we're still got the athlete mentality.
Yeah, and see-
And so that low testosterone doesn't work properly in our brain.
Well, the, that, that's what I have to compare to, you know, if I am, if, uh, w- what I am compared to with the 4.7 Cleveland Clinic versus percentage of free testosterone with, uh, uh, DeMayo's, uh, um, Mizelle's, uh, blood draw or the Millennium Pro-
And the Millennium Protocol.
Yeah, the Millennium Protocol. So all right. One, one of the big pluses, though, that I really like am- this is about Mizelle and the Brain Well program and Dr. Gordon. They, they're not necessarily... They don't push pharmaceutical drugs. They really, you know, such as an SSRI. They will, um, try to balance out and give your body what it needs through supplements,
um, and see if they can balance, the, bring balance back to your, your, uh, blood draws, unless,
unless the, in, in, in Mizelle DeMayo's,
uh, situation, unless she has tested you completely and your testing indicates that you can benefit or get some help from an, a pharmaceutical medicine, and I, but I think, and you tell me your experience with Mizelle, um,
it seems like she-
If she, if you're, if a, if a patient is on an SSRI and they are not reacting well to it, she'll try to figure out the, you know, and, and balance out all the nutrients and nutraceuticals and supplements and food to see if, uh, they can bring balance. But if the client is, the patient is actually thriving on a SSRI drug and, you know, it works very well for them, she would tend to say,
um, you, you stay on this. You're, you're doing well with it. You're feeling good with it, and let's see if we need to tweak any- anything else. Does that-
Right
... uh-
She has patients that are on SSRIs.
Of course, yeah. Yeah.
You know? So I mean, yeah, she's...
You know, it's like she told me yesterday my testosterone's high. My free testosterone's low. She doesn't wanna put me back on injectables yet because she took me off of the DHEA,
so now I restarted the DHEA this week, so now my free testosterone should go back up. She had me at
two DHEA
two times at night
two months ago.
Mm-hmm, and then she-
And when my blood levels came back, she said I didn't need them anymore, so she took me off of them. Now she's saying, "Well, let's put you back on one."
Okay.
You know?
It's-
So she's trying everything without putting me back on medicine.
On a pharmaceutical, what- whatever it is, yeah.
Right.
Yeah.
Well, th- and th-
that's, uh-
And if you think about it, if they put me back on injectables, my total testosterone will go up to 1,000 to get my free testosterone to go up.
Right.
So that's not a safe deal either.
No, that's-
Plus, I don't think my wife would be very happy with me being at over 1,000.
Oh, Corey Berry.
You should have saw me when I was at 1,400. You wanna talk about a horn dog.
Well, okay. What was it-
I'd knock the knot out of a piece of wood if it would allowed me.
Was it... What, what about aggressive, uh, personality too? Yes? No?
No, not so much. I... Well, back then, yeah, because everything was haywire.
Right.
Right.
So was it the testosterone? Was it the rage? Was it...
It was everything.
Well,
yeah, you, you think about the, the extra supplemental testosterone can add
to the, the aggression. Well, I, I remember, you know, unfortunately I took, I took, uh, testosterone-
You better be quiet. You may end up at congressional hearing.
Uh-oh. Who, who, uh, who got nabbed for, for whatever?
A whole bunch of athletes.
Oh, I'm only, I'm, I'm small pickings.
Mark McGwire, Sosa, all them guys, NFL players.
Yeah, I'm, I'm small pickings. The, the, the Paul who? Who, Paul who?
Isn't that what Ray Lewis said Friday?
Oh, gosh.
W- was he s- talking about steroids?
No, when he met you and he, you said, "Hey, I played with you." "Paul who?"
Oh, yeah. Well, I knew... Just like Brett Favre, he only... They, they both played 16 years, and they, uh... Well, Brett might have played 18 years, but I was only there, you know, for six months i- in, in their, uh, their, their 16 years. So... But I had... W- it, it, it's funny. Um, a buddy of mine that I played with at Syracuse, Rob Burnett. Rob played about 14 years, but he played a t- like 11 or 12 years with...
He was with Cleveland Browns when they went to the Ravens, and Rob, RB, uh, won a Super Bowl with them, with, uh, Ray, of course. And they... So he was a Syracuse guy, so I, it, it was easy to, for Ray to make a connection. At least I knew one of his buddies that he played with for 11 years.
But, uh, Ray, Ray was, uh, yeah, re- really heartfelt, and, and that was... So that was the RL3 event that, um, um, I was able to attend-
So l- tell me about it
... on Friday, Friday night.
Talk about it a little bit.
Yeah, that was a great... Yeah, that was a, that was a great event, uh, of awareness and bringing awareness to the, the general audience that might not know a lot about repeated head impacts and the dangers of. Um, and, uh, actually, so it's a, it was a little gala. Uh, uh, it was a gala for the RL3, uh, Ray Lewis, uh, III, um, Foundation, and Ray Lewis III,
Ray Lewis' son, or the second son, um, took his own life at 28 years old just about a year and a half ago. May- maybe 14 or 15 months ago.
And they... No, it's, it's... No, this is the third. I'm sorry. It, it was a, a couple years ago. And, uh, and, uh, this event kicks off a weekend, uh, full of events, and they, uh, have a football clinic where they teach safe tackling and safe, uh, practices, and, and then they, then they... And, uh, the third night of events is a huge, uh- Hip hop music, rap music. They, they do the, they just have a, a, a, a very cool, um, uh, musical event, uh, at the, to end the, uh, the weekend of repeated head impact awareness and CTE awareness. So-
So you were at the kickstart of it, and then you went home
... yeah, I was at the, the gala, and it was very, uh, they had a silent auction, very heartfelt conversation by Tiana, um, uh, mother to, uh, uh, uh, Ray Lewis's three sons.
Ray Ray.
Ray Ray. Mother, mother to Ray Ray. And, uh, and then, which, what was really cool is they had a doctor on staff that actually interviewed, they had like a panel on staff. Uh, it was, uh, Bruce Parkman, our own Bru- Bruce Parkman from the Mack Parkman Foundation, and that wa- and that was, uh, Ray Nix from the Boston University,
um,
Boston University team, you know, with, uh, Alosco and, uh, Amake, um, uh, Dr. Cantu, um, D- Dr. Chris Nowinski, so on and so forth, and, uh, Bob Stern, Dr. Bob Stern. And in- interestingly, um, this, uh, Ray Nix, this, this doctor is, uh, he actually was a hockey player,
and he got into semi-pro, and he got to the point where he
was meeting a lot of people that were having
issues related to neurological health and related to, to head trauma, and he actually left his skates on the ice and said, "I'm gonna become a doctor and, and help, help, uh, my brethren." So that was pretty wild. So anyway, we, that's, uh, so the doctor actually interviewed Ray Nix and Mack, or Bruce, Bruce Parkman from the Mack Parkman Foundation, and Bruce was, you know, Bruce is a powerhouse and he, he didn't pull any punches. And, uh-
Oh, Bruce will never pull a punch. He's a Special Forces Green Beret. If he pulls a punch, it's only because he doesn't wanna kill you.
Yeah. He was, uh,
he was, uh, you know, obviously, we've, we've heard him, uh, speak before, and he's so passionate about, uh, our youth and repeated head impacts, and I think it, they're, they're moving the needle. You know, people like, um, uh, stopcte.org, the Patrick Rishe, uh, Foundation for CTE Awareness, and the Mack Parkman Foundation, um, and, and I, I like to think that we're, you know, moving the needle as well, uh, you know, with the Head Rush podcast, just, uh, talking about, um,
talking about, uh, repeated head impacts and our youth. Um, they, they, the doctors and Ma- uh, Bruce Parkman obviously talked about our youth and the, the brain development doesn't take place in the frontal lobe until your late teens, possibly ear- early 20s. Actually, they say it starts about 14, but it really doesn't, uh, start t- uh, it just really doesn't get developed until your late teens, early 20s.
So-
Well, what else did, so what was talked about on the panel?
That's, that's what they were, they were, Bruce was, uh, using it as a platform. Um, he talked about youth, the youth brain development. He talked about, um, getting, and Tiana actually, uh, introduced the legislation that they, uh, tried to pass, and they actually got a day for 2026 in September, the, um, Ray, uh, the, the Mack and Ray Day.
Um, and f- but they had a, uh, they, they have a legis- uh,
uh, um, a woman in the legislature that actually was pushing for them. They got one day dedicated in 2026. Now they're trying to make it annual, and they're, um, the information, the, the, uh, the ticket is back on the docket for parental consent,
um, which you've been preaching for a year and a half.
Yep, and I'll keep preaching it.
Yep.
You know, I believe,
you know, we got the Nisha, what is it?
The Nisha law here, a concussion-
Mm-hmm
... protocol.
Mm-hmm. In Texas?
In Texas.
But
I don't think it goes far enough, and I believe that the informed consent
is huge, but I, and I believe the player and both parents should have to sign it. Not just one, both. You get mommy and daddy to sign it along with little Johnny before he straps on the helmet or gets on a bucking horse or does whatever.
And you, i- it's not just a three paragraph, uh, you know, explanation.
No.
It's an actual class.
Yeah.
I mean-
And if you look at what Mack Parkman and RL3's looking at doing is that they have, it's split up to where one, one part of the season's in RHI, and the second part is the CTE
Part of the informed consent and the training that they gotta go through, and I believe all coaches should have to go through it.
Right.
And parents.
Yeah.
Because I think the coaches are more responsible than the parents should be.
The parents don't have the knowledge the coaches have.
They don't have the experience. They don't have... I mean, most of your coaches... Hell, Tatiana's new husband is a coach in Jacksonville at the high school, ain't he?
Yeah, uh, at Orange Park.
Right.
And he actually, he actually played at, uh, University of Miami, and he,
uh, he got a, a year or two with the Falcons.
That's what I'm saying. So
most of these high school coaches just ain't Johnny from nowhere coaching.
Yeah, a lot of... I, I know here in Jacksonville, there's a lot of, uh, uh, ex-Jaguars, uh, Jaguars who have, uh, you know, left the league year, in years past, and they're, they're still here coaching in the high schools. I mean, if you r- remember, uh, Tony Boselli that, who, who eventually just made it into the Hall of Fame, um, he, he coached, uh, a couple, a few years. Mark Brunell before he became the quarterback coach of the G- Detroit Lions, uh, started at Episcopal, uh, High right here in Jacksonville. And, uh, but there's a lot of other, um, uh, a lot of, other, uh, guys that have stayed here, and they work, uh, as coaches in the high school. Administrators, uh, uh, education, people in ed- guys in education and, uh, coaching as well,
so.
Why didn't you get into coaching?
I think it was because Joshua, my son, was too fragile, and, uh, we didn't... You know, it, it... He was a 24/7, um, and, and we don't, we didn't have nursing during the day. So, you know, we hadn't... I, I couldn't, uh, I couldn't... Coaches sacrifice family.
I couldn't see myself sacrificing my family time or my ab- ability to help out, you know, you know, help the family and help my son and, you know. We had a daughter, you know, six years after my son. And so yeah, I, that, I just didn't, I wasn't gonna sacrifice, uh, uh, family for, for coaching,
so.
Some of these, some of these coaches-
Speaking of family, how's Bella doing?
Bella's doing well. She's, she's picking up her g- guitar. She's, uh, thinking about writing some more music. She's, uh, she's, uh, working here in, in, uh, uh, northeast Florida in Ponte Vedra, and, uh, she's doing well.
Right on.
Yeah.
We should have her on the podcast one time come do a song for us.
Yeah, we should. We should. 25 years old. Did Bella, your daughter, uh, know it all at 25?
Oh, yeah.
They start forgetting that they know it all, I think, when they turn 30.
Is, is that it?
Oh.
But until then, you gotta deal with from, like,
20 to 27, I would say, it's I know more than you, I'm more educated than, than you.
Oh. Oh, gosh.
Yeah. And, and, and Bella,
she just missed the, uh... Was she in the middle of the woke movement, or did she just miss it? But you, you would have never stood for that.
No. No. She's in the millennial area but not in the woke.
Yeah,
yeah.
Yeah.
Well, see, it's-
If she was in the woke movement, we would've had-
Locked horns
... a tougher time in our life.
Lo- locked horns. Yeah.
Well, we locked horns enough as it was. Could you imagine if she was woke?
Oh, gosh. No, let, let's, let... We,
we can, uh... Yeah, let's, let's move on. I, I really wanna talk to you, Corey. Um, you,
you...
We had,
we had, uh,
Casey reach out to us, and you
were able to
work with somebody this past week, and you spent hours with him.
But ta- talk to-
No, I'm on the phone with his wife right now.
Wow. So talk to us about... Well, first of all, share, share your heart.
Well, I'm not gonna talk about him at all.
No, no. I'm not, I'm not saying to sell his name. I'm not gonna say, you know, whatever, but the, the bottom line is you were... It's somebody that need, needed help.
Right.
Yeah, I mean, because of Casey's ac- well, it's a good friend of the family. Put it that way.
Right. Right, yeah. Well, he would-
And because of that, Casey had us reach out to him, and then we've had, I've had a long talk with him. We've texted. My wife is talking with his wife.
So-
And we got him going to see Dr. Amen Wednesday and Thursday, and he gets the results on Friday.
Right. And let me, let me back up because- It's not just because it was a friend of Casey's, a, a family fr- it, it was... You, you, you have done this many times-
Yeah
... and you didn't even know the people.
No.
Yeah. So-
Well, and that's, that's my job now.
That's more important to me than the Head Rush Podcast, more important than a lot, is
that I can share my hope and awareness with somebody else, and maybe give them some hope when they're spiraling or going down,
you know?
Right.
And let them know that, hey-
This episode of the Head Rush Podcast is brought to you by the Patrick Risha CTE Awareness Foundation. Their goal is the, to spread awareness about the dangers of RHI, repetitive head impacts, after losing their son, Patrick, to CTE. Sadly, there are too many like Patrick that have lost their families, jobs, and sometimes their lives, and this foundation is working hard to stop the devastation than c- that can come from not protecting the brain. This foundation provides parents of school-aged children with information about the dangers of sports, concussive sports, and activities which involve head trauma.
They advertise on social media, print media, and billboards. Please follow them on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, and share their ads with others, and please visit their website, stopcte.org, to find ways to help people recognize the disease if confronted with it in their family, and how to prevent the suffering that can come to families when a brain is damaged. The website has medical forms to take to doctor's visits, and advocacy letters if you want to help make change in your community. And their most recent campaign is geared up to help coaches build brain healthy teams. You can use the information on stopcte.org website to understand CTE, live with CTE, and prevent CTE. Please visit. Thank you. And don't knock it-
Stop-
Stopc-
There you go
... stopcte.org. Hey.
You know, give yourself some grace. You know, the Dr. Amen rule of 12, you can't get mad till the 13th thing has gone wrong.
And what went well today at bedtime, it's changing the negative to a positive. But yet the biggest thing I'm learning is you got to give yourself some grace.
Hmm.
If I forget my bottle of water on the table,
and I get up to grab it, and I sit back down and forgot my bottle on the table, and I get up again to grab it but I get distracted and I sit back down without grabbing that water,
that pisses me off,
and I get very irritated. Let me say that the polite way. I get very freaking irritated that- ... I've gotten up twice, three times, and I still haven't gotten that bottle of water.
I'm starting to learn to give myself that grace and go, "You know,
it's brain health, man."
Hmm.
Ah, so what if I got that bottle of water? Now I got to get up and get it again. This time don't get distracted. And I'll look at my wife and say, "Don't talk to me, I got to get that bottle of water. Don't let me forget- ... that bottle of water on the table. I forgot that bottle of water three times on the table. Don't let me forget that bottle of water."
I, I, I've definitely been trying to concentrate on something that I... It's on the tip of my d- tongue, it's on the edge of my brain, and, and somebody else starts talking, I'm like, "No, no, no, no, no. Hey, hey, quiet."
And then I forget it.
Couldn't... Or sometimes I'm able to retrieve it.
Uh-
Right. But you're not at the point yet to where you're leaving stuff on the counters, and leaving breakfast or drinks, or doing the stupid shit I've done. You're not at that point yet. Or maybe you have and you're just not telling nobody, 'cause you're kind of like an onion-
No
... we got to peel the layers.
No, I... No, I'm not, I haven't... I've definitely forgotten
names that were ridiculously important, known them for years. I've had... I've, I've only had a few times, and I don't know what it was,
if it was just
strictly hippocampus memory issues or... I got to believe it's, it's, uh,
you know, head,
knocking your head against things. But w- when I... Tw- two times in particular I remember,
and one was
a year ago and one four years ago. I actually had to, I actually had to scroll through my phone because they were friends of mine, I knew, I should've known their name, and I had to scroll through my phone, my 5,000 names, and at, at, at, uh, you know, 1,200 or 500 or whatever, fortunately it popped up and I said, "Damn, that, okay, that, that was that name. That, that was that person." Oh, weird.
Weird. I've, I heard a, a neurologist-
I do that every day. I forget
your name sometime, and it's like, who?
Oh, that's it.
Well, I w- I heard a n- neurologist, she was awesome. She was... She did a TED. She says, "You know, when you get to 50, you know, you start having memory problems." She says, "If you..."
Just picture this, "If you lose your keys and you look a- around for them for five minutes and then you find them in your coat pocket that you're wearing,"
she said, "Okay, that's kind of normal 50-year-old stuff." But he, she said, "If you find them 10 minutes later in the refrigerator," she said, "That, that can be a problem." Oh, I haven't done that before, but-
I've done that. I've put my wallet and keys in the refrigerator.
Have you?
Yeah.
Well, were you carrying groceries?
Didn't you get something to drink and set your wallet and keys there and forget them?
This is, this is one thing that I did probably two years ago,
and I was... But, but I, I think I set myself up. It was weird. I read an article about Kenny Stabler,
and his daughter was talking about... And, and he, he died with dementia, and I don't know if they ran out for CTE. I, I, I'm not sure. But he was the Snake, right? Of the Raiders?
Right.
That o- other California... That, that other awesome California team. So-
Uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh. There's only one California team.
No, there's four now.
No, there's only one.
Oh, it's funny. But Stabler-
Four?
... it was not un- It... Huh?
Four?
He... Well, three. I'm s- uh, LA...
Well, what are the three? You got the LA Rams
and the LA Chargers, right?
San Diego Chargers.
Are they both LA?
They call them San Diego Chargers?
San Diego Chargers.
They don't call them that anymore. They play up in LA,
don't they?
Well, the Rams play out in Vegas.
They, like the... Yeah. So it's just kind of like the, the, the Clippers, the LA Clippers, and the, uh, Los Angeles Lakers. Um,
all right. But s- so the Snake, Ken Stabler, it was not uncommon-
Stage three chronic traumatic encephalopathy.
It was... So he had CTE, stage three.
Stage three.
It was not un- His daughter said it was not uncommon for him to stop at green lights.
I've done that.
Have you? Well, I found myself, about three months after the, the, the... reading that story, I found myself looking at a green light and standing still, and I'm like, "What the, what the heck am I doing? Did I, did I talk myself into that, or..." It, it was weird.
It was weird.
Yeah. Ken Stabler, the late Hall of Fame quarterback, suffered from stage three chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and did...
His family and friends noted a rapid decline in his cognitive functions during his final years.
Right.
Right. Rapid decline.
Right.
Well, them Raiders-
So-
... were head hitters back in them days anyways. They were nasty, mean.
Yeah. You had Tatum, uh... Was it Jack Tatum that, uh, paralyzed, uh, Darryl Stingley with that hit?
Yeah.
I mean, it was just a hit. It was just a hit coming across the middle. I mean, it's... It was part of the game back then, being, you know... The re- the receivers were free.
Fair game.
I r- I remember Al Toon coming across the middle with the Jets, and he was, he was an incredible receiver. I don't know if... I, I think he made the Pro Bowl a couple times, but he was unbelievable. But the, the, the Houston, uh, uh, defensive back hit him so hard, uh, his face mask caved in.
Caved in.
Well, I was playing high school football, and our center snapped both of his femurs.
Oh.
Oh.
At the same time. Boom.
Oh.
Oh, my gosh. Did he have bone density issues, or was the hit that bad? Obviously-
The hit was that bad.
Oh.
And that was-
Yeah
... in practice.
Really?
Yeah. So our own teammates did it.
Oh.
On purpose?
Well, they tackled him on purpose. I, I don't think... They didn't try to break his legs on purpose.
Yeah. You wouldn't, you would, you wouldn't expect your own teammate to do that. We'd, we'd, we'd get pretty vindictive, uh, in a game
playing against, uh, other teams.
But-
It was just a weird hit
... n- n- never-
The right, the right angles-
Yeah
... the right geometry, and-
It happens. Yeah, we-
Both femurs like a toothpick.
Ooh.
Well, they say, they say that it only takes 10 pounds of pressure
on your knee the wrong way to actually pop it out a joint and, uh,
and, uh-
That, that you can have, uh, sustained ligament damage. So if your muscles aren't holding the, you know, the, the, the, the, the bones in position to stay in the joint, and you have a split second where the muscles are relaxed and you only have 10 pounds of, uh, pressure on that knee, you can, you can actually do some pretty,
pretty deep damage.
This-
It only takes about two pounds for me now.
But yeah, your, your knee real- Do you have any cartilage in your knee?
In one of them I don't. It, it, I can sit down, and while eating dinner, it can fall out if I angle it the wrong way.
Oh, gosh. Oh.
Let's go back-
But thanks to brain injuries.
Let's, let's go, let's go back to
w- why we do the, the Head Rush podcast,
and why we do the Head Rush Foundation.
Um-
Okay, go for it.
You know, you... So
the-
Here for the fight, here for the family
... Here, here for the fight and here for the family, here to give hope, here to... Uh, let, let me ask you a question. Of the people that you have been able to talk to, and I, I, I've, uh, you know, I've talked to people too, but of the people that you've been able to talk to,
did y- were you, did you find, uh, the, like, the, you know, I always say the, the, the quiet explosions gave me a lot of hope because it showed me there's possibly, possibly ways to, to, uh, deal with repeated head, you know, or, or traumatic brain injury. And there's, and then you get into the millennium, uh, health protocol, and you, you, you see the possibilities to lower inflammation in the brain. But when you, when, when we talk to people,
when you talk to this, this person last week,
did they get hope out of the... Or did they walk away dejected and with no hope?
Oh, he got a ton of hope. I mean, you know, I gotta give kudos to Dr. Amen because when the family talked to him, they were supposed to see Amen in, like, middle to late July.
Mm.
I emailed Amen, and I'm gonna tell you, I don't do this for everybody, but this had kids involved, a young family. And I emailed Amen, and said, "Hey, we need to get this guy in quick."
Mm.
"How fast can we get him in?"
Amen reached back out to me within hours.
Yeah.
And had the clin- Crystal, the head of all of his clinics, reach out to me, and Dr. Anderson, who does the one in Scottsdale, was off for the weekend, but she said she was gonna text A- Anderson anyways.
Really?
Yeah, and text Anderson, and he goes in Wednesday and Thursday for scans, and gets the results on Friday.
Really? So, so Anderson in Scottsdale, Arizona runs one of the 11 Amen clinics, uh-
Right
... the, one of the 11 that's, uh, nationwide.
Right.
And he, he was actually on vacation, and he actually is coming in or is coming... Was, was it, uh, is it tomorrow?
Oh, not coming in. He was just not in the office that day.
Okay. That, that, okay.
He was out-
But anyway
... uh, he was out.
Yeah.
And, but Crystal texted him
and got him to where he looked at his calendar and said Wednesday, Thursday, results on Friday.
Wow. Yeah.
You know? So I mean,
we have-
Sometimes
... the connections to help people that need it.
Right.
And that's what people need to understand is, you know,
if a vet needs help, we have people we can call that have close ties to the VA.
Right.
If we have people that wanna get on the millennium, we have close ties to get the people on the millennium through DeMayo or through Gordon himself, or his-
Mm-hmm
... daughter, should I say.
Mm-hmm.
You know, we have avenues to get people help.
Right.
Um, and to get help at the Concussion and CTE Foundation.
You know, I'm really upset with them right now because they let Tyler go.
Yeah, that was tough.
You know, that's, that's a hard pill. They lost a good man there.
Right.
And it's...
And they didn't do it for any negligent reason. He wasn't fired. He didn't do nothing wrong.
Right.
Concussion and CTE didn't do nothing wrong. It was just they're changing their
avenue, and m- the street corner didn't match up.
Yeah. They're, they're reading the wrong algorithm because, uh, Tyler was one heck of a, a ... He's not a therapist, but, uh, he really ran a, a tight ship on the, the helpline and the support groups. And-
For three years.
Yeah. Yeah. For three years. I-
Mm-hmm. Uh-huh.
I, I don't know of the, the, a lot of the other moderators, but, um, of the three that I've seen, or the two or three that I've seen,
uh, Tyler was really, he was top-notch.
Right.
So, and I, I- I, you know, it would be f- it would be nice to see him land on his feet. If you're helping another helpline for, uh, a brain, you know, brain trauma, traumatic brain injury because he-
Bruce Parkman, are you listening?
Yeah. It, uh... So yeah, it's, uh, it- it's definitely...
Yeah.
So let me ask you this. If Mac Parkman Foundation started up a support group, would you join it?
Yeah.
I-
In a heartbeat.
I would. Yeah, i- in a heartbeat, absolutely. Yeah. Well, the, the, just the f- the, just the fact that we know,
you know, we know Bruce Parkman, Bruce and P- Perry Parkman, and they were both there at the, uh, RL3 event Friday night. And-
Was Bruce wearing his green jacket?
Yeah. Oh, yeah. And he loved the fact... So they, their gala is, uh, it's like, uh, a dress up like a gala event, but wear sneakers. And Perry, Perry had s- uh, on some, uh, fashionable high-heel sneakers. It was c- it was hilarious.
So they were, you know, it... They're- they're friends with Tiana and, uh, then obviously, uh, know Ray very well and, uh, because, uh, Tiana and Bruce have been working on that legislation together for probably months and months. And we- we met Tiana, mother to Ray, Ray Ray, um, last year at a-
At Bruce's thing last year.
Yeah.
At the Mac Parkman, which is September 16th and 17th of this year.
Go to the macparkmanfoundation.com.
Oh, did you see-
MPfoundation.com or .org or whatever it is. Just look up the Mac Parkman Foundation and register, and you ain't gonna wanna miss this one. We'll be going.
Yeah.
Oh, I know I am.
Absolutely.
Are you going?
I'm going. It's a three and a half, three hour 45 minute shot across through Orlando. I might have to stop to see Mickey and, uh, go to Epcot Center and stuff. But no, I'll- I'll be-
You can't do that without DeMayo.
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah. I are-
I'm even thinking about joining the battle of the golf thing on the 18th.
Well, you started, uh, playing golf again. You- you should.
You should.
Well, I don't know. We're gonna find out how this rib thing is doing. That pulled muscle over there was not fun.
I w- did you- did you start golfing before you pulled that muscle?
No. Yes.
Maybe. I don't know. Don't ask me-
Were you-
... questions like that.
Well-
You knew it was just...
No. Well, you- you were on the golf course-
No, I pulled it, I pulled it while... I pulled it
after-
After
... because I played Friday, Saturday.
Or no, I played Saturday s-
I don't remember. Did I play Sunday, Monday? I know I played-
I remember-
... N- 18 on Monday
... I remember you were in great-
And then I went and swung clubs, um, just last week. I think it was on Friday.
Um-
Well, you were in a great mood when, mood when I first saw you on- on the golf cart with Susan. She was driving you around. So you-
So I did a Sat- I did a Sunday, Monday.
Yeah.
'Cause Susan was with me, so it had to be a Sunday, Monday.
Well, if you, when you start swinging that golf club again, take it easy. Build up that muscle. Build up-
There ain't n- there ain't no muscle to build up. It's the chest wall.
Yeah, but that soft tissue sometimes is more painful than muscle tears.
Dude, it took me into the ER.
Yeah.
I actually called an ambulance when it, when I first felt it, and I never call an ambulance. I refuse to take an ambulance, utterly. I've broken legs. I've broken my neck. I've-
Yeah. I'm not-
I've never taken an ambulance. I mean, and I met that one out in the parking lot.
It was like, "Get me some painkillers now." This is... I couldn't breathe, it hurt so bad.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Well, I wanna-
When the ambulance, shallow breaths only.
I wanna talk about, uh, o- one modality in particular, one therapy, and then we can- we can talk about others, but I'm interested in the
intranasal PBM, the photobiomodulation, uh, or the red light therapy, which we don't like to call...
There's red light therapies. There's infrared therapies. You can buy all sorts of things. Some are gimmicks. Uh, y- you can, you can go online. You can buy them on Amazon. You can buy it. But, um, one in particular, one group of V light in particular, and they have been involved with clinical trials. And, uh, they have the, their clinical trial with, uh,
uh, Brigham Young University and the foot- their football team. They s- they found some pretty astounding results from using, uh, intranasal photobiomodulation during the season.
And-
Yeah, half the team, or part of the team was under the V light, and the other, and part of the team was under non-V light-
The controls
... that had the gizmos that just didn't work
They call it the sham instead of a pla-
The sham
... instead of a place- placebo, they call it a sham. And yes, they, so... And they had some astounding results. They had the, the, uh, the group that had-
The sham group had brain damage
... Yeah, the, the group that had the, uh,
the PBM, intranasal PBM actually showed no increase, and sometimes less inflammation. Um, no increase in, in, uh, no additional inflammation and, and, and in some cases less inflammation than when they t- first took, took the test. And I don't know, I didn't read whether if it was before hitting in double sessions and then after the season. I just don't know where the parameters were.
And before and after season.
Before and after season, yeah.
And, um-
They took, they took tests before the season and after season
... and they took, took reaction times, they took, uh, analytically thinking time-
Yeah
... and everything.
Everything and the whole ball of wax.
The whole ball... So performance, it actually increased performance for the-
Right
... the kids during the season that had-
Right
... the treatment. Now-
And you know, here, here at the Head Rush, we got a discount code, so if you go to vlight.com and order yours, and you use capital HEADRUSHVL, you'll get your discount.
Right. Right. And that technology, the paper was actually just released, a peer, peer-reviewed paper that was just released in, uh, I th- I, I was just talking to Larry, Dr. Larry Carr today,
um, and he said the paper was only released in March, I think.
Yeah, I think it was March, uh, of this year. And, um,
uh, what, he had a really interesting take, and Dr. Larry Carr was actually... He is the third all-time leading tal- tackler
for the Brigham Young University defense in their history. And I think he-
Well, and they've probably only had 15 tacklers in their history.
He's the third-best, uh, the level, number of tackles ever in a BYU uniform, and played a few years-
He's got more tackles while in BYU than you've had your whole career.
Well, let's see. He, he had, like, 389, right?
Right.
Yeah, and he was only there 30, 30 games, and I played
in the NFL 140, 50 games, but I started 49 games. I, uh, one year I had the most tackles on the defensive line. That was pretty cool. Um, but I only had 268 or 258 tackles in my 11 years, something like that.
Yeah, so he beat you with his four years at BYU.
30 games at B- BYU, Dr. Larry Carr.
And Corey, Steve Young, we know BYU is awesome. Steve Young, you're awesome, so I'll leave it there.
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Oh, you, you 40, you're a 49er homer. So-
Hey, speaking of which, guess who's gonna be coming on the podcast, speaking of 49ers?
Oh. Did, did, did we, uh, uh, lock him in for September, or no?
For August?
Yep. Yep.
Really?
Yep.
Really?
Yeah.
And he was, he was, he was one to, uh, have his career ended with concussions, too many concussions. Is that, is that the fact?
I don't know if that's a fact or not.
Are you, oh, you're hot? Well, let, let's, let's finish this up pretty, pretty quick then. You, you're dying, you're dying. Anyway, the, the red light therapy, it, it, uh,
it, th- there's clinical trials out. Larry Carr has a great take on, we're not gonna get rid of football. He loves the game of football. He had a, uh, he had a rough childhood upbringing, and football actually was a release for him, and he loves the game of football, and his goal is to get a therapy out there, which the red, the, uh, intranasal PBM proved to be in this particular clinical trial. It actually proved to help keep players on the field.
Corey, really quick, didn't, didn't you and I talk to somebody and they, they said, uh, they were talking to one of the NFL, uh, uh, uh, groups, and the NFL group was like, "Well, how fast..." You know, th- they were only concerned about how fast to get the player back on the field.
Mm-hmm.
Um, um, well,
Dr. Larry Carr, through his studies and his clinical trials he, he, he was a part of at the BYU football team, says, "Okay, we can, we can keep these players on the field, and we can actually have them-
... a- um, making decisions, game time decisions, split-second decisions just as fast as they were at the beginning of the season when-
Well, I think my decision-making has gotten quicker, and I started April tw- or May 21st.
Yeah.
May 21st.
Yeah. So, so your, your personal experience thus far is, has been positive overall with the, with the V light, red light therapy?
Yes.
All right.
Well-
And that comes from my wife's mouth, that comes from Rico Petrini's mouth, that comes from, um,
Crystal's mouth, that comes from a lot of people's mouths, is that the-
Yeah
... V light has helped me.
Well, I, I, I not- I personally thought
after the first week, probably 10 days, I thought you had... Your, your, your thought process was not as delayed. I thought you, you were talking very well, and you, you were able to, uh... Yeah, I, I thought you were benefiting from it, and now we know you are. You know, it might be anecdotal, but you're benefiting from it, and, uh, that's, that's good.
Um-
Yeah, the guy that's coming on-
Yes
... early in, following the 1981 season, he underwent his first knee surgery. Several weeks later, he developed hydros-
Cephalopathy
...
uh, from a concussion, and underwent emergency VP shunt brain surgery-
Oh. He did?
... four months after their Super Bowl victory.
He did?
Yep.
Oh. Now, we didn't say his name yet.
Do you wanna say it?
No, you're the, you're the, the 49er, you know, guru.
George Visger.
Oh.
Defensive lineman, drafted in 19... When was he drafted? New York Jets drafted him in what year?
S- uh, I, I was-
1980.
'80, and he was number 149 of the Jets. And, and, uh, I saw that because I was f- w- number 149 of the Jets as a defensive lineman, uh, seven years later.
Eight years later, right?
Eight, eight years later, uh, 1988. Yeah.
Right.
Yeah. So yeah, and he's, he's had, uh...
Yeah, and he's actually had, uh, a bunch of brain surgeries as well.
Yeah. And we'll be talking to him, and, you know, he was a hell of a defensive lineman.
Yeah. Absolutely.
And he played with the greats.
Yeah.
Back when football was football.
I... Yeah.
Yes, he did. There's greats every era, though.
That's true. Who's the greats this era?
I don't even know. I don't follow it close enough. Oh, my gosh, isn't that pathe- I mean, we had the one, the one thing really quick. We, we've got to finish it up because you're roasting that, there. Y- you know, it's hot in Texas, you know. And, uh,
um,
I forgot what I was gonna say.
The-
Word of hope.
Word of hope. Th- this is why we do it. The, the, the fact of the matter is, uh,
there is hope. There is hope for people that suffer from traumatic brain injury, and there, there are therapies, there are modalities. Don't give up. Don't throw in the towel. Corey, you always say it took you 30 years to get, yeah,
the white towel. It took you 30 years to, you know, get like this. You gotta give yourself 30, at least 30 years to get, get back to normal, and, uh, keep up the good fight. You know, that, that's, that's what we
w- that's what we encourage people to do,
so...
Well, and when I say that, I mean
it took years of practice, working out, dedication to get to where I'm at.
It wasn't just, hey, let's go out and have a good time. In order to ride bucking horses, you have to practice. You have to-
Mm-hmm
... become limber. You have to be dedicated like a football player. You have to do everything. So when I say give myself 30 years,
I gotta give myself m- 30 years of the same dedication.
Mm-hmm.
And that's where, you know,
I'm at, and that's why I do everything I do, and the modalities that I do, and going to Ambio, and doing everything I'm doing is for the simple fact that,
you know, I gotta work just as hard at curing myself as I am at hurting myself.
Well, I think, I think that the fact of the matter is, like, you know, Dr. Raymond was saying, you know, we don't have to settle for our bad brains the way they are. We, we can make them better. How much better? We don't know. How much-
That's right
... yeah, how much better we just don't know, but-
Like Raymond said, we'll never get our 20-year-old brain back.
Right, right, right, right. And, uh, but he, he, he has such good
advice about doing the, the things that are healthy for your brain, doing the, the right things for your, your brain health, and then you can actually... You wanna get it as, as good as you can.
So if we, we have the opportunity. So there, there's hope. There's hope. Uh, you do- you do- it's, uh... Man,
a- a- and it can be...
I mean, we're, we're talking, we're talking suicide ideation. It can be that desperate.
Well, yeah.
And-
And I mean, you look at it, I like the phrase Amen says, "It's not mental health, it's brain health."
Brain health, yep. Yeah, he says he does not like the term mental health because it stigmatizes people, puts them in a box.
It's brain health. It's your brain health, so.
All right.
So I, I say, you know, if you are suffering, see Dr. Amen, see Dr. DeMayo, see the Millennium Protocol.
You know, go to a university neurologist.
Do whatever you can and fight the good fight. It's like-
You-
... my suicide ideation has gone down. My rages have gone down. Do I still have bad days? Had one yesterday.
You know-
Mm-hmm
... we still have bad days, but you know what? There's always a better day tomorrow.
The one thing that you said, go see a, you know, a university neurologist, and I would add, and you would too, that deals with TBI, traumatic brain injury, or repeated head impacts, and understands and is progressive in that, in that field.
Right.
Which is, is, is, is... And you had to interview people to get to that point, and-
Well, I think we all do. I mean-
Yeah
... do you trust your primary care on it, on your AFib?
No.
No. Excuse me. No, no, no, no, no, no. I, I didn't, I, I didn't, I didn't really...
I didn't, I didn't trust anybody really with
any of the head trauma. I didn't trust SSRI drugs. I couldn't, I couldn't bring myself to do that. But, uh, when I finally saw a, a simple movie called Quiet Explosions, it changed my
perspective on, okay, there's, there's a possibility, so.
Now, Paul, let me ask you something, and I'm not ganging up on you.
Yeah.
And I was pretty snarky with Dr. Koffler. I watched that episode again. I was pretty snarky with her.
You know, and I'll probably get a little snarky with you.
You said Quiet Explosions changed your thought process, your mentality.
Yeah.
So why don't you give it everything you got and fight for it?
Well, I, I do. I've taken, I've taken, uh, uh, I've taken the, uh, blood tests, and I've, I've, uh, taken s- uh, you know,
I've taken supplements. Um, I'm trying to get the red light therapy, trying to work through some insurance things that I don't have. So I'm, uh, wor- working on with that. I think I'm gonna be able to do, do that. Um, I do the EMDR.
Um, TMS, I, I should, you know, I could figure that out locally. I haven't done it yet. Um,
yeah, I don't... You, you... I don't do every single thing that I can. Um, but, um, you know, I did a sugar cut. I did, uh... I lowered, quite interestingly, I lowered my LDL from 151 to 117, and I only changed five things. And, uh, and they were, they were lowered my stress. They were, uh, the sugar cut that I did, and I took myself out of, uh, uh, uh, AC- or A1C, uh, pre-diabetic numbers, and glucose pre-diabetic numbers. And then I've been eating healthy. Um, I stopped taking, uh, some of the supplements. Uh, I definitely, I get- definitely get s- uh, supplement fatigue. You take... You know, so I wanted to see, I needed to see what I could do for, you know... Bo- both of our doctors say, "Hey, we're not, we don't want you on 20 supplements for the rest of your life." Some of us
might have to be. Some of us will not have to be. So I needed to find out what my... I, I was on those, all of those supplements for two years,
and, uh, I needed to find out what my, my baseline is, so.
And right now I'm finding it out. Well, gonna be-
And that's it, and I'm glad you're finally doing EMDR. Finally. How many sessions have you done?
Oh, I, I did E- MD- EMDR a year ago. Not with, uh, not with our therapist, but... No, I've, I've taken, uh, I've done two, uh, uh, things with her. But I did, um... I w- I was doing some, uh, cerebellum, um,
activities to, uh, balance activities. It was re- freaking ridiculous. I was turning one arm this way and one arm opposite, and then you had to, uh, stand on one leg and you had to close your eyes, and it's all, all... It was kind of like, probably like your vestibular therapy.
Right.
But they were, they were saying it was your cer- cerebellum, which is the control for your mo- motor skills and your balance and everything. And that was pretty wild. I was doing that, uh-
Oh, I was doing that probably before I went, we went to Tampa last year. I was doing that-
Well, that was because of your stroke though, right?
Um, no. It was because I, I met a guy that, um, did, uh... He has a brain health and wellness... Uh, it was one of... It was kind, kind of like one of those guys like we've interviewed for, um, you know, for the podcast at times, you know, when one-
Bioorganization?
Yeah. Yeah, out in Utah. Um, um, uh, the, the one, the one gentleman out there, or the one, uh, that does in Tampa has his group. But this, this one was strictly for the cerebellum and the, the, your balance and motor movements and coordination and it was actually... It's, it's proven to actually grow neuroplasticity and new dendritic connections and all that stuff, and I was, I was doing that for a while.
And we got Sheila
Theelson-
Yeah
... coming on that talks about that stuff, and she's the one that, I call it the spinny, spinny zoom doom.
Yeah. Did, did she ever get you to do the s- the spinny, spinny thing at the Mac Parkman, uh-
No
... event?
No.
Yeah.
And I think it's a good thing, because the more I think about it, it's because I have that neuro-optical-
Yeah
... delay.
Yeah.
That just putting me on that probably, I don't know if it would retrain the nerves or not, but my eyes don't see what
my brain is seeing with the delay.
Did you have that before? Did you have that before your accident?
No.
Hmm.
This accident moved me so far advanced. I'd say before the accident, I was like you.
Hmm.
I could work. I had my issues. I dealt with them.
Right.
You know, I had some rage issues, no suicide ideation.
Right.
So I had some anger issues, but-
Oh
... you know. But part of it, it's like my psychiatrist even says,
"Is my anger issues always my anger, or is it just who I am in my personality?"
Well, it's-
Because I'll tell you what, even when I was 17 years old, I'd still knock a guy out.
Well, uh, when, when I...
M- my, my brain changed in my mid-40s. It literally changed, and I went from
having anger
and I could pull it back in to I went to rage.
So, and, and it was-
See, that's something I could never do, because it's kind of like I've talked about, is I didn't even know I was in a rage.
Right.
That last time at the parking lot at the gas station, I didn't know I was going after that guy.
Yeah.
Until my wife grabbed my belt and said, "No, no, no."
So did you know, did you know that in your younger years when you were angry?
Oh, yeah. When I hit someone, I knew I hit them.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay. Okay. So wh- whether it was the, the car accident that pushed you over the edge or you had a brain change in your 40s that, um, you know-
I think that, I think that changed so much of my symptoms of repeated head impacts, that that catalyst event just
broke the hair on the camel's back.
Yeah.
You know? I think that's what took it over the edge to where if I would've started doing the Head Rush and doing all the modalities and everything before that catalast- catalyst event,
I-
Yeah
... and I hopefully am using the word right, um,
I'm thinking, uh, I would've been a heck of a lot better.
But now since I've had that event of hitting a tree at 65 miles an hour head on,
you know, and the tree didn't give, it's still standing and growing strong today.
Yeah.
The car gave. I gave.
But, uh,
I think it moved me so far ahead that there's...
Everything's changed so much that it's gonna take a whole lot to try to get me back to that phase where I was at. And because of that, I have to do it three times more than you do.
I have to do my memory-
Well-
... games that I do every day, my Sonuku and
all of that. I have to do this stuff every day to try to get my brain just to work, and I think it's helping because, like you said, I'm back golfing.
You know?
I-
I held the conversations with people today at the gym even after I felt the tension in my ribcage again.
Oh.
And I was smart enough to go, "I'm done. Time to go home."
Well, I can't, I can't wait to-
"I'm finished here."
Yeah, I can't wait to figure that stuff out with the, well, my, uh, my, uh, HRA with the, the red light therapy. Um, but Larry's also-
I'm close. How are you?
... trying to get...
Well, I, I only need one letter, so I'm, I'm close. But Larry told me, he says, uh, "You need to get, uh, tested," and I said, "Ah, I couldn't get an, an MRI." And he says, "Yeah, you need to." He, he said, "We, we need to have you, uh, tested though."
I'm gonna, I'm gonna start meditating.
Ohm.
Ohm. Ohm.
Ohm.
Ohm.
Stay alert.
Yeah.
Stay alive.
That's right. Stay alert, stay alive.
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