Force Health Protection Education: A Pilot Approach to Applying Military Frameworks to Service Member Health Education.

Ensuring Force Health Protection (FHP) is one of the most critical priorities in the DoD; however, there is no systematic approach for individual service members to address their own FHP. This paper outlines the FHP Education workshop, a model program fielded at 3rd Special Forces Group, Fort Bragg, NC, which applies military processes, principles, and frameworks to teaching special operations forces operators and enablers how to address their own FHP by identifying and mitigating threats to health and performance in the military operational environment. The FHP Education workshop has the potential to be a well-received and impactful program that offers a proactive, whole of person, community-based preventive system aligned with the Total Force Fitness framework to enable individual service members to conduct FHP.

Neurotoxicity Associated with Traumatic Brain Injury, Blast, Chemical, Heavy Metal and Quinoline Drug Exposure.

Chronic, excessive exposure, and accumulation of neurotoxic agents such as heavy metals (lead, mercury, cadmium), mefloquine (Lariam), and food additives such as monosodium glutamate and aspartame cause neurotoxicity and brain damage. This chemical-induced brain damage closely resembles the pathophysiology of classical traumatic brain injury with decreased cognitive function, neurodegeneration, and increased psychiatric manifestations (depression, anxiety, sleep disturbances, and irritability). Current evidence supports a strong causal relationship between military-related exposure to specific neurotoxins, and the development of serious medical conditions and higher rates of suicide among service members. To address this current deficit in military health care, it is recommended that efficacious, nontoxic, neuroprotective, and neuroregenerative agents such as highly bioavailable magnesium, nutritional lithium, zinc, selenium, boron, ascorbate, tocopherols, heavy metal chelators, and glutathione precursors such as N-acetyl-cysteine be immediately used as a "protective shield" and to support critical healing processes in the brain and nervous system.