Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
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Healthy Living by Willow Creek Springs
From Bobsled Glory to Hyperbaric Hope: William Pearson on TBI, CTE, and Building Access to Healing part 2
What do you do when the “bad days” become your default and medicine only names the symptoms? We sit down with former U.S. bobsledder William Pearson to trace his path from elite performance to a slow, frightening cognitive slide—and the oxygen-fueled pivot that brought his brain back online. William explains how hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT) changed his day-one reality: sharper focus, richer colors, steady energy, even a return of senses and drive he thought were gone. We break down the basics—pressure, oxygen delivery via mask, session frequency—and why these protocol details matter for real results.
The conversation pulls no punches on the bigger picture. We talk about suicides in sport, the limits of current diagnostics for CTE, and why inflammation and oxygen supply sit at the center of brain energy. William shares the practical roadblocks people hit—sticker shock for sessions and chambers, lack of insurance coverage, and clinics that skip oxygen masks or under-optimize pressure. He also opens up about the pushback he’s faced, the court dynamics around “evaluation without care,” and the personal cost of speaking out when powerful interests would rather keep things quiet.
Most importantly, we focus on action. William is building a nonprofit CTE wellness center in St. Louis to deliver affordable HBOT to athletes and veterans who need it. We discuss how lower overhead can increase access, how sport culture must shift toward safer design, and what anyone can do now: revisit diet and stimulants, prioritize sleep and breath, and, where possible, explore HBOT with informed protocols. This is a story about agency, science you can feel, and creating access where the system falls short.
If this conversation resonates, subscribe, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a review with your questions—we’ll bring William back for updates and keep the dialogue moving.
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Well, hello, and welcome back to the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine, and today we have back in the studio a very special guest, William Pearson. Um, you know, we did an interview just less than a week ago, and I felt, and it very seldom happens this way, where I feel like we were going so into this conversation, we went a little bit longer than I normally do, and I didn't even come close. So I'm like, we gotta come back, we gotta finish this. And fortunately, your schedule allowed for us to jump in before too much time had passed. So, William, welcome back. I'm so uh glad you're able to join us again. Um, without going over every little thing, um, the first episode really goes into a lot. Um, I'd like maybe you could do just a quick bullet point recap of how you know you came from your career to your injury to your discovery to your court case to your nonprofit, and then we'll jump back into some of the stuff that we really um I think didn't cover it, give it enough credit.
SPEAKER_01:Well, but first of all, thanks for having me back. I really appreciate it. Um, it's really such a really complex uh topic because there's so many different people that it affects. Right. It really, yeah. And for me, what brought me here is I spent uh nine years racing bobsleds for our U.S. Olympic team. And uh as I was leaving the sport, actually before I left the sport, you know, we we talked about some of my red flags were showing up. And then uh probably 10 years after I left the sport is when the symptoms really started to kick in and kick my butt. Uh around that 15 to 16 year mark is where you know I didn't want to be here anymore. It was, you know, like I said, I was on the ground praying for for God to, you know, come get me because now it's my time, you know, because it's so brutal. And I'm watching all of these um soldiers and these other athletes, you know, one by one. Um we still why we why you know what it reminds me of.
SPEAKER_00:Still today.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah. It reminds me like every time I found out another one of my teammates uh took their life, they do the same thing. We do a memorial, we say, Oh, how can we fix this? No, we don't even talk about fixing it. We just we do a memorial and say, Oh, we missed them, and when we're waiting on the next death to show up. And you know, that was a small community doing that in Bobsledding, but now the whole world is doing it. We're watching these athletes and these uh soldiers, you know, they're they're taking their lives at a really alarming weight. I mean, a live a really sorry, it's one of my alarming rate, yeah. Yeah, my speech slurred.
SPEAKER_00:I had them days where speech slurred a little bit, same problem from a different problem to do it.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:We'll stumble through this together, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, so I just there's so many people dealing with it. And and my biggest thing is um, for me, I probably have way more concussions than any one person could probably possibly have because I did hundreds of bobsleds, right? And so my thing is this if it woke me up, and uh it can it should be able to help pretty much most people, from what I've been seeing. And so my thing is I've just been really pushing, just um trying to get the treatment out to the masses for free.
SPEAKER_00:And so, with this treatment you're talking about hyperbaric oxygen therapy, which is a powerful uh tool that maybe a lot of people don't know much about. Why don't you tell us a little bit about just even what it is, how it works, what it is.
SPEAKER_01:Well, best way I can explain it, people always ask me how how is it shaped? And for me, the first time I saw one in person, it looked just like the bobsled. The reason why I was why I was there in the first place. I I really had a double take. I didn't want to get it, I was afraid.
SPEAKER_00:Right, I don't want to go in that thing, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:But it's it's shaped like you know, sometimes you see people they do cookouts for a lot of people, and so they're gonna make a big pot of chili. So they don't go get that top shift ground beef with the one percent fat or you know, 10% fat. They go get that stuff that looks like a tube, right? That's exactly what a hyperbaric chamber normally looks like, right? They do come in different shapes, but mine is shaped like that too. Cylinder, yeah. Yeah, and so there's a zipper on the top, right? There's two actually two zippers. I climb down through the middle and I go in there for 60 to 90 minutes at a time, and while I'm in there, it uh it feels like you in an airplane. You know, you're in the airplane and you got to clear your ears a couple times pop a little bit, yeah. Yeah, so once they pop a couple of times, you keep yawning. Next thing you know, you'll be right at the perfect pressure. And the way it was explained to me is like it takes it makes your body believe it's like seven to nine feet underwater, so your blood is more like a gas, and so it can get through all the blockages. Nice, yeah. So for me, the first time I tried it, like I was cloudy for who knows how many years, right? Because when my symptoms first kicked in, like I had those random cloudy days, they was you know, they were never knew when they were gonna show up, right?
SPEAKER_00:And you're not thinking anything about it, you know. You we have bad days sometimes, you know. You just I don't know what happened, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, but eventually they start coming more and more frequent, and then you're like, wait a minute, this is part of life now. Yeah, until it flip-flop, I started having random days of clarity, and that's when I was like, uh oh, what am I gonna, you know?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Everything starts turning back uh opposite of what you're used to, and you're like, wait a minute, I instead of having a random bad day, you're like, Oh, well, I'm having a random good day. What is what is my at this point?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, it it really it destroyed your quality of life, is gone. You're like, there's you're you're you're fighting to for me. I had to fight to find a reason to stay here. Uh, you get to that point, you know, and then I realized you know, that's what a lot of athletes were dealing with. I had no, I thought it was isolated, I thought it was just my brain was messed up. I started connecting those dots after the last suicide uh phone call, and I was like, oh my god, we're all in trouble. And uh yeah, so that's the only relief that I've received is hyperbaric.
SPEAKER_00:But so, you know, with traumatic brain injuries, there's so really little known, you know, with all the developments in science and medicine and all these things, you know, and they're they're claiming they understand how you know they can map things out and see neurons transmitting and yeah, and neuropathways and neurotransmitters and all this stuff, they can talk about it, but they don't really have uh any solutions. You know, I feel like we're still stuck in the days when they were carving out a chunk of your your brain just to make you you know stop screaming. And you know, I don't think they really understand a lot more than that. They're still experimenting, they put little shocks here and there, and they put stimuli and they put probes and they put things in you, but they really don't, you know, they don't know. Yeah, but we do know that the brain consumes a huge amount of energy. It's your it it you burn more calories from your brain than you do your whole body, unless you're you know a professional athlete working out crazy. But most people, just your day-to-day living, your brain cooks up all your juice and it needs a ton of oxygen. And anything goes wrong in your body, especially inflammation, and inflammation is tied to every problem in your body. Absolutely, it blocks everything, it blocks everything, it blocks your lymphatic system from pumping your your fluid that helps your your immune system work, it it blocks your blood from flowing right, it blocks your hormones from passing right, it blocks your oxygen. And you know what happens when you injure yourself, when you get a concussion, the first thing happens, right? Everything swells, yeah. And so that is the definition of inflammation. So everything's swollen. Now you got all this fluid pushing on everything, trying to protect your brain, because that's what your body's like, well, send fluid, it'll keep it from happening again. You know, we gotta try to protect that gray matter. So your body's kind of doing what it knows how to do, but it it's not enough.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:And um, and then all of a sudden, so now you're breathing, you know, like normal. Probably you're breathing more shallow than normal, because that's generally what happens when we get injured or ill, you know, we start breathing softer and softer, and and that's just you know, trying to protect ourselves because it hurts sometimes to take a deep breath or to cough or whatever. But all of a sudden, you know, you're depleting your oxygen, you're not getting what you need, and you don't realize it. And I can't help but wonder, you know, there's got to be some correlation to the lack of oxygen getting to your brain and and the symptoms because you look at it and you go, Well, we add one thing, yeah, yeah. And then what happens, you know?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and for me, like the first time I tried the the chamber, I did I did one-hour session. And I just tell you, when I came out of that chamber, I was just so awake and alive. And uh, like I said, I'm not sure, but uh maybe I wasn't seeing colors because when I came out of that chamber, everything seemed so beautiful, just the sky, man. And I always tell people, it's like it feels like I was walking around in 3D. Like, and I didn't know that I had already shut down that much. There was so much in life I had been missing.
SPEAKER_00:I can tell you almost for sure you were seeing black and white or or barely it colors, because I know um and I had a traumatic brain injury, I was in a coma for a couple of days, not as long as you, but um, when I came out of it, I didn't know who I was, I didn't know anything. And slowly everything came back. But wow, I lost my 10 sense of taste and smell for 10 years, and everything tasted like cardboard, and um, I couldn't smell anything. And uh over time my brain sort of rewired itself and kind of made fake tastes. But like you could hand me an apple pie made out of onions or liver, and if it looked like apples and felt like apples, I would taste some semblance of apples, yeah. And then I'd look at it and go, uh, you know, but but it wasn't real, and and most everything just didn't taste like anything. And then one day I got really sick and I had a fever like crazy, I had hallucinating fever, and I woke up a couple of days later or sometime later, and uh I was all of a sudden I'm like, what the hell? I smelt myself, you know. I stunk from just sweating for two days or whatever. Yeah, I'm like, oh my god, that's for real. Like that was a real thing, kind of like what you're talking about. Now I don't know what happened to my brain, but I know that somehow something reconnected. And since that time, everything, like you said, it's like in 3D, like tastes became completely different. Like I drank a little bit of milk and it was like, oh, you know, like wow, like unbelievable. Smelt the soil, and you're just like it came to life, it was just incredible. So I I can understand what you're talking about, and uh it really is a wake-up call though, because it tells you this was for real. Like I was damaged. I I I'm not seeing things right. I'm I'm you know, it's it's it's not working.
SPEAKER_01:For me, I I still after all the red flags, all the stuff I was going through, I never I still couldn't connect those dots. Like I was still thinking this gotta be diabetes because it uh because I would you know what I what I learned is I was treating the symptoms as they showed up, right? Like there was time where I I got to the point where I couldn't focus. I said, Well, maybe I got adult ADHD. So I started going to doctors trying to figure that out. Every something that showed up, I'm I'm going to the doctors. And I always say they they check my blood, never check that brain. Right. And so, but we know now, even with CTE, if even if they had checked my brain, they wouldn't have found that. Right. They only diagnosed that at death.
SPEAKER_00:So right, exactly. And that's the thing that's crazy. It's like and and doctors are good at analyzing symptoms, right? They got their playbook, they got all the collective knowledge from everything, so they just go in and go, Oh, well, you have this symptom, it's most likely these things, and we're gonna treat it according to our standard of care. And and so, you know, you're going at it was logical. It was actually, you know, you you you you you stub your toe, you go and look at your toe, you're not looking at your skin, you know. And so it it made sense what you did, but it didn't help.
SPEAKER_01:Well, even when I found help, and I remember I remember talking to my primary doctor about it. I said, Yeah, I've been using this hyperbarics, and it's woke me, woke me up. I feel I'm feeling better. Yeah, and he tried to talk me out of using it. He's like, Oh, those things could be dangerous, and you know, they you know, it gave me all the different reasons why I shouldn't be using it. But what he didn't realize, like his office was only about a mile from my all from my apartment, yeah. And I would get lost just walking there, like, like, no, it was worth the risk for me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:All the side effects that's out there about this thing, you it was worth the risk.
SPEAKER_00:You know what's so crazy is a doctor will prescribe you a drug that has known side effects that are likely to give you horrible problems, and he's okay with that risk. Yeah, but the hyperbaric chamber, which maybe occasionally somebody pops an eardrum or whatever. I mean, I don't know what things happen, but you could be susceptible to any problem, and you can have a problem drinking water, you know, whatever. And yeah, then they get a key on that and say, Oh no, that's too dangerous, we don't know enough about it.
SPEAKER_01:Right. Well, I really think it's because you know, and I fell into the same trap. Like, I remember when I first started finding this stuff, and um people kept saying, Oh, it's because uh you know big pharma doesn't want to pay for it, and insurance companies don't want to, you know, and I was like, ah, whatever, maybe this thing's not real, you know. And so when I actually tried it and it worked, I was like, whoa, yeah, and I was like, okay, why come they're not sending people through this? Why, you know, why are people struggling with this thing? And then I guess people were right, like it's really one of the things that um they won't pay for, yeah, you know, and so there's a lot of truths to it.
SPEAKER_00:Right now, I think the technology is gonna get a lot cheaper as more people understand it, and more companies are coming in and building quality units, but until it's already getting cheaper.
SPEAKER_01:Like when I've when I bought like um around a little bit before 2022 is when I started finding it and started trying to shop, you couldn't find a chamber for under 20 something thousand.
SPEAKER_00:Right now that's when I was looking right about that time. I came close to buying one, I didn't quite pull the trigger on it, but um I I I went and got a sauna and some other stuff instead. But the point was that was you couldn't find one for you know, you might find a used one for 10 10 grand. Yeah, what condition that's in or where it's been or what it's done. So yeah, no warranty, no manufacture, anything. So yeah, it was yeah, 20 to 100,000. I mean, you know, it just there's no there's no limit how high they go.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, yeah, that's the truth. That's the reason why I want to open up this uh CTE wellness center, is because you know it's so expensive. People aren't even if they find out, like myself, I knew I tried it twice, right? And it removed my cloudiness, but then I knew I couldn't afford this thing now, right? And so I had to make some life decisions like am I gonna you know pay rent? Or am I gonna put my because if I don't pay rent, I'm gonna have to not pay rent for it for quite a few months to save up that money where I'm gonna live during that time, you know. So that was a lot of scary.
SPEAKER_00:Like you've been through some challenges that so few people go through. I mean, to be faced with, you know, I don't want to live, and having to come, you know, because of the suffering you were going through and putting your relationships through and all the the trauma that was going through that, you were just like literally asking God to take you. Like that doesn't happen unless you're going through the worst of the worst. And then to be faced with, I've got an answer, but I have to choose between like everything or this, like yeah, man, that's some heavy stuff.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I have a uh TikTok channel, One Man with a Chamber. I have so many people coming there and just asking for help. How did I do it? How did it bounce back? You know, and the thing of it is, is like once you tell them what how much those things cost, right? They're so excited until they find out figure out how much it costs. Yeah, and that's just for paying for the treatment, like here in LA, just like 200 bucks.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, a couple hundred bucks, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, and that's just just sitting this thing for an hour, yeah. And you're like, whoa, you know, like that's I could do that once or twice as a special treat, but yeah, you know, not a lot of people have expendable income that says, Well, that's part of my weekly regimen, or my you know, twice a month or whatever, however, often you need it, you know, you might need it three times a week for a while to get get yourself cleared out.
SPEAKER_01:I started with five uh there you go, yeah. And uh I didn't actually I started doing better when I got to the point where I was doing two a day. Okay, then it was like, whoa. And then oh I yeah, I was going through uh, like for example, yeah, I was going through some progressions learning as I was going, right? It was was a lot of information out there. So my machine came with an oxygen concentrator, so you can run that cord right into the machine, you can let it pour into the thing. Right. I got much better results when I connected a hose to that thing and used the mask.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, so as I started to use that variance, I had a mask on, and I think they have different ways they do it, but I was wearing a mask when I went into it, yeah. And I I'm I'm sure they pressurized with oxygen too, but I had I had oxygen going, I was breathing it straight in too. Yeah, yeah, I went to a place uh probably about two weeks ago.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, they had some, they have one of those big chambers you can put four people in. So I wanted to just go try it out. Actually, right in the middle of Hollywood. I think it's called O2 something, something oh two. I really should know that one because they actually let me try it out, right? But I have I have one of their links um okay attached to one of my videos or something. But you want to just try it out and like they're not running oxygen to people, and I noticed most places that have those, they're not running the oxygen, but they're also doing 2.0 oxygen instead of okay, got it one point. So maybe, but I guarantee if they use that oxygen with that higher pressure, yeah, it should be a much better, better result for people.
SPEAKER_00:Agreed, agreed. Well, and you know, for people who are not aware of how the body works, you know, oxygen is this amazing thing. Like it is your primary fuel source for your cells, and it brings it delivers everything, and it's actually very harmful to the negative to the bad cells, like if you got cancer, if you got disease, the the those cells that are that are growing in you wrong, they don't like oxygen. And oxygen literally tears them apart, it oxidizes them, and then your healthy cells eat it up like like you know, grapes. I mean, it's just like the best thing ever. And it it feeds your mitochondria, it it creates uh you know this ATP, all of your your cellular fuel. It without oxygen, you just don't have that stuff. And with it, you you get this tremendous boost of everything. It's like crazy. And your body can adapt. Like, you know, people go up to high altitudes to train so that the air is thinner and your body sort of gets used to less oxygen, right? Yeah, so your blood changes and it's able to process what it has better. Then you come down here and it gobbles it up, it's able to process more oxygen than the guy that's training down here. So, you know, your body's really good at at processing these things, and yet again, you know, nobody talks about it.
SPEAKER_01:It's just well, I I did some reading about that, and I and like when I was trying to figure this thing out okay before I even tried it, and I all those things you're telling me, I heard it all, and I was like, I said, okay, this gotta be the biggest conspiracy in the world. How could this thing be here and is doing all this miraculous stuff? Right. And so when I went to try it, I still didn't believe it was gonna work. I was like, uh, you know, and I just got uh on matter of fact, oh, I just I found that video about two, three weeks ago that I made a recording in there for the first time. Okay, it's so grim and dark. It's like this is my last thing, there's nothing else. If this don't work, I don't know if what you know, it was so dark to hear it, and and but that's where I was at for such a long time. So yeah, I went down that same rabbit hole. I didn't believe it until I got in that machine, and then man, it changed my life. Even matter of fact, if you look at all my old pictures, I had the same haircut you rock right now. I had that same haircut. I hear you, and then as my hair was started to grow, I was using that machine. Yeah, like if you look on some of my social uh media stuff, people you see people making comments like is he wearing a wig? Like the biggest compliment I ever got in my life.
SPEAKER_00:I used to have one of those. I'll have it again once I'm done with all these treatments, but uh it I'm sure that O2 makes a difference too. I mean, it is doing everything, yeah, everything worked better.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'm not sure. Did we talk about the um the non-PG 13 part of my treatment? Did we a little bit? Yeah, do we talk about what happened with the yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You woke up and you had a uh a long-lasting erection going on for a while, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And that's I mean, again, that's a sign of your body's working. Like that, that's the first thing that goes when you lose energy, your body's like, Well, you don't need that anymore. And it just takes it from you. And when that when that comes to you, you know, that's a that's the 13-year-old strong boys, yeah. First response, boom, you know, you got that long. And and it and it's because you're you're healthy, you're growing, you're you're you got you know, vigorous energy, you got it all going on at that point.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, and that was the first time. First time I use it. That all that stuff happened at once. That's unbelievable. Unbelievable.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, now you know, I I'd like to hear a little bit about your diet as that's been connected to this, because diet's such a big part of health, and it and it affects everything, and and including your brain, but it also affects how your body processes oxygen. And you know, as an athlete, I know you must have be you must, you know, be very aware of your diet and all of these things. And then I remember you talking in the last conversation how you know you were you weren't eating good, or you were eating some like not it, it didn't sound like it was it was uh healthy. Why don't you walk us through that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I always ate pretty healthy, but what I what I started to do was um I guess I thought this was diabetes or something because I that was cloudy, no energy, couldn't get out of the bed. Yeah, so on my nightstand next to the bed, I always put a thermos of coffee or Coca-Cola.
SPEAKER_00:That's what it was, stuff like that. That's I remember, yeah, yeah. Which is like the worst thing you could put in your body.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, it began to cause me more medical issues that I didn't have in the first place. Like I wound up having too much acid in my stomach at some point.
SPEAKER_00:Sure.
SPEAKER_01:So yeah, but that was the only thing that was keeping me going. Like I I couldn't survive without it.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:There was I would not get out of bed before three o'clock if I didn't have that sitting there. Well, I would just be laying there. That's and that's why I really thought this thing was um, you know, diabetes, because it looks just like I've seen so many diabetics.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, you got a sugar problem somehow, and yeah, it's not processing or it's not doing it right. And other than that, though, your diet's generally a good, healthy diet.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I was always a really uh I I any but any of my old babysitters and nannies who listen to this, I apologize right now. I was always a really picky eater. You know, and as I got older, it just just I and I didn't realize I was like this as a kid, right? Right. Like I had a nanny who would um we call them babysitters back then. Like she would uh pick me up after the kindergarten, I go over her house, and so she used to make me the sandwich, right? It'd be like a hamburger or bread. She would uh diagonally cut it, you know, so now it's a triangle, and she would put a little ketchup drop like right on top, make it look like a uh chocolate chip chop. All right, right now, if I took too long to get to that table, it had melted or something, right? Or if it didn't look right, if it wasn't perfect. Oh boy, she knew I wasn't gonna eat that sandwich. She had to go and I had to watch her make me a whole nother sandwich, have it in the skillet, had to go, you know, well, none of that I'm gonna trick him and put a new no, yeah. So I've always been a finicky eater. I remember even being on uh tour racing World Cup, uh-huh and um I automatically go to the chefs in the kitchen because that the the hotels cook their meals for us. And I'll go, I say, just give me a chicken, you know, a piece of protein, chicken and salad. Because in Europe a lot, there was a lot of mad cow stuff going on over there. Sure. So I didn't want the beef, I didn't eat any pork, and so you know, so all my teammates was like, Oh, that guy is so he's so arrogant or bougie or something. Like, look at him missing. But I tell you what, by that yeah, but by that third day in Italy when they gave them pasta for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, it was like, Can we have what he has, you know? Right. So yeah, but I was always a real clean eater to this day. Like, okay, well, that's good, yeah. And so it wasn't my I try to add things to the diet like the omega's fish, like the uh salmon, but now you're looking at the salmon in the store.
SPEAKER_00:I know now they're making it in a stainless steel kettle. Yeah, it's it's it's you know, food is a whole nother conversation, and I I I I talk a lot about food because it's you know instrumental in my healing right now, and it's a whole different conversation. But um, I I want to get into uh your experience with others, you know, you you've taken what you've learned and what you're benefiting, and you've you know committed yourself to providing this to people in need and and and educating people. You got this TikTok channel, you're out there talking about this, you're um, you know, and and I I know the whole court case thing is scary as hell, and we talked about it last time, and it's I don't know that I want to go too deep into it because we don't know, like you got some big heavy hitter with a red dot on your forehead, and you don't know who it is or what it is, and it's not good, but you're you're staying tough and and and you know staying in the fight, which I respect deeply. But as much as that, you know, the fact that you're willing to uh take your experience and and the knowledge that you've gained, um, and and and you're working to build um you've got a nonprofit now, and you're you're raising funds to uh make available this amazing therapy to people who need it without them having to come up with that 200 bucks a pop or 20 grand to buy the thing, and or maybe it's only 15 grand now, but still it's like not something most people have in their expendable income to go and to buy. No, yeah, you know, and and so um I'm I'm really I'm really not just intrigued, but I'm I'm excited about that. And I know that um, you know, I have plans on integrating that into our garden therapies that we have here. And one day, you know, it's all about funding, it's all about finding the people, and that's part of what I want to talk about. Um is is you know, it's hard when you're doing all this stuff yourself. Have you built a team of people around you that are that are helping to to bring your message out there? And and you know, I mean, you've got a you got reach, people know who you are, you got a dynamic personality, you got a crazy story, like you got all the ingredients to take this thing anywhere you want to go.
SPEAKER_01:Well, the thing is, like, I really um when this thing when I first found treatment, I found it during after the court case was was started, had started already. I there was no help for me. And see, I was the perfect person to do this because I was dying, man. I I don't want to be here, and uh like the I I I gotta say, I make sure I say this next part, right? There were some people who wanted to do a documentary about me, right? Okay, so they they go to the biggest people in the world, these are these are the real Hollywood producers, sure. So they went to go pitch this thing to the regular people they pitch it to, and they found out that there's some really big people. People fighting this information coming out, some really big people watching me. And I warned him that. I told him, I said, guys, I might be wrong, but I'm not sure. And I could just be a little paranoid, but I think my life might be on the line because of what the things that I'm saying right now in this case. And I said, But don't worry about that. I said, and I warned them because I worry about their them and their families and their well-being. I said, I don't care what they do to me. Right. And all like they can't, if they take me out right now, they're gonna be doing me a favor. You know, but my message is out here now, and it's too late for them to unhear what I've been saying.
SPEAKER_00:Exactly.
SPEAKER_01:You know, and that was really the truth of it, guys. Like make people make me out to be this hero, guys. No, I had nothing left. And I'm watching my teammates, and then when I realized they wouldn't stop, you know, they won't warn a youth. That was the number one thing I requested. Warn a youth before they start.
SPEAKER_00:Right. And I'm like, I dip this thing before, you know, fix it before it's a problem.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. Sorry, the problem. The same way they tricked me over there, they tricked y'all the same way. They didn't tell me this was gonna happen, but they knew. And I know because one of the employees who worked there told me they couldn't find helmets, they were safe but aerodynamics. Wow, they let me know. Guess what? These are the wrong people running our Olympic team. We need people in there who's gonna look out there for the athletes, right?
SPEAKER_00:Right. Yeah, they want that extra quarter second or more than they worry about you bashing your brain.
SPEAKER_01:That's not what they want. That's not what they want. You know what they really want? What's that? People I know now who run the bobsled office or athletes who were used to be bobsledders. Okay, so as they leave the sport, they get this job and it pays them pretty good salary. So the most of them aren't probably aren't qualified to do anything else because this is all they've been doing since they were teenagers, you know. And so, like for me and every athlete that I know who deal with this issue, we couldn't see it on ourselves, right? So they're no different, even though some of those coaches are really bad off right now. Those are the ones people told me all the athletes, they gave me a list of people who they know who's suffering, and a lot of them still working at office. So if you have someone with CTE who might not recognize they're dealing with CTE, they're not gonna look out for the people around them who's gonna get CTE. Wow. So they they're really that's just like having uh uh a person who's actively uh um alcoholic still drinking, and he's trying to mentor the next guy to not drink. Like, no, it doesn't work like that. You gotta teach and show some healthy things, and so that's that's mainly what some of the problems are.
SPEAKER_00:Is it yeah? You got kind of a two-phase mission. One is education and bringing awareness of this problem and solution to the table. The problem itself can be mitigated by better equipment, by better practices, but it's not likely to happen because you're dealing with this, you know, um, archetypal institution of a sport that, like you said, to change the whole way the sport is done. And they're not likely to do that.
SPEAKER_01:Well, it's an easy change. All you do is remove those terms that we remove the extreme turns, and it's a much different sport.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. And it could be done, you know. Football, they've changed a lot of rules and and and they've worked on making it safer, they've changed equipment, they've changed a lot of things, and I don't know that it's had the effect that they want yet, and they won't know for a while, but at least they're addressing it on some level. But that's yeah, that's a sport where people are smacking their heads together on purpose, and it's not, you know, everybody knows that that's something that is is is a thing, or boxing, you know. They're I don't know what they could do about boxing. That's the whole sport is to beat each other. Right.
SPEAKER_01:So it's did we talk about uh Leon Spinks? No, no. Oh, he's from he's from a hometown, St. Louis. Okay. I happen to be in Las Vegas right right before COVID kicked off. All right, some of my buddies we all got together and seen each other in years. We met in Vegas, so uh he's there doing autographs, right? Okay, and all he's writing, he has a piece of paper right here. It says Leon Spinks, World Champ, 1978. Wow, so he's writing an autograph, right? He's writing it, he's looking at the paper, writing it, looking at the paper. He almost had to trace his own autograph. Wow, yeah, and I was just like, it's before I didn't know what was wrong with me. Like, I still think I had diabetes, you know. Right. And so when my symptoms really kicked in, and my teammate committed suit, the last one committed suicide, and his autopsy came out, and I connected the dots. Oh, this is what this is, it has a name now, we know what it is. Right. I could think about all the times I met people under this condition, like Leon Spenks. Right. I'm like, oh my god, am I gonna be that bad? Is it gonna go that far? Because I'm already cloudy every day. Like I can see the writing on the wall, right? Like I'm in trouble. I'm in trouble. No, it's wasn't this thing. No, it's never gonna get better on its own. That's it gets this is slowly, it gets a little bit worse. Slowly, slowly, slowly until they really kick in. And then when them symptoms really start kicking in, you're like, okay, that's why people giving up. Like if you're gonna lay on that floor or on that couch or that stay in that bed, and that's all you can do all day, it's a matter of time before you just kind of give up on life.
SPEAKER_00:Wow.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You've got these heavy hitters sort of putting a dark cloud over you saying, you know, keep away from this guy. We we we're we're watching him, and and that skips people off like crazy. Like, you know, it's like having the mob come and send you a little message, you know, get a a head of something delivered to your bed, you know. It's like, oh I gotta watch what I'm doing. And and and why would you go near that guy if if he's gonna bring you this? And and you know, people don't have the the heart to to to jump into a fight when they when they should sometimes. And so, yeah, how are you seeing yourself get through this? You know, I mean, this is one way we just keep talking. I'm gonna keep talking. And that's that's where I'm at. That's what that's one of the reasons that I want to, you know, uh help you any way I can. Is this is a powerful message. People need to hear this. We can make a difference in the world. I don't have the reach or the the you know the the tools yet, but I'm working on it. We're growing all the time. Yeah. And and you know, over time, maybe I'll be a better uh better ally, you know, in that in that venue. But meanwhile, you know, you got a lot going on and a lot of potential to quickly, you know, put this legacy in front of you, and and regardless of whatever happened or didn't happen to you, because you don't know, you know, I mean, who knows? Maybe something terrible happens, or maybe they go away and give up and you you go on to prosper. I mean, you know, it it could go any which way, we don't know. But meanwhile, you're building something that can live on long beyond you and and yeah, and and do this. So, what's your what's it look like?
SPEAKER_01:Well, I already have the building that I want to use. Uh I'm trying to recycle what I can get to easy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Um, my my daddy has this building, he just retired a few years ago. Okay, and um he had hit a successful roofing company. So that building sent empty. He's about to sell it, and I'm like, wait a minute, dad. Before you sell this building, let me let me see if I can figure some things out. All right. So I'm ready to get that building for you know, peanut peanuts, you know, like not much money. And um, like if I open here in LA, the same size building, it's gonna cost me probably 15, 20,000 for a building that size. Oh, yeah. And um, that means for where I can purchase that building and build it out, that's like a year of rent here. Yeah, exactly. So that's the reason why I want to do it there.
SPEAKER_00:This is in the Midwest, you're talking about.
SPEAKER_01:Yep, so St. Louis, right in the middle of the United States, center spot.
SPEAKER_00:I love it. I love it. You know, it's wild. It's like uh people have no idea if you don't if if you spend your time living in California, you don't realize what it's like in other places, like gasoline's two bucks a gallon, yeah, and and you know, rents are less than a thousand bucks a month for a little house, even sometimes, you know. I mean, it's like it's unbelievable. Like I know people all around the country, and it's like they tell me about what they're you know, they're paying to just live in a little suburban town in Kansas or or Arkansas or wherever, and you're just like, what? You know, how I can't, I can't, I can't pay for my basic utilities for that, and you're you know, you're living. And so, you know, it's it's it's amazing what you can do. And and in this world right now, if you're able to build this thing, there's gonna be people in in that sphere of influence that'll benefit enough that'll take this thing to the next level where you'll be able to put up another one in another spot. You know, this is uh there's two two phases to this. One's the education part, which will grow as you're doing more things, you're gonna be building more educational content and have more um more awareness. Your your your light shines brighter, the the channel tunes easier, all of those things. But the the actual footprint of touching people, that's the part that you got to get established. And I think I think you're on the right, you're on the right path. So, what's your timeline looking like for that?
SPEAKER_01:Well, you know, um, we we kind of did things a little bit backwards. Well, I did. Um, I set the crowdfunding up, released it way before it was time to uh start promoting it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_01:And I did that because actually I originally set this up um two years ago. And my lawyers, they they told me, hey, say don't press, don't do the press release. They said, um, these doctors are gonna come and they're gonna help you guys. He said, so don't do it right now. We're about to settle this case, and uh the doctors are coming, they're gonna save you, don't worry. Okay, so fast forward, we get to the point, case is about to end. They present me this offer. The offer says zero treatment, no treatment, they only want to evaluate us. And I'm thinking, I said, guys, you made me wait two years to help other people because you said these doctors were coming, but now you're saying no doctors are coming. Right. And they said, Well, we always told you no doctors were coming. It's only about uh medical evaluation. So, matter of fact, at the last court hearing, I went in our email and I pulled out an email they sent me, and this thing said medical monitoring and care for life. Ah, and I showed it to the judge. I said, Your Honor, look at this offer, right? There is no care in here at all. Right. And I asked the I asked the judge, I said, Your Honor, would you send your child to a doctor? I mean to a doctor that won't that won't help him, you won't help him. Like, what would be the point of that? Yeah, and so the judge told me he was like, Well, he said, at the end of the day, when the offers come through, he's gonna have to look at it as well. Because they're trying to bully the hell out of me, just to be blunt with it. They're trying to bully me to settle this. So my and to be honest, my law team is now standing tight with uh defense lawyers, they're together.
SPEAKER_00:The last episode that was yeah stuff, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:So, yeah, so the the just at the end of the day, he's gonna have to look at it and see if it's you know a fair offer for the class. So I I even though I'm still alone, I don't feel quite as alone, but I'm gonna do the same thing I've been doing, Your Honor. This is not a good deal. I'm not voting. I'm not told him if you want to, you know, you can end this case, but like I'm gonna stand firm on what I believe. I you know, when the courts are gonna do what the courts are gonna do, but the scary part is I'm not qualified to be here um standing like they got some of the most expensive lawyers in the world right now.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I mean you had David Shapiro walk away from you, so I mean that's like yeah, geez, Louise, like what do you do? Well, listen, William, we did it again. We burned up more time than I generally allot, and we have another interview coming up in like 10 minutes.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:I'm always around, you can always find it. Yeah, but you know what? I really want to do is as this thing progresses, I would love to have you. I have guests that come on regularly, and we share a story that's evolving. And I'd love for you to to join that, you know, that that legion. I think that this is an important story that I want to carry on and help you in any way that I can. And this is one thing I can offer is you know, the ability to share updates. So anytime you see that there's uh an update or something you want to it's coming, add to and share, please reach out. Um, and um, you know, again, I we don't live more than an hour and hour and a bit of away from each other. I'd love to show you my garden and uh yeah, some of the stuff we're doing, and and you know, I'd love to meet you in person for sure.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I we'll have to make that happen.
SPEAKER_00:Excellent. All right, well, William. Um Find my crowdfunding, guys.
SPEAKER_01:We need you. I can't do it whatever.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Tell everybody how to find your crowdfunding and your TikTok channel. Give us all that again.
SPEAKER_01:It's all one man with a chamber. One man with a chamber, guys. Please read between the lines, guys. I was in dementia. How many of our loved ones were there and came back from there? I came back from there and it came from the chamber. It wasn't what I went there for, but that's what it did. So do the research, it's out there for Alzheimer's, for dementia. There's treatments for with hyperbaric as well. So, and I'm I'm a walking testimonial to it.
SPEAKER_00:Powerful, powerful. Well, again, I I I have deep respect for you, your integrity, your courage, and and just you know, living it, walking the walk. It's it's it's hard to find folks that are willing to do that. And I I stand with you.
SPEAKER_01:Uh thank you, appreciate you.
SPEAKER_00:And I look forward to having you back again. This has been another episode of the Healthy Living Podcast. I'm your host, Joe Grumbine, and we really want to thank all the listeners that make this possible and take some time. Um, look into these guests and and and see the good work that they're doing. And uh, we will see you next time.
