Repeated blast exposure linked to brain damage in Navy SEALs, military finds NBC 7 San Diego [Video]

When soldiers fire their weapons, the kickback is a lot stronger and damaging than previously thought. A military lab found that repetitive low-level blasts in training — not enemy fire or combat — are likely the cause of brain damage in special forces like the Navy SEALs, The New York Times first reported.

NBC 7 spoke with a doctor who says the finding is not a bombshell revelation but just proof of what many in the mental health industry have already been seeing and treating.

“In those energy intense blasts, there’s different levels of density and timing, so the brain is a fluid-filled tissue that’s moving and rattling inside the brain, essentially, and it can cause inflammation, scarring patterns,” Dr. Karen DeCocker, director of advanced practitioners DNP, PMHNP, CNM at Stella Center, told NBC 7.

DeCocker has treated Navy SEALs, Delta Force, Rangers and elite soldiers for years.

“The suffering of the change in their cognitive …