George Visger a former NFL defensive tackle, and current CEO of The Visger Group specializing in traumatic brain injury consulting, having himself developing gran mal seizures and going through three brain surgery. Here is his story, and how Zone and Dr. Sears helped save his life.
I began playing Pee Wee Pop Warner football in 1970 at age 11, knocked myself unconscious in a tackling drill and was hospitalized during my 3rd year of Pop Warner in 1972. I went on to play for the undefeated, nationally ranked A.A. Stagg High in Stockton, Calif., and attended the University of Colorado on a football scholarship in 1976, where I majored in biology and played in the '77 Orange Bowl. For three years I started at defensive tackle and was selected in the sixth round of the 1980 NFL draft by the New York Jets, ultimately playing two seasons with the San Francisco 49ers. During the '81 Super Bowl season I developed hydrocephalus from concussions and underwent the first, of my nine emergency VP shunt brain surgeries.
In 1982 I developed gran mal seizures after my third brain surgery in nine months and have been on anti-convulsants ever since. With all the seizures and brain surgeries, I began to have serious problems with my cognitive abilities, short-term memory, poor judgment and anger management issues, in addition to serious insomnia problems.
In 2009 I underwent a three-day neuro-psychological examination at Dr. Daniel Amen's clinic in Newport Beach, Calif., where I scored a 56 on the microcognitive memory test. Needless to say, with 100 being normal, this score indicates a severely damaged brain. Dr. Amen, who works with brain-based disorders, recommended hyperbaric oxygen treatments and Omega-3 fish oil. Shortly after Dr. Barry Sears read of my plight with the NFL head injuries and began sending me his ultra-refined OmegaRx and SeaHealth Plus, even though we had never met! Every week or so Dr. Sears would call to check on my condition. After two weeks on 8 gm/day of omega 3s (about 12 capsules of OmegaRx per day) I had not noticed any significant improvement, so Dr. Sears instructed me to crank it up to 12-14gm/day. I did and within a couple days noticed I was beginning to remember things on my daily schedule. Prior to that unless it was written down, it didn't exist.
I continued on OmegaRx, SeaHealth Plus and hyperbaric oxygen treatments (HBOT) and was retested at Dr. Amen's clinic after 40 HBOTs about three months later. My microg scores began improving, as did my sleep and anger issues. I continued on the treatments, and after 14 months my microcognitive memory scores improved more than 15 percent, and my anger management issues were completely under control. Sleep problems have improved greatly but are still an issue for me.
Nonetheless, for the first time in 20 years, I can look forward to a better future. Without the support of Dr. Sears and the Zone, I think my future would have been very bleak. Six former NFL players have committed suicide the last four years, and all were diagnosed with CTE, Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, a degenerative disease of the brain caused by repeated blows to the head. We are also losing an average of 4.5 veterans per day to suicide, most of whom have also suffered head injuries. Ultra-refined Omega-3 fish oil, such as the OmegaRx, and anti oxidants, such as SeaHealth Plus or Maqui, have been proven to repair inflamed neurons. This helps those suffering from head injuries to make more informed, thought out decisions. The Visger Group is dedicated to helping traumatic brain injury survivors and families reclaim their lives, as Dr. Sears so graciously has done for me.