The Robert Scott Bell Troop Support Project

Headline: VA testing drugs on war veterans "The government is testing drugs with severe side effects like psychosis and suicidal behavior on hundreds of military veterans, using small cash payments to attract patients into medical experiments that often target distressed soldiers returning from Iraq and Afghanistan,..." It begs the question: Who is doing more harm to our troops? Terrorists or our own government?

Symptoms of PTSD include those listed as side effects of drugs the VA uses to treat it. This is what I call fighting fire with more fuel for the fire. The military maybe highly skilled at killing people and breaking things, but it has absolutely no expertise in making soldiers whole again once they return from the war zone. If they opened their pharmaceutically-tainted eyes, they might recognize the preventive role that nutritional supplementation can play even on the battlefield.

Once home, soldiers are baited into unethical experimentation for a mere pittance in order to test new drugs for market. Some welcome home that is. With gratitude like that, the ghost of Viet Nam rises once again from the recent past. I would not argue against the goal of reducing synthetic cigarette cocktail addiction, but there must be a better way to go about it than Chantix. Regarding the

"...anti-smoking drug Chantix, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) took three months to alert its patients about severe mental side effects."

Can it get more depressingly absurd? Even the drugs NOT used to treat Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder have side effects that mimic or exacerbate it! The end-result of a multi-billion dollar budget is apparently the dumbing-down of those in high places so that they can no longer see what should be obvious. Extreme stress depletes nutrients extremely fast. And if those nutrients are not replenished once the stores are gone, all bets are off regarding "normal" or "acceptable" military or post-military behavior.

Are you prepared to provide billions of dollars for permanent disability and medical welfare for people in their 20's and 30's? Only if you want to bankrupt this nation and destroy it for those yet to be born. These soldiers do not wish to be a burden on anyone, yet they are being forced into a life of medical dependency which leads inevitably to human despondency. Big Pharma is pleased as punch as they ramp up production of newer and more expensive SSRI-type medications. The pharmaceutical rat wheel keeps spinning. Meanwhile, no attention is paid to nutritional deficiency and heavy metal toxicity.

Please allow me to address just a few of the realities underlying the expression of PTSD symptoms. Hypoglycemia, one manifestation of a chromium deficiency, is difficult enough during a normal 9-5 grind. Throw in war and terrorism on a daily basis and you have the makings of mental and emotional catastrophes. Since food provided to the troops in the field is rarely fresh and organic, it is certain that a significant portion of PTSD is helped along considerably by very real nutrient deficiencies.

Are there any Pentagon sponsored dietary supplement programs in place? There sure are plenty focused solely on drugging our soldiers. I am of the mind that we simply cannot wait for the war bureaucracy to change its stripes on "drugs over nutrition." If we do wait, we will lose thousands of young men and women -- not to weapons of mass destruction -- but to drugs of mass deception. The simple re-introduction of GTF Chromium and high quality essential fats would go orders of magnitude farther than dangerous drugs in helping our veterans recover from the trauma of the war theatre. Nothing can take away the trauma, but a nutrient-proficient body makes it much more possible and likely that a veteran can cope with what he or she has experienced.

So it is with this in mind that I urge you to support a campaign that provides the safe and natural tools available to us all here at home -- to the soldiers in the battle zone who most need it. There are so many options available to strengthen the physical, mental and emotional health of those serving in the military that would preclude ever needing to resort to the FDA-approved pills of Big Pharma. Without adding to the toxic burden of the body, we can help the soldiers return to a healthy, productive civilian life, no longer dependent upon a drugged bureaucracy for their survival.

The Robert Scott Bell Show is partnering with MarineParents.com to provide that which is most needed via care packages from you and the natural products manufacturers and health food stores willing to lend that which is most valuable: good nutrition and safe, natural medicine. Imagine if every soldier had a homeopathic medicine kit, just as they did during the War Between the States. Emotional distress? Fear, anxiety and nervousness? They could just reach into their pocket for homeopathic Gelsemium. Extreme, out-of-control anger? Reach for the homeopathic Stramonium. Sadness and depression kicking in? Homeopathic Sepia to the rescue. Even if they are merely frustrated with the military bureaucracy, they could reach for homeopathic Argentum nitricum instead of lashing out in uncontrolled violence.

Of course, if it's due to hypoglycemic rage, in addition to the GTF Chromium, imagine if your favorite soldier had access to homeopathic Lycopodium and Iris. These are just a small fraction of the tools that we could make available to them right now. If you would like to help, or know of a supplement company or health food store that might participate in these good works, please contact me or go to MarineParents.com for more information. "Protecting the troops" should not be an empty slogan. Let's fill their bodies up with good nutrition.

I thank you in advance for your contributions to this worthwhile endeavor to make a positive difference.