About Us

BHERI — the Brain Health Education and Research Institute — was built on a simple but radical premise: traumatic brain injury is a physical injury, and physical injuries heal when given the right environment. The standard of care tells people to rest and wait. We start rebuilding from day one.

We are an applied research institute and care organization serving veterans, active service members, law enforcement officers, and youth athletes — the populations most likely to sustain repeated brain injuries and least likely to receive effective treatment for them.

The protocol behind BHERI’s care model began with a question about why service members were dying.

Dr. Michael Lewis, a retired U.S. Army Colonel and physician with advanced degrees in medicine, business, and public health, led an NIH-funded study examining 800 cases of active-duty military suicide. What the data revealed was a striking correlation: omega-3 deficiency and hormonal dysregulation appeared consistently across cases. The brain, built primarily from fat — specifically EPA and DHA — was not getting what it needed to repair itself after repeated injury. The cascade that followed looked like psychological breakdown. The root cause was neurological.

That study became the foundation for the omega-3 restoration protocol that BHERI uses today. Over more than a decade of clinical refinement, it has grown to include personalized coaching, blood-based testing, hormone management, and a telehealth delivery model that meets patients wherever they are.

BHERI has been active since 2013.

Most TBI care is built around symptom management: track what’s wrong, wait for it to improve, return to duty/work/life when symptoms subside. We don’t believe that’s care. That’s monitoring.

Our approach goes to the root. The brain sustained a physical and chemical injury. We address it that way — saturating the brain with the high-quality, absorbable omega-3s it needs to rebuild, while supporting the body through any hormonal disruption that has developed in the months or years since the original injury. Because we operate a telehealth model, we can enroll a patient within 48 hours of referral and ship their protocol the same day.

Every participant is paired with a personally selected coach — not a clinician who treats them, but someone who has lived their experience. Special Operations veterans coach Special Operators. Law enforcement officers coach other officers. That human connection, alongside the science, is what our outcomes data consistently points to as a driver of recovery.

Participants track 27 symptom markers from enrollment through completion. Our cohorts have produced an average 52% reduction in reported symptoms.

Veterans — Return to Life Medically retired service members navigating life after repeated TBI. Our goal is to return them to themselves — cognitively, emotionally, and physically.

Active Service Members — Return to Duty Personnel still serving who carry the accumulated weight of unreported or undertreated injuries. We work alongside their chain of command and medical teams.

Law Enforcement Officers From the Lowell Police Department’s Mental Performance Program to our national partnership with Internet Crimes Against Children task forces, we serve departments that understand the toll this work takes on the brain.

Youth Athletes The standard concussion protocol for young people is still “monitor and wait.” We believe the healing process should start immediately, before lasting damage sets in.

BHERI is in the process of expanding its reach from its roots in Northwest Arkansas into rural and underserved communities across the state and nation. We are pursuing federal and state grant funding to build the care coordination infrastructure needed to serve populations who have no current access to specialized brain health recovery programs.

The goal is a better outcome for more people who have given the most and received the least in return.