Daniel Carcillo is the founder and chief executive officer of Wesana Health. The former NHL player joins Cheddar News to discuss how his company is helping those suffering from Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Between Bells

How Former NHL Player Daniel Carcillo Helps Those Suffering From Traumatic Brain Injuries

and welcome back everyone to between bells and baker for channel in new york. After leaving the NHL two time Stanley Cup winner and advocate Daniel Carcillo found himself at the forefront of mental health care innovation. After developing new therapies for the debilitating condition that took him out of the game. He founded Wassana Health, a science company revolutionizing drug development and also clinical therapies for those utilizing psychedelic Madison for mental health care. So joining us now is former NHL player and founder and chief executive officer over at Wassana Health Daniel Carcillo Daniel. Thank you so much for joining us. First off, for those who might not be familiar with your story, explain a little bit about the inspiration behind this company that you created here. Of course, yeah, thanks for having me baker. So I played over 12 years, professional hockey in the NHL, fought over 100 and 64 times over that time period and sustained seven traumatic brain injuries. And along with those brain injuries came a number of different symptoms that ultimately forced me into retirement symptoms like slurred speech, headache, head pressure, insomnia, impulse control issues, anxiety, depression and suicidal ideation. When I retired in 2015, I spent the last eight years just basically being a guinea pig to all of the medically accepted um treatments that are available to survivors and then some that are in the alternative space. And three years ago I was introduced to psilocybin, which is the active ingredient in magic mushrooms and after a six month period of, of using this medicine, I was able to get brain scans and blood work back that showed that I had no abnormalities six months into the regiment. And after that I decided to found the sauna and develop this medicine through um scientific rigor through the FDA so that people can go to their doctor and get a prescription for this type of treatment. Which is an incredible story daniel of where you've come from. So let's talk about how you're utilizing those psychedelics sort of push them into the sort of the future. Because I think a lot of people think of psychedelics maybe as mushrooms or other sorts of things that maybe they can have out there. But you're kind of taking this to a whole another level here. Yeah, for sure. So when you go through a regulatory body like the FDA, like the M. H. R. In the U. K. It it forces you to use a synthetically derived um chemical from the plants or the fungi in this case. And you have to develop it with scientific rigor. So it needs to be shown to be effective efficacious for a certain indication. And again, you know, taking it through this context is different than the decriminalized movements that you see out there. Because when you go through the FDA you can get approval for a medication that can be in the hands of doctors and they're able to prescribe it against an indication like depression and then you can go to Walgreens fill the script and take it home and what's different about we saw on is that we have a non hallucinogenic or sub perceptual dose of psilocybin that can be taken on a daily basis. We see two of those Stanley cups right behind you daniel, we know you had the nickname car bomb, but those two Stanley cups in your time in the, in the NHL gave you seven concussions over the course of your career. How do you sort of feel like you're taking with Sana health and sort of helping other people who have gone through traumatic experiences through their life? What are they still going through when they visit you? Yes. So the name of our company is really important to me. So it's we sauna, saunas, hell and latin and we heal together and that's no different than the, the advocacy work that I've done the last eight years because I would advocate for treatments that worked for me and treatments that didn't work for me in order to provide people hope After a traumatic brain injury. The # one cause of death is suicide because I believe we're just not educated enough to recognize and be aware of these symptoms that are affecting our everyday life that came from the car accident or the fights or the bumps on the head. So, um, you know, in founding Resona in such a public manner, were able to extend that platform of education and awareness. The first step in recognizing that there's something wrong and then what people can do about it. And this path that I've chosen with this company is one tool. It's a medication that's being developed but there's other tools that people should adhere to as far as you know really good sleep diet changes, holistic tools like float tanks, hyperbaric chambers that can really be effective cranial sacral that can decompress the pressure in the head and the brain after a brain injury. Um So you know I always advocate for making sure that you find what works for the for the individual. And I believe that this pathway through the F. D. A. And what we saw in the health is doing has the potential to help millions of people. So so it's really exciting. Okay so let's talk about the FDA here. How much of this is the F. D. A. Regulating how much of this is the FDA actually approving. Where are we sort of at when terms of the government regulation when it comes to psilocybin. So we are the third company on earth that has communicated to the F. D. A. In a pre I. N. D. Meeting. So investigational new drug application. That's the first step in presenting to the FDA your plan. So your clinical plan. The compounds that you wish to use and how you wish to use them meaning for what indication we went after depression because depression is most prevalent after a traumatic brain injury and we have to treat the symptoms and they came back to us um really amendable to our plans. So they accelerated our program. They broadened our indication um meaning that they expanded the pool of people that we may be able to treat with this and then they accepted what's called a pharmacology and toxicology program which you have to lay out for them in order to ensure that you can get I and D. Approval. So we are on the cusp of that in the next six months of getting I and D. Approval and putting our drug against our clinical plan into people that suffer from some from depression, whether it's traumatic brain injury related or not. So um they are I think in need of of new treatments. We see that, you know, although ss arising antidepressants help around between 12 to 30% of the people that take them. These types of treatments are helping around between 60 to 80% of the people that are partaking in them. It's really sort of interesting the evolution of mental health care and where we're going with this former NHL player and founder and chief executive officer of Wassana Health Daniel Carcillo daniel. Thank you so much for joining us