Progesterone May Be New Treatment For TBI

Every year 1.5 million people in the United States are treated for a traumatic brain injury. That is one person every 15 seconds! A Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is an injury to the brain that is caused by an acute bump, blow, jolt, or penetrating injury to the head that disrupts the brain's normal function. The most common causes of TBIs are motor vehicle accidents, falls and gun shots. TBIs can be "mild" or "severe" and symptoms can be temporary or lifelong.

Now doctors and researchers believe they have found a new treatment for TBI. Progesterone, which is often considered a "female hormone," given by IV Infusion directly after a TBI injury, has shown great response amongst TBI victims. The hormone is not just for women, as Dr. David Wright, the director of emergency neurosciences at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta, puts it, "[Progesterone] is made in the brain, by the brain, for the brain."

Progesterone is "crucial for normal brain development and also has protective effects on damaged brain tissue."

In a recent study involving 100 TBI patients, the mortality rate was decreased by 50% and disability decreased in patient with "mild" injuries when patient's were given the hormone shortly after injury.

Marc Baskett is one of the lucky survivors of TBI. Baskett was involved in a head-on collision which resulted in a "severe" TBI. Baskett was in a coma with brain activity on the Glasgow coma scale of 4. On the Glasgow coma scale, an active brain is rated at a 15 and a completely dead brain is a three. Baskett credits doctors for treating him with an IV Infusion of the progesterone hormone within hour of the injury.

Baskett now says, "...my brain is 100%."

Dr. Wright is one of many experts who say that progesterone is on its way to being the "first approved treatment for traumatic brain injury in over 30 years."

Read more on Traumatic Brain Injuries!
Read our article "Traumatic Brain Injuries."
Read "Seven Ways to Prevent TBIs."