Health Beat: Pregnancy hormone for traumatic brain injury

DURHAM, N.C. -

It can happen in an instant and change lives forever. Close to two million people are affected by traumatic brain injury every year. Worldwide, its a major cause of death and disability. Now, researchers are hoping something that our body produces naturally can help bring the first ever TBI treatment to those who need it.

As I was driving, I blacked out behind the wheel and the car went into the back of a parked 18 wheeler, Lester Talley said.

Health issues led to Talleys near fatal accident. The husband and father of two suffered a serious traumatic brain injury.

My brain had started swelling, Talley said.

There really is no definitive therapy for the treatment of acute brain injury, said Dr. Daniel Laskowitz, professor of medicine (neurology), neurobiology, and anesthesiology and director, neurovascular laboratories at Duke University Medical Center.

Talleys wife Ashley feared the worst.

"Seemed like my world was coming to an end," she said.

While in a coma, Talley was enrolled in a phase three trial called SyNAPSe. The study is testing if progesterone could help treat TBI. It's a natural hormone, produced in men and women, thats most often associated with pregnancy.

"There is good evidence that it reduces inflammation, Laskowitz said.

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Health Beat: Pregnancy hormone for traumatic brain injury