Donald Stein is recognized by the Ladies Home Journal as one of four winners of the Health Breakthrough Award for 2008. Stein, the director of Emory’s Department of Emergency Medicine Brain Research Laboratory, has helped direct women’s health care.
It turns out that Stein has also discovered a way to lower the risk of death and disability after a traumatic brain injury through the use of progesterone.
Progesterone, a steroid hormone that helps with the development of the embryo, also works to protect injured brain tissue. Stein found that there was a 56% increase in brain function in the patients who took progesterone shortly after a TBI.
This study, available in the Annals of Emergency Medicine 2007 issue, pinpointed how critical progesterone is to the development of neurons.