[News] Progesterone and the Brain

[Nakamova]

This NY Times article talks about new studies examining the use of progesterone to treat traumatic brain injury. Other recent articles have mentioned the link between brain swelling and seizures. According to this article, progesterone can help reduce brain swelling, another reason (in addition to its estrogen-checking role) why it may have anti-seizure properties.

...small amounts of progesterone are found in the brains of both women and men, suggesting that it has neuroprotective as well as reproductive functions.

Progesterone appears to affect multiple physiologic processes that follow an acute injury. It reduces the cerebral swelling that leads to brain cells dying off, for example. Progesterone also may blunt cellular damage from free radicals and promote myelin production in damaged nerve cells, experts believe.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/19/h...-lives-after-brain-injury.html?_r=1&src=rechp

 

[Silat]

Interesting... I'm curious how well progesterone therapy would work for a male. I know it works pretty well for women with catamenial E, but there's not much information on how men react to it.