Novi, MI, August 27 – Some 42 former professional athletes suffering from the results of Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI) that occurred during their playing careers will participate in a groundbreaking research project to help them eliminate the lasting effects of their injuries.
The“Human Growth Hormone Replacement Therapy Study,”conducted by the Center for Neurological Studies (CNS) in Novi, and funded in part by a grant from a large international drug company, will initiate hormone replacement protocols to determine the hormones’ ability to reduce symptoms and improve the quality of life for the former athletes.
“There is consensus in the medical community that many former professional athletes are at risk for cognitive and psychiatric impairment that results in a deficiency in one or more hormones that can significantly impact a person’s quality of life,” says Randall Benson, M.D., Vice President and Medical Director at CNS and lead investigator on the study.
CNS is conducting a placebo-controlled interventional study in growth hormone deficient former athletes in order to reduce their symptoms and improve their quality of life. Based on a previous pilot study, and experience with hundreds of patients treated for trauma-induced pituitary hormone insufficiency, “we expect that there will be significant improvement in symptom burden and quality of life for our study participants,” Benson says.
In the earlier pilot study, CNS provided 15 former athletes with endocrine testing that showed 14 of them with growth hormone deficiency. Eleven of those 14 showed a marked reduction in symptoms and improved quality of life after hormone replacement protocols were applied.
“CNS has unique capabilities and understanding of the brain that have helped a number of former athletes, including me, get their lives back on track,” says CNS ambassador and former Detroit Lions quarterback Eric Hipple.
“It’s still very early in the process, but we’re excited about the opportunity to further test our theories,” says John Russell, founder and CEO of Center for Neurological Studies. “The results can apply well beyond athletes and help the hundreds of thousands of others who suffer TBIs annually in non-sports related accidents. This is an often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed problem and growth hormone replacement therapy could be a big part of the solution.”
Center for Neurological Studies, a not-for-profit organization, was founded by John Russell, its CEO, in 2011 with the objective of advancing scientific research for neurovascular disease and TBIs and improving the lives of people with neurological disorders. CNS staff is available for interviews on brain injuries and brain-related diseases.
