Ep. 284: Can carbon dioxide heal or prevent traumatic brain injury?

Guest: Dr. David Smith, CEO of DeltaChase

A woodpecker slams its head into a hard object about 80 million times in its lifetime and doesn’t suffer from traumatic brain injury. Why?

That was the question that was posed at a DARPA (or Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) event a number of years ago. Those in attendance laughed at the question. Well, everyone but Dr David Smith, an internist who started to look into why woodpeckers can endure repeated jarring of their skulls and brains.

He learned the mechanisms in their skull, shoulders and the way in which the woodpecker’s tongue is attached to the skull and attaches to the Omo-Hyoid plays an important role in reducing TBIs. It appears their physical makeup and the interaction between them combines to trap blood and cranial fluid inside the skull preventing or reducing brain slosh.

Smith wondered if the same could be true for people, so he ran experiments on humans that demonstrate that pinching the Omo-Hyoid pinches the jugular and increases the volume of fluid in our skull, preventing brain slosh. That was part one of the non-traumatic equation. Part two involves CO2, a gas that Dr Smith says is vitally important in preventing and healing traumatic brain injury.

Smith says, “CO2 is my favorite gas!” He once again turned to the woodpecker which lives inside a small cavity in a tree where CO2 levels are about 5%. His research led him to study other animals that ram their heads into objects (and one another), like giraffes and bighorn sheep. Once again, their exposure to CO2 levels was high – some by where they live and others by CO2 manipulation.

We invited Dr Smith to join us for a Conversation That Matters about his research in reducing and healing traumatic brain injury.