The Protective Role of Nutraceuticals in Critically Ill Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) has become a leading health problem with no effective treatment. TBI imposes a significant burden of morbidity and mortality and is a major challenge in the intensive care unit (ICU). The lack of proven effective treatments for TBI is related to the range of severity of injury, the complexity of approaching a disease that involves multiple tissue and cell types, rapid onset of pathophysiology, common co-morbidity presentation, and other environmental and developmental factors. However, prompt treatment for TBI is critical, including surgery, intensive care, drugs, and alternative treatments, since cerebral edema can result in a variety of pathologies associated with primary and secondary injuries, as well as death. There is a need for interventions to be performed with the aim of preventing or treating the complications and accelerating the recovery of patients with TBI. Considering that nutritional support, when combined with other TBI treatments, is very effective, in this narrative review we focused on the role of herbal and nutrient supplements, identifying their protective effects on TBI outcomes. Combination of vitamins, amino acids, plant extracts, and herbs as a nutritional support may reduce recovery time in people with TBI, which work synergistically to repair TBI damage and improve areas of brain and body function that are most affected by TBI. Effective nutritional support is an emerging factor that may be added to help improving outcomes of TBI, but further clinical trials and empirical studies are definitely needed in this rapidly progressing field.