When someone suffers a brain bleed, whether from a head injury, a ruptured blood vessel, or a burst aneurysm, every minute matters. Doctors have long hoped that a cheap, widely available drug called tranexamic acid (TXA) could stem the bleeding and save lives. It already works in major trauma and postpartum hemorrhage, so the logic felt obvious. A freshly updated, large-scale review of the evidence tells a more sobering story for brain injuries, though. This article breaks down what researchers found when they pooled seven randomized controlled trials with more than 12,000 patients, and why stopping the bleed does not always mean saving the brain. What is tranexamic acid? Tranexamic…