Sunday, August 15, 2010

New Hope for Alzheimer's Disease: Insulin Sniffing


Alzheimer's disease, the most common form of dementia, is a fatal and incurable deterioration of the brain. Globally it affects 26 million people.

Dr. Suzanne Craft of the VA Puget Sound Health Care System of the University of Washington, Seattle, presented the results of a study of patients who had different doses of insulin loaded into a nebulizer and squirted up their nose daily over 4 months. These non-diabetic patients who have mild cognitive impairment showed improvement in memory tests that lasted for 2 months.

Insulin is important for communication between brain cells. Several studies have shown that Alzheimer's patients have reduced levels of insulin in the brain, even in the earliest stages.

Hopefully, larger clinical trials will be conducted to determine if insulin can be used even more effectively to reduce or delay the effects of Alzheimer's.

For more on Alzheimer's disease, visit 50somethinginfo.com


No comments: