Thursday, September 15, 2011

Emedinews : Insulin nasal spray may slow Alzheimer's disease

Intranasal insulin therapy may have beneficial effects on cognition and function among patients with Alzheimer's disease, a pilot study suggested. Patients who received 20 IU of intranasal insulin daily for four months had improvements on delayed story recall tests (P=0.02, Cohen f effect size=0.36), according to Suzanne Craft, PhD, of the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System in Seattle, and colleagues.
Study suggests that intranasal administration of insulin over a four-month period to patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment or mild-to-moderate Alzheimer's disease improved delayed memory and preserved general cognition compared with placebo.

Insulin is critical for normal brain function, and dysregulation of its metabolism has been shown to contribute to the development of Alzheimer's disease. Because patients with Alzheimer's disease also exhibit decreased levels of insulin in the central nervous system, it has been hypothesized that raising these levels to normal might help maintain cognitive ability. (MedPage)

No comments:

Post a Comment