Insulin can be used to cure Alzheimer’s too

Insulin is no longer a blessing for Diabetes patients only.

According to a new research, few drops of insulin can help patients suffering from Alzheimer’s to improve their memory skills significantly.

A study was done on a group of patients that had mild Alzheimer’s. They were given doses of insulin for few days and it helped them considerably. Those who were given small doses also showed shades of improvement.

Still in the experimental stages, if the research is proven right, it will be a breakthrough in biological science.

“Our results suggest that the administration of intranasal insulin may have a therapeutic benefit for adults with Alzheimer’s disease” the researchers said.

Long-term side effects are unknown at the moment and that is the reason why more research will be done on this before it gets out in the market. It has although shown improvements in Alzheimer’s patients but findings need to be done in larger, lengthier trails

Dr. Sam Gandy of the Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in New York said

“Anything that shows benefits even in stabilizing cognitive decline is worth noticing right now. Obviously, like any other study, it has to be replicated and independently confirmed. If that happens, then there will be a lot of interest in moving in this direction”

Study candidates were divided in to three groups. 36 out of the total 104 participants were given lighter doses, 36 were given high doses whereas remaining 30 were given inactive drugs.

Four months later, the group that got the moderate insulin dose showed significant improvements in delayed story recall compared with the placebo group. There was no improvement in the group that got the high dose of insulin compared with the placebo group.

Tests also proved that general thinking of the participants also augmented by taking insulin for a period of time.

According to Dr James Galvin of New York University, though the study is still minute and in the preliminary stages, it has provided enough evidence to prove that insulin can be used to treat Alzheimer’s patients.

Researchers have suggested there is a link between a type of diabetes and Alzheimer’s and previous studies that were done on animals had already proved that if given through nose, insulin can augment the performance of brain.

Around 35 million people throughout the globe are suffering from Alzheimer’s. Current drugs momentarily treat symptoms, but there are no drugs that halts progression of Alzheimer’s, which is deadly.

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Posted by Farhan Khalid on Oct 26 2011. Filed under Sci-Tech. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry