Just heard a news brief mentioned while watching TV tonight, of a promising new treatment for Alzheimer's...that may actually be able to halt the disease! It's supposed to be an insulin-type nasal spray, according to the announcement. Did anyone else hear about this? I just wonder if it was a premature announcement...probably not yet thouroughly tested.
bella, I just heard this news also. I had decided to give up on trying anything new because nothing seems to help but can't help getting excited about this. Like most everyting else, though, it's probably years away from being available even if it does work.
It's the usual premature announcement about a possible improvement in memory when given to Alz. and Early Cognitive Disorder pts. It is a special kind of insulin so they warned people not to try it at home with regular insulin. It is in the very early stages of study so don't look for it anytime soon.
If you click through to the actual study results, you learn:
"Finally, it should be noted that, although we achieved statistical significance for most cognitive and functional outcome measures, the observed effects were small in absolute terms, as might be expected from this relatively brief intervention, and thus their long-term clinical significance is unclear. "
The entire study group had 104 patients and they were divided into 3 groups ... low dosage, high dosage, and placebo. So you're really talking about results based on a population of only about 35 individuals over 4 months ... much too small a group upon which one can base conclusions. AND ... I cannot find anywhere what 'testing' they used to 'measure' the improvment for that one group. If it turns out to be the MMSE or some other such inappropriate 'test' then the results would mean nothing anyway!! As of now, absolutely nothing to get one's hopes up for.
The thought behind this study was the idea that AD may be a type of diabetes, since the brain is depended upon glucose (controlled by insulin). The results are what I would expect - some minor improvement in memory, but no real long-term cure. It's just another step in trying to understand what causes AD.
For those interested in the insulin theory here is an article about it from back in February. I do find it interesting because my husband NEVER ate deserts. And since this all started he now has an incredible sweet tooth and will eat cakes, brownies, cookies, golf ball sized lollipops (3 or 4 in a row), etc.
If you want a harmless nutritional approach that might help if this theory is correct, look into using coconut oil and/or MCT oil. Cell can use two kinds of fuel, glucose and ketones. If the mechanism to use glucose isn't working well, you can either fix the problem with that mechanism with insulin or provide ketones as an alternative fuel.
I saw this report this morning on Fox - I wanted to yell: stop broadcasting these that have no real hope yet. Do it when it has proven. I can just see the people running to the doctor asking for insulin nasal spray so they don't get it!