Monday, October 10, 2011

Insuline now provides hope for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease

Insulin is a drug which is used in treatment of diabetes but it has also shown promising results when used to treat alzheimer’s disease in a clinical research findings, Insulin was given as nasal spray to patients affected with alzheimer’s disease.

So far there is no drug or treatment available which can halt the progress of Alzheimer’s disease, also it is most widely affected disease worldwide.

What is Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is a disease which affects mostly aged person; typical symptoms include dementia (loss of cognitive ability) and irritability, confusion, and mood swinging, impairment in using language, and aggressiveness. In sever cases some body functions too are lost and the disease last for life of person affected with it.

Research on insulin and its beneficial effect for treating Alzheimer’s disease:
Study is conducted by Dr. Suzanne Craft and her colleagues at the Veterans Affairs Puget Sound Health Care System to find the effect of insulin on brain function in patients affected with Alzheimer’s disease, as insulin hormone is responsible for mobilization of glucose from blood to other body tissue in our body which also include brain, and glucose is a main source of energy for brain, insulin help in making glucose available inside brain tissue which can be used as source of energy for proper normal functioning of brain tissue.
In a clinical trail consisting about 104 patients affected with Alzheimer’s disease a daily dose of 20 IU and 40 IU was given in the form of nasal spray containing insulin hormone to affected patients and it was found that this it helped in preserving patient’s abilities for general activities. The dose of 20 IU was able to improve memory where as dose of 40 IU did not showed any improvement in improving memory may be because it may be crossing the optimal concentration for desired effect.

What causes Alzheimer’s disease?
Alzheimer’s disease is caused because of degenerative or deformative changes in brain tissue, like shrinking or abnormal folding of tau and a-beta proteins and excusive folding of cortex and deformation enlargement of cerebral ventricles in brain, which are related with aging and its degenerative effects. Stressful life style and food habit smoking and uncontrolled diet and other lifestyle is also one of reason for development of Alzheimer’s disease.

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