Alzheimer's nose spray: New Alzheimer's treatment?

From the Alzheimer's Reading Room

Answer

Insulin — a hormone that helps regulate your blood sugar — appears to play a role in normal memory processes. Insulin irregularities may contribute to cognitive and brain changes associated with Alzheimer's disease.

Research in the past few years has been investigating the use of insulin to treat Alzheimer's disease. One of the challenges is how to provide insulin in such a way that it improves brain function without disrupting your blood sugar levels. If you blood sugar drops too low, for example, it can create complications such as confusion, heart palpitations, anxiety and visual disturbances.

Preliminary research suggests that when taken as a nose spray, insulin reaches the brain within a few minutes, improving memory without affecting blood sugar or insulin levels. This research involved only 26 participants who had either early Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment. Although this research is promising, more research on the safety and effectiveness of intranasal insulin therapy for Alzheimer's disease is necessary. A phase II clinical trial on the use of inhaled insulin to treat Alzheimer's disease is currently under way. It will involve about 90 participants who have Alzheimer's disease or mild cognitive impairment and is due to be completed in August of 2009.

Here is the link to the clinical trial--Study of Nasal Insulin to Fight Forgetfulness

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Bob DeMarco is a citizen journalist, blogger, and Caregiver. In addition to being an experienced writer he taught at the University of Georgia , managed on Wall Street at Bear Stearns, was CEO of IP Group, and is a mentor. Bob currently resides in Delray Beach, FL where he cares for his mother, Dorothy, who suffers from Alzheimer's disease. Bob has written more than 500 articles with more than 11,000 links to his work on the Internet. His content has been syndicated on Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, Fox News, Pluck, BlogCritics, and a growing list of newspaper websites (15). Bob is actively seeking writing assignments and syndication.

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Fanrtasy Author Terry Pratchett received Knighthood.

First, congratulations Terry Pratchett. Mr. Pratchett has done much to spread the word about Alzheimer's disease. He should also be congratulated for these good works.

Terry is a good example that Alzheimer's disease knows no boundaries. It can strike anyone at anytime.

Terry is to be admired. He decided to fight and to me this is a good thing. Terry is a good role model to all of us. His wonderful attitude is uplifting to millions of families that know and understand the devastation called Alzheimer's disease.

clipped from www.express.co.uk BRITISH author Sir Terry Pratchett was today knighted for his services to literature. The 60-year-old, who has sold more than 60 million books worldwide, received the honour from the Queen at Buckingham Palace this morning. The writer is best known for the phenomenal success of his prolific Discworld series, which started in 1983 with The Colour of Magic and now stretches to 36 novels. In December 2007 Sir Terry announced he was suffering from early-onset dementia and has since been campaigning for research funding to help sufferers - even making a £500,000 donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust. HONOUR: The Queen knights Sir Terry

Higher Blood Sugar Levels Linked to Lower Brain Function in Diabetics, Study Shows

Diabetes is a risk factor for mild cognitive impairment, vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Previous studies have shown that people with diabetes are 1.5 times more likely to experience cognitive decline and develop dementia than people without diabetes. The ACCORD-MIND study supports the idea that the brain’s chronic exposure to elevated blood glucose levels may be part of the explanation for this phenomenon.

Alzheimers Reading Room: Higher Blood Sugar Levels Linked to Lower Brain Function in Diabetics, Study Shows

Is Alzheimer's a type of diabetes of the brain?

William Klein of Northwestern University is publishing a study that shows that insulin appears to shield the brain from toxic proteins associated with Alzheimer's disease. The study found that the GlaxoSmithKline's diabetes drug Avandia, which increases sensitivity to insulin, appears to enhance this protective effect.

"In Type 1 diabetes, your pancreas isn't making insulin. In Type 2 diabetes, your tissues are insensitive to insulin because of problems in the insulin receptor. Type 3 is where that insulin receptor problem is localized in the brain," Klein said in a telephone interview.

"As you get older, some individuals start to have less effective insulin signaling, including in the brain," he said, making the brain more vulnerable to toxins that cause Alzheimer's disease.

Is Alzheimer's a type of diabetes of the brain?

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Is Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) an Early Stage of Alzheimer's

The term Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is coming into the medical lexicon. MCI is a very difficult concept to grasp for the average person with no medical training. The best way to think of Mild Cognitive Impairment is a stage of memory loss that is worse than normal age-related memory loss. Researchers are now beginning to debate whether mild cognitive impairment is a separate condition or an early stage of Alzheimer's.

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It is clear to me now that my mother was suffering from MCI long before she entered what is now considered the early stage of Alzheimer's. There was a period of more than two years when my mother was beginning to evidence behaviors that had me worried. For example, my mother was "scuffing her feet" on the ground while walking. She said things like "its about time you called me", when I had talked to her only a couple of days earlier. My mother started to talk incessantly about money. She started to get mean. All of these behaviors were new and different.

Every time I would bring this up to friends or family they would all say the same thing, "she is getting old". For a while I bought into this. Or maybe I wanted to believe it. But another thing was clear, I was getting worried and it was on my mind all the time. I guess you could say I went from being somewhat worried, to very worried, and finally I reached the point where the pain in my stomach drove me to take action.

During this entire period my mother who lived by herself, carried on normal conversations with friends, carried out all her everyday activities like grocery shopping, played bingo, and even drove a car. All her friends, who saw her on a daily basis, assured me she was fine.

When I couldn't take it any more and got on the scene I found out quickly how bad things had gotten. Unbeknowst to any of us my mother had driven a car over a parking lot abutment, through a hedge, over the lawn, and then circled around a sidewalk and put the car in its designated slot. Her neighbors thought it was funny and were more interested in discussing how clever she was to get the car back across the lawn, around trees and into her parking space. No one from her condominium association thought to call us. They fixed the problem and it didn't cost her a cent.

A physician's assistant at my mother's doctor's office told me that a year earlier my mother had come storming into the office for her appointment. When they tried to explain to her that she had been in earlier in that day and had the appointment she became agitated. So agitated that they had to sedate her and put her in room until she calmed down. No one thought to call us. I went to this same doctor with my mother for several months when I first came to Florida. He thought my mother was getting old.

My mother had a credit card bill of more than $3,000 that she claimed was not hers. She was certain that someone in the family had stolen her card and was using it. It turned out my mother thought it was her bank debit card. As a result, when she received her monthly banking statement it appeared everything was in order. It turned out she was getting money from the ATM with the credit card and buying lottery tickets as often as 3-4 times per day. This explained how my mother came to believe she was a big winner in the "scratch off" lottery. She was buying 100s of dollars of scratch off tickets each week. It took me some time to figure this out. It finally dawned on me when she kept saying over and over each day I want to get some scratch off lottery tickets. We had already gotten the tickets and she was the one who purchased them.

During all of this, my mother was still carrying on a normal life and no one around her noticed any difference.

Soon, I'll write about the importance of early detection and all the potential medical benefits that come with early detection of Alzheimer's and dementia.

In the meantime, if you hear these words, "she is just getting old", you might consider a simple memory test to determine if your loved one is in an early stage of dementia, suffering from mild cognitive impairment, or worse.

Original content the Alzheimer's Reading Room

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