A new study has revealed that insulin could prove to effective in the treatment of diabetes of the brain. The research, carried out by scientists at McGill University in Canada, has been comparing Alzheimers with brain diabetes, to see if the maturating brain can increase insulin resistance or suffer from a less insulin supply.
The result of this process is a bad effect on nerve cells and can contribute to the destruction of the mind. The current research is hoping to use patients that have Alzheimer’s sufferers, and have them intake insulin through a nasal spray and assess the results.
Howard Chertkow, of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, said “It was about 30 years ago that Suzanne de la Monte at Brown introduced the idea of Alzheimer’s being diabetes of the brain … Now, it’s coming back.” This previous study injected rats with an antibiotic drug, which was able to barricade insulin, and therefore give diabetes to the brain of rats.
However, when a postmortem examinations was undertake, it was shown that the brains of the rats were interpenetrated with lifeless cells, bacterial plaques and tangled nerve fibres, all of which signal the presence of Alzheimer’s.
Since it is also the case that not every person who suffers from Alzheimer’s is also a diabetic, it is thought that insulin resistance in the brain can develop despite regardless of whether someone has diabetes. Other research has highlighted the resemblances between forms of diabetes and Alzheimer’s, although it still has to be proved that insulin drives the sickness.

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