- Researchers report that using intranasal insulin may improve cognitive functions in some people with dementia-related conditions.
- They said the insulin treatment appears to have the most benefits for people with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment.
- Other medical experts, however, said they felt the study was flawed and aren’t ready to recommend insulin as a treatment for these conditions.
Intranasal insulin could produce some positive cognitive benefits, especially for people with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment, according to a
Researchers completed a review and meta-analysis of 29 studies with 1,726 participants examining intranasal insulin and cognitive function. The studies were published between 2001 and 2021.
The median dose of insulin was 40IU. Ten studies examined the effects of a single dose. The others studied several doses over a longer time, with a median duration of eight weeks. The mean age of the participants was about 53 years.
The researchers divided the participants into four categories of disorders:
Healthy, cognitively unimpaired individuals were also pooled.
The researchers reported that they did not find a significant difference in cognitive function after doses of intranasal insulin in people with mental health disorders, metabolic disorders, and other disorders.
The scientists said they found significant improvement in participants with Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment.
“Patients with Alzheimer’s could have impaired glucose processing in the hippocampus (an area of the brain involved in human learning and memory),” Dr. Gayatri Devi, a neurologist at Northwell Lenox Hill Hospital in New York who was not involved in the study, told Medical News Today. “Intranasal insulin may help with this and improve cognition.”
One theory on why insulin can help improve memory and cognition is that memory centers in the brain are either faulty or cannot…
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