Whenever insulin is mentioned in the context of medical treatment, it's diabetes that often comes to mind. But according to a pilot study recently published in the Archives of Neurology, insulin might also be effective in delaying early Alzheimer's disease. Unlike in diabetes treatment wherein insulin is injected into the body, Alzheimer's treatment calls for the insulin to be squirted deep into the nose of the patient.

The study divides the 104 study subjects — a small number, as it's just a preliminary trial — into three groups. One group gets high dosage of insulin, another gets moderate dosage, while the last group gets saline solution as a placebo. The result after four months of daily insulin treatment? The group given moderate dosage of insulin did best — the participants either improved or remained the same when their memories were tested. Participants of the group that received the placebo solution, on the other hand, exhibited memory decline.

While the concept of using insulin for Alzheimer's treatment is new for many of us, it seems Dr. Suzanne Craft (the study's head researcher) has long been studying insulin's effects in Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Craft says brain cells need insulin as conditions like diabetes are known to increase risk of Alzheimer's. Insulin in the brain also helps prevent build-up of beta amyloid proteins, which is commonly seen in Alzheimer's patients' brains.

For Dr. Craft, it's all just a matter of finding a way to deliver insulin directly to the brain instead of to the patient's body. Unfortunately, we don't have anything like bloodstream microspiders that could deliver medicine directly to a human organ just yet. Hence, a device that can spray insulin deep into the nose was created, because regular nasal sprays just won't work.

While the study's preliminary tests proved that insulin helps alleviate early Alzheimer's, Dr. Craft warns patients against rushing out and buying some. She admits that more research needs to be done and in fact, the study's second phase (with 170 participants) is underway. If only James Franco's character in Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes used insulin instead of a genetically-engineered retrovirus to develop a treatment for Alzheimer's, humans might not have suffered near extinction in that fictional universe.