London: A new sleeping drug could save lives of thousands of peoples who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease by controlling its worst effects.
Scientists at the Barcelona Biomedical Research Institute have hailed a natural hormone linked to the sleep cycle as an important new weapon in the fight against the debilitating disease, the Daily Express reported.
In a study published in the journal Neurobiology of Ageing, they found that daily exercise and a dose of the hormone melatonin worked together to slow brain deterioration in mice.
It showed that after just six months the mice saw significant improvements in their health, to the extent that their brains were closer to healthy mice than those with Alzheimer’s.
Clinical studies on humans have also found signs of improvement in Alzheimer’s sufferers resulting from exercise and melatonin.
But the institute’s Dr Coral Sanfeliu warned: “Transferring treatments which are effective in animals to human patients is not always consistent.”
But a spokeswoman for the Alzheimer’s Society said that this study provides an interesting avenue for future research.
ANI
