Nasal Steroids as a Possible Treatment for Alzheimer's Disease

Quite a number of experimental treatments, which are based on conventionally accepted understandings of Alzheimer's disease, have not yielded expected results. Therefore, conventionally accepted understanding of the mechanisms of the disease may be inadequate or even wrong. The characteristic amyloid plaques and tau tangles in the brain may be a result, not a cause. Alzheimer's disease is more likely the product of neuroinflammation and deranged brain wound healing. If so, a hypothesized treatment, intranasal glucocorticoids, might be effective. Long-term use of intranasal glucocorticoids (especially older generation steroids) for Alzheimer's treatment would potentially raise intraocular pressure, but newer intranasal steroids (fluticasone, triamcinolone, or budesonide) have a minimal effect on intraocular pressure because of their low bioavailability. Also helpuful might be a transdermal diclofenac patch applied to the back of the neck or thoracic spine to introduce diclofenac into the brain via the cerebrospinal fluid.