The Benefits of Intranasal Insulin

[Lostfalco]

Ah, OK.

Because your fascinating blog has a couple of articles on treating brain fog, and also on the possible links between brain inflammation and brain fog, I thought you might be an ME/CFS patient (as ME/CFS patients often assume their cognitive dysfunction could be underpinned by neuroinflammation).

May I ask, what created this particular angle of interest, of brain fog and the possibility that neuroinflammation may disrupt cognition? I see from your blog that you have a huge interest in nootropics (smart drugs) and brain optimization. I also used to be pretty interested in nootropics before I developed ME/CFS.

But for healthy people experimenting with cognitive enhancement and nootropic drugs, theories of brain fog and neuroinflammation are not the usual way of approaching and understanding this subject (by the way, your blog on the anti-neuroinflammation combo of ibudilast + galantamine as a means to cognitive boosting is really interesting). So I am just curious to know what got you thinking in terms of anti-brain fog and anti-neuroinflammation as a route to cognitive enhancement.

It could of course be the case that even healthy people with sub-optimal cognition are suffering some minor levels of neuroinflammation, so your anti-neuroinflammation approach might be hitting the nail on the head.



As an aside, before developing ME/CFS, my favorite nootropics were:

deprenyl 2 mg (I found it provided a great mood boost, libido boost, and increased creativity and lateral thinking, via it's dopaminergic effects), Q10 300 mg (I found this further boosted the dopaminergic effects),

piracetam 12000 mg (I found it hugely increased task focus, concentration, short-term memory and working memory, via its effects on the acetylcholine system), Lucidril (a good add-on to stack with piracetam, to further boost piracetam's cholinergic effects, but works well on its own too), choline bitartrate 500 mg (another good add-on for piracetam for increased cholinergic effects, but also works well on its own),

acetyl-L-carnitine 1000 mg (excellent for increasing your active vocabulary when writing or speaking; you can find the word you are looking for much easier when you take ALC, and there was study I read once that showed this), Bacopa monnieri (noticeably increases your enthusiasm and curiosity, so you find yourself getting engaged and interested in many activities; higher doses of Bacopa, say 10 to 20 grams, can have an MDMA/ecstasy-like boost to loving feelings towards other — although I don't have any direct experience of taking MDMA; I was always too wary and cowardly about trying psychedelic drugs).

I'd often take all the above nootropics together, to super-charge all my mental abilities; as I found these nootropics had a very good synergy.

The cholinergic-boosting nootropics like piracetam, Lucidril and choline bitartrate I found would make your mind razor sharp in terms of information processing and logical thinking; but on their own, these cholinergic boosters made you become a bit mentally dry and dull, like dry and logical engineer or nerd. However, I found once you added the dopaminergic-boosting nootropics like deprenyl, your thinking would would become more intuitive, creative and inspired, which then nicely balanced out the dry logical side that the cholinergic boosters produced.

In other words, in terms of the left-brain logic and linear information processing, I found the cholinergic boosters would ramp up the left-brain abilities; and in terms of the right-brain intuition and creativity, I found the dopaminergic boosters would ramp up these right-brain abilities. That why I liked to mix the cholinergic and dopaminergic boosters together, because it felt like I was optimizing both the left and right sides of my brain. I found you become very productive in this state. You become more precise yet creative.

(This notion of left-brain logic / right-brain intuition is a bit out of date and inaccurate these days, but I am wheeling out this out this old paradigm just to help illustrate this logic vs intuition idea).

Unfortunately since developing ME/CFS, because ME/CFS patients tend to start with such a low baseline of cognitive function, although many of the above nootropics still work for me, they no longer propel me into an optimized productive mental state that I used to achieve when healthy, but rather just help pull me up out of the "cognitive blur" or the "cognitive gutter" of ME/CFS, and towards a state of cognitive normality.


Anyway, I am very interested to see what intranasal insulin might do for the ME/CFS brain fog.




Interesting to see your blog post on the types of insulin used in these studies on intranasal insulin and cognitive enhancement.

As you probably know, insulin medications fall into different classes:

Rapid-acting insulins — take effect within 15 minutes, and last for around 4 hours. Examples: aspart (Novolog, NovoRapid), lispro (Humalog), glulisine (Apidra).

Short-acting insulins — take effect after around 45 minutes, and last for around 6 hours. Examples: regular insulin, aka: neutral insulin (Actrapid, Humulin R, Novolin R).

Intermediate-acting insulins — take effect after around 3 hours, and last for up to 14 hours. Examples: NPH insulin, aka: isophane insulin (Novolin N, Humulin N).

Long-acting insulins — take effect after around 2 to 6 hours, and last for up to 24 hours. Examples: glargine (Lantus), detemir (Levemir).

Source: Insulin Comparison Chart

My understand is that the short-acting regular insulin (brand names: Actrapid, Humulin R, Novolin R) is the same insulin as you find in the human body; whereas the other types of insulin products are in fact analogues of regular insulin, with a slightly different chemical structure that gives them a different onset of action and duration of action.

From your blog article, it looks like most studies opted for regular insulin products such as Actrapid, Humulin R, Novolin R, which are chemically identical to normal human insulin.

Though one study used the rapid-acting aspart (Novolog), one used the rapid-acting lispro (Humalog), a couple of studies used the intermediate-acting NPH insulin (Humulin N), and one used the long-acting detemir (Levemir). These are all chemical analogs of normal human insulin.

Hey Hip, I got interested in brain fog after noticing that a large number of people on the forums where I posted were struggling with it. I've read thousands of studies over the years in an attempt to enhance my own brain so I thought I might be able to apply some of that knowledge to helping others who were dealing with brain fog.

Sounds like you had quite the stack for cognitive enhancement!

Thanks for the great discussion on the various types of insulin. Regular insulins (Actrapid, Novolin R, Humulin R, etc.) are the most tested types intranasally but there is some evidence for others (aspart was especially effective in one study). Let me know how the Actrapid goes. I'm really interested in hearing how it works for you.

 

[Lostfalco]

I'm on day 4, I guess? I went up to one spray morning and one spray evening yesterday.

While I'm a cranky old biddy, I don't really have a ton of brain fog. I'm hoping for the immunization against diabetes and shredded 6 pack effects...so it might take longer to see any results. I'm committed to giving it a solid try though!

Hey Remy, I hate to be the bearer of (slightly) bad news...but there's also good news!

I didn't actually realize you were a woman until you so loving referred to yourself as a biddy. =)

I-insulin actually has different effects in men and women. On the plus side, it should help your working memory, cognition, long term memory, etc. better than it does for men. On the downside, the weight loss effects are mostly for men (the hypothesized reason is differential insulin receptor expression in the hypothalamus between men and women). It does help women control their cravings for sweet snacks but it's not going to give you the same thermogenic fat burning results.

There are links to the studies talking about the differences in these posts:
http://www.lostfalco.com/intranasal-insulin/
http://www.lostfalco.com/the-intranasal-insulin-diet-part-1/

 

[Remy]

Hey Remy, I hate to be the bearer of (slightly) bad news...but there's also good news!

I didn't actually realize you were a woman until you so loving referred to yourself as a biddy. =)

I-insulin actually has different effects in men and women. On the plus side, it should help your working memory, cognition, long term memory, etc. better than it does for men. On the downside, the weight loss effects are mostly for men (the hypothesized reason is differential insulin receptor expression in the hypothalamus between men and women). It does help women control their cravings for sweet snacks but it's not going to give you the same thermogenic fat burning results.

There are links to the studies talking about the differences in these posts:
http://www.lostfalco.com/intranasal-insulin/
http://www.lostfalco.com/the-intranasal-insulin-diet-part-1/

I saw that there were sex differences in the effects...but I figure you never know until you try something. Even if the women overall didn't lose weight like the men did, maybe there were some outliers!

So far though, I think all I'm getting is a headache. I'll keep at it for a while though because I'd really like the immunization against diabetes part too.

 

[Veet]

Remy matches her Goldie.

 

[Hip]

Let me know how the Actrapid goes. I'm really interested in hearing how it works for you.

I certainly will. Thanks for all your efforts in detailing here and on your blog your method of administration.

 

[Lostfalco]

I saw that there were sex differences in the effects...but I figure you never know until you try something. Even if the women overall didn't lose weight like the men did, maybe there were some outliers!

So far though, I think all I'm getting is a headache. I'll keep at it for a while though because I'd really like the immunization against diabetes part too.

Totally agree. It's always worth a shot due to individual differences.

Regarding the headache, a redditor recently posted this solution that seemed to work well.

"I put Novolin R in a spray bottle, and after two days felt that one spray in each nostril every day was already too much for me. I got mild to moderate headaches both of the first two days, but with enough cognitive improvement that I decided to continue but slow down. Now I only take one spray every three days, and I alternate nostrils to cut the dosage in half since diluting insulin tends to ruin its already short shelf life. I feel like intranasal insulin is giving me back the fog-free brain of my younger years." https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/50eo51/any_experience_with_intranasal_insulin/?

Something like that might be worth a try.

 

[Lostfalco]

I certain will. Thanks for all your efforts in detailing here and on your blog your method of administration.

No problem, Hip. It's a really interesting substance with some pretty cool possibilities to help a lot of people. Kinda hard for me to keep quiet.

 

[Remy]

GRRR! Does anyone else get super pissed off when their sprayer bottle doesn't spray nicely?

I tried twice this morning and got dribbles instead of a nice mist. I was afraid to do it more than twice...even though I doubt I got even 1/4 of a full spray.

Makes me so darn frustrated!

 

[Hip]

Does anyone else get super pissed off when their sprayer bottle doesn't spray nicely?

I tried twice this morning and got dribbles instead of a nice mist. I was afraid to do it more than twice...even though I doubt I got even 1/4 of a full spray.

It might be an idea to dilute the insulin solution in the spray bottle with physiological saline, to make it easier to dose.

Insulin products typically have 100 IU of insulin per ml; and nasal spray bottles usually administer 0.1 ml of liquid per spray; so if you are aiming for an insulin dose of 10 IU twice day, which @Lostfalco suggests, then that corresponds to just one spray from a spray bottle (administered twice daily).

But getting just one spray into your nose is a bit touch and go, because you could miss on the first spraying. Also, that single spray may not be nicely distributed across all your nasal cavity mucous membranes, because the volume of liquid may be too small.

However, if you dilute the insulin solution in the spray bottle by say 6 times using physiological saline, now a 10 IU insulin dose would correspond to 6 sprays (which you can do three in each nostril). I usually find that in each nostril, my nasal cavity can comfortably take 3 sprays of liquid (= 0.3 ml) without any of the liquid spilling out of my nose. So when I make up nasal sprays, I usually work it out so that my desired dose is administered via 6 sprays, 3 per nostril.

To dilute for example 10 ml of liquid 6 times, you just add 50 ml of physiological saline to it.


Physiological saline (also called normal saline) is simply water with 9 grams of sodium chloride per liter, so it's easy to make this. The reason it is better to use physiological saline rather than plain water for nasal sprays is because physiological saline, having the same salt content as body fluids, does not produce any osmotic shock on the sensitive mucous membranes of the nose, and so physiological saline just feels more comfortable when sprayed into the nose, compared to ordinary water.

 

[Remy]

Great idea, @Hip!

My little spray bottle is only 30 mL though. I was thinking I might just double it to 20mL so I could get a second shot at least. Or third and fourth if you go by the fact that I've done 2 sprays of the full test and been fine.

I'm actually wondering if 20IU is a better dose for me. The last few days have been pretty darn good.

 

[Hip]

I'm actually wondering if 20IU is a better dose for me. The last few days have been pretty darn good.

What is the highest intranasal insulin dose you have taken so far?

 

[Remy]

What is the highest intranasal insulin dose you have taken so far?

20 IU. I'm a big chicken. I should systematically be trying doses up to about 40 IU to see what the minimum effective dose is for me.

I just tolerate it better overall now. No more headache and the sneezing fit I used to get on administration doesn't happen anymore.

 

[Lostfalco]

What's up guys? A Longecity member named Autumn and a redditor named bicepts are currently logging their experiences with i-insulin if you guys want to hear about it from someone other than me (and Remy, of course!). =)

Autumn's log: http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/89360-intranasal-insulin-dihexa-log/#entry789132

Bicepts log: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/51vsa7/just_started_intranasal_insulin/?

Sorry about the long quotes!

Here's Autumn's most recent update.

"Log Entry 2 on 2 weeks of Dihexa + 1 week intranasal insulin:

-The first thing I noticed shortly after taking I-in is reduced stress. Usually, I have insane stress spikes throughout the day that cause an inability to function normally. Those spikes have mostly disappeared, along with worrying about things cyclically. I worry about everything, important or menial, constantly and obsessively. This week has been free of that. I can't attribute that directly to Insulin, but it does make me feel much calmer in general, so it is likely to be linked. Without these episodes of psychotic stress, I have been able to focus much easier (or at least prevent my train of thought from being hijacked by anything from not being intelligent enough to finish my studies to why I can't grow larger breasts.)

-I have something called Visual Snow, which is a snowy, static-like vision disturbance that is like a hallucination. It is severe, although sometimes worse than other times, where sometimes it looks as if it is snowing heavily, and other times there are only small discolored dots in my field of vision. I also have other hallucinations that are regular and very, very obvious. Anyway, I think the Insulin is actually helping this problem I've had for years. It's. Freaking. Amazing. For instance, when I would sit and stare at the white wall in the bathroom, it would wave in and out and reflect all sorts of colors. And there was the snow, of course. Now there are less pronounced colors and waving and the snow has decreased. I really hope this effect persists.

-No craving for sweets. This is very strange for me, a person with a HUGE sweet tooth. When I first started taking Insulin, I didn't crave them at all. Now, sometimes I do crave a cookie or cake, but if I have a bite of one, I quickly lose my taste for it.

-Appetite in general. My appetite has improved a lot, which is a good thing for me. I know insulin is supposed to decrease/regulate appetite, but for me, it has made me aware of when I need to eat instead of blowing it off. One explanation for this is that it affects the reward system of the brain, which has in turn made eating seem like a pretty cool thing to do. That's just a speculation though.

-On to the cognitive benefits, the hardest thing for me to actually perceive. I think that I am focusing better, even if very, very slightly. One piece of evidence of this is I can actually use the 20/10 learning method without getting distracted and I don't believe I could have done that before. I actually read entire chapters in my textbooks this way, which I have never done before in college (and yes, I did try). It's hard to say if it's the method, insulin, or Dihexa that is helping. Another exciting thing is that I actually understood my Calculus homework and concepts for the first exam of the semester. THAT IS MONUMENTAL FOR ME. Last semester, I had HUGE amounts of trouble trying to understand precalculus. Now, this might be because I am learning through text and not through an oral lecture (I am definitely not an auditory learner), but it's still such a cool thing for me. I understand what is going on in class! That seems like an irrationally big leap to take in two weeks, but it's there.

-I work at a clothing store where clothing must be put away according to clothing type>clothing pattern>clothing color>clothing size, and the clothing racks are constantly being rearranged, so I have to remember where things go and use a sort of "bin sorting" mental function to do my job. Usually it takes me a good amount of time to remember where an article of clothing goes, and it took me noticeably less time this week. There has been no other noticeable influence on recall, however. My short term recall is not nearly as awful as my long term recall, so I will report back on how that has faired a bit later.

To sum it all up, the most noticeable things are: significantly less rumination, calmness, hallucinations are diminishing a bit, normalizing of appetite, and a bit of help with cognitive functions. Seems kinda evangelical; I'm even a little wary of posting this for seeming like a hysterically raving loon. But all of these changes were as objective as I could make them, as meaningless as saying that is.

I could have made this post much longer, and maybe I will for the next log post, but for now, I'll cut it off here. I'll post again in one week."



Here's bicepts most recent update.

"*** Sept 13 update ***
Wow, so I'm just in the middle of tuning up my vehicles and hopped on the computer. I needed to update to say that I'm beginning to feel blown away by intranasasal insulin. I've always had a fascination with endocrinology and glucose metabolism, but I never paid very much attention to glucose metabolism and energy production in the brain. I am now.

I postulate that a lot of what we experience as "brain fog" is caused in part by glucose metabolism in the brain. It definitely affects downstream hormone metabolism in the way of ATP and phosphocreatine production as well. When I take intranasal insulin I do not experience any degree of brain fog whatsoever. I wake up feeling well rested, I stay up at night feeling sharp as a tack, and I do not experience any mental fatigue or cognitive slumps during the day. All that I've changed is added intranasal insulin to my daily regimen. I am starting to think that I don't need any other noots at all, but I will keep taking some choline supplements here and there along with noopept and some racetamic isomers for BDNF and NGF production.

This is definitely one to pay attention to, fellas. I now have my baby's momma on it at 20iu twice per day. She definitely has a lot of brain fog and doesn't take any noots. She has her final licensing exam for nursing coming up and I'm going to see how well this helps her study. We both have very complicated life situations (err... she's actually my "ex-wife" technically, but we're getting along great) so it should be very beneficial to her. I think she will really benefit from this as she has way more going on in her life than I do. I'll be sure to update you guys on how she's doing too. I am absolutely sold on this stuff and extremely excited to see where it heads in terms of scientific literature. I'm sure we're going to uncover a lot of great things about this route of administration."

 

[Remy]

What's up guys? A Longecity member named Autumn and a redditor named bicepts are currently logging their experiences with i-insulin if you guys want to hear about it from someone other than me (and Remy, of course!). =)

Autumn's log: http://www.longecity.org/forum/topic/89360-intranasal-insulin-dihexa-log/#entry789132

Bicepts log: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nootropics/comments/51vsa7/just_started_intranasal_insulin/?

Sorry about the long quotes!

Here's Autumn's most recent update.

"Log Entry 2 on 2 weeks of Dihexa + 1 week intranasal insulin:

-The first thing I noticed shortly after taking I-in is reduced stress. Usually, I have insane stress spikes throughout the day that cause an inability to function normally. Those spikes have mostly disappeared, along with worrying about things cyclically. I worry about everything, important or menial, constantly and obsessively. This week has been free of that. I can't attribute that directly to Insulin, but it does make me feel much calmer in general, so it is likely to be linked. Without these episodes of psychotic stress, I have been able to focus much easier (or at least prevent my train of thought from being hijacked by anything from not being intelligent enough to finish my studies to why I can't grow larger breasts.)

-I have something called Visual Snow, which is a snowy, static-like vision disturbance that is like a hallucination. It is severe, although sometimes worse than other times, where sometimes it looks as if it is snowing heavily, and other times there are only small discolored dots in my field of vision. I also have other hallucinations that are regular and very, very obvious. Anyway, I think the Insulin is actually helping this problem I've had for years. It's. Freaking. Amazing. For instance, when I would sit and stare at the white wall in the bathroom, it would wave in and out and reflect all sorts of colors. And there was the snow, of course. Now there are less pronounced colors and waving and the snow has decreased. I really hope this effect persists.

-No craving for sweets. This is very strange for me, a person with a HUGE sweet tooth. When I first started taking Insulin, I didn't crave them at all. Now, sometimes I do crave a cookie or cake, but if I have a bite of one, I quickly lose my taste for it.

-Appetite in general. My appetite has improved a lot, which is a good thing for me. I know insulin is supposed to decrease/regulate appetite, but for me, it has made me aware of when I need to eat instead of blowing it off. One explanation for this is that it affects the reward system of the brain, which has in turn made eating seem like a pretty cool thing to do. That's just a speculation though.

-On to the cognitive benefits, the hardest thing for me to actually perceive. I think that I am focusing better, even if very, very slightly. One piece of evidence of this is I can actually use the 20/10 learning method without getting distracted and I don't believe I could have done that before. I actually read entire chapters in my textbooks this way, which I have never done before in college (and yes, I did try). It's hard to say if it's the method, insulin, or Dihexa that is helping. Another exciting thing is that I actually understood my Calculus homework and concepts for the first exam of the semester. THAT IS MONUMENTAL FOR ME. Last semester, I had HUGE amounts of trouble trying to understand precalculus. Now, this might be because I am learning through text and not through an oral lecture (I am definitely not an auditory learner), but it's still such a cool thing for me. I understand what is going on in class! That seems like an irrationally big leap to take in two weeks, but it's there.

-I work at a clothing store where clothing must be put away according to clothing type>clothing pattern>clothing color>clothing size, and the clothing racks are constantly being rearranged, so I have to remember where things go and use a sort of "bin sorting" mental function to do my job. Usually it takes me a good amount of time to remember where an article of clothing goes, and it took me noticeably less time this week. There has been no other noticeable influence on recall, however. My short term recall is not nearly as awful as my long term recall, so I will report back on how that has faired a bit later.

To sum it all up, the most noticeable things are: significantly less rumination, calmness, hallucinations are diminishing a bit, normalizing of appetite, and a bit of help with cognitive functions. Seems kinda evangelical; I'm even a little wary of posting this for seeming like a hysterically raving loon. But all of these changes were as objective as I could make them, as meaningless as saying that is.

I could have made this post much longer, and maybe I will for the next log post, but for now, I'll cut it off here. I'll post again in one week."



Here's bicepts most recent update.

"*** Sept 13 update ***
Wow, so I'm just in the middle of tuning up my vehicles and hopped on the computer. I needed to update to say that I'm beginning to feel blown away by intranasasal insulin. I've always had a fascination with endocrinology and glucose metabolism, but I never paid very much attention to glucose metabolism and energy production in the brain. I am now.

I postulate that a lot of what we experience as "brain fog" is caused in part by glucose metabolism in the brain. It definitely affects downstream hormone metabolism in the way of ATP and phosphocreatine production as well. When I take intranasal insulin I do not experience any degree of brain fog whatsoever. I wake up feeling well rested, I stay up at night feeling sharp as a tack, and I do not experience any mental fatigue or cognitive slumps during the day. All that I've changed is added intranasal insulin to my daily regimen. I am starting to think that I don't need any other noots at all, but I will keep taking some choline supplements here and there along with noopept and some racetamic isomers for BDNF and NGF production.

This is definitely one to pay attention to, fellas. I now have my baby's momma on it at 20iu twice per day. She definitely has a lot of brain fog and doesn't take any noots. She has her final licensing exam for nursing coming up and I'm going to see how well this helps her study. We both have very complicated life situations (err... she's actually my "ex-wife" technically, but we're getting along great) so it should be very beneficial to her. I think she will really benefit from this as she has way more going on in her life than I do. I'll be sure to update you guys on how she's doing too. I am absolutely sold on this stuff and extremely excited to see where it heads in terms of scientific literature. I'm sure we're going to uncover a lot of great things about this route of administration."

More ladies, please!! Let's hear from the baby momma...LOL.

 

[Hip]

For the last 6 days I have been taking intranasal insulin, with daily doses starting at 5 IU, going up to 20 IU (which is the highest dose I have tried so far).

I am using it intermittently (taking it one day, but not the next day) to see if there are differences in my cognition between the days I take it, and the days not taking it.

So far I am not sure if intranasal insulin is having much effect. It's possibly increasing motivation and mental focus, but there are no obvious "Wow!" effects from taking it; if it is doing something for me, I think it is relatively subtle.

However, I will keeping on experimenting with it over the coming weeks, again on an intermittent basis, and see how it goes. I'll probably try doses up to 40 IU. I am not getting any side effects at all from intranasal inulin, so I feel confident in trying higher doses.

Because I am currently in the middle of testing another ME/CFS treatment regimen, I don't want to take intranasal insulin full time, because then I would not be able to work out which regimen was providing benefits, if benefits appear.

But because the action of intranasal insulin is short-lived (the effects of one dose last for around half a day), I can take it now and then, without interfering with my other longer term regimen.

 

[Remy]

For the last 6 days I have been taking intranasal insulin, with daily doses starting at 5 IU, going up to 20 IU (which is the highest dose I have tried so far).

I am using it intermittently (taking it one day, but not the next day) to see if there are differences in my cognition between the days I take it, and the days not taking it.

So far I am not sure if intranasal insulin is having much effect. It's possibly increasing motivation and mental focus, but there are no obvious "Wow!" effects from taking it; if it is doing something for me, I think it is relatively subtle.

However, I will keeping on experimenting with it over the coming weeks, again on an intermittent basis, and see how it goes. I'll probably try doses up to 40 IU. I am not getting any side effects at all from intranasal inulin, so I feel confident in trying higher doses.

Because I am currently in the middle of testing another ME/CFS treatment regimen, I don't want to take intranasal insulin full time, because then I would not be able to work out which regimen was providing benefits, if benefits appear.

But because the action of intranasal insulin is short-lived (the effects of one dose last for around half a day), I can take it now and then, without interfering with my other longer term regimen.

Are you still experimenting with the toxoid vaccine?

 

[Lostfalco]

For the last 6 days I have been taking intranasal insulin, with daily doses starting at 5 IU, going up to 20 IU (which is the highest dose I have tried so far).

I am using it intermittently (taking it one day, but not the next day) to see if there are differences in my cognition between the days I take it, and the days not taking it.

So far I am not sure if intranasal insulin is having much effect. It's possibly increasing motivation and mental focus, but there are no obvious "Wow!" effects from taking it; if it is doing something for me, I think it is relatively subtle.

However, I will keeping on experimenting with it over the coming weeks, again on an intermittent basis, and see how it goes. I'll probably try doses up to 40 IU. I am not getting any side effects at all from intranasal inulin, so I feel confident in trying higher doses.

Because I am currently in the middle of testing another ME/CFS treatment regimen, I don't want to take intranasal insulin full time, because then I would not be able to work out which regimen was providing benefits, if benefits appear.

But because the action of intranasal insulin is short-lived (the effects of one dose last for around half a day), I can take it now and then, without interfering with my other longer term regimen.

Thanks for the feedback, Hip! At the very least I'm glad it's not causing you any problems.

I've gone up to 160IU (40IU, 4x per day) without issues so there is definitely some wiggle room for experimentation once you finish your current trial.

What are you testing out right now?

 

[Hip]

Are you still experimenting with the toxoid vaccine?

I am still injecting the original Staphylococcus toxoid vaccine (based on alpha toxin) every two weeks or so. It does not seem to directly help my ME/CFS symptoms, but it has good mood boosting effect, and it has a motivational effect. I find that every time I inject it, I am suddenly more organized, positive, and I notice that start doing things and getting involved in more little projects and activities.

So I am going to continue taking this vaccine one every two weeks. Several other people who took the same vaccine reported strong mood boosts after taking it.

What are you testing out right now?

Currently, I am now testing another Russian Staphylococcus toxoid vaccine (this one based on enterotoxins A, B and C). It is a vaccine for dogs, but similar Staphylococcus dog vaccines have been used before to good effect by ME/CFS doctors such as Dr Richie Shoemaker. It is early days, but I think this new vaccine may be reducing brain fog and reducing mental fatigue.

Staphylococcus alpha toxins and Staphylococcus enterotoxins (once deactivated by turning them into safe toxoids) have immunomodulatory effects, and I think this is probably the mechanism by which Staphylococcus toxoid vaccines benefit ME/CFS.

Professor Gottfries conducted two clinical trials using the Staphypan® Staphylococcus toxoid vaccine as a treatment for ME/CFS, and his results indicated that this was a highly effective ME/CFS treatment, probably the best ME/CFS treatment ever discovered. It ticks all the boxes: effective for the majority of patients, very inexpensive, very well tolerated, and easy enough to administer yourself at home. An all round great treatment.

Unfortunately the manufacturer of Staphypan discontinued this product in 2005, even though it was being successfully used to treat ME/CFS in Sweden, and allowed many patients to recover enough to go back to work.

So what I have been doing is trying to find, somewhere in the world, a substitute for the original Staphypan® Staphylococcus toxoid vaccine. (The complexity is that the original Staphypan® contained many active ingredients: Staphylococcus alpha toxin, Staphylococcus enterotoxin, Staphylococcus toxic shock syndrome toxin (TSST), and Staphylococcus antigens and bacterial cell wall parts; it's not clear which of these ingredients was having the beneficial effects for ME/CFS).

More details about Professor Gottfries's clinical trials of Staphypan® as a ME/CFS and fibromyalgia treatment in this post.

 

[Remy]

It's time for me to mix up my second bottle of insulin with the saline.

I know I can make my own plain saline but I was thinking that maybe the prepared saline would be better. It contains some preservatives that I thought might be beneficial for a multiple use spray bottle.

The ingredients are water, sodium chloride 0.65%, sodium phosphate, benzyl alcohol, sodium hydroxide, and benzalkonium chloride.

@Lostfalco, @Hip can you all think of any reasons I shouldn't use this prepared nasal saline?

 

[Hip]

I can't think of any reason why you should not use prepared saline, if this prepared saline is designed for human use (is it saline sold for contact lens purposes?).


Incidentally, I just bought myself a 500 ml bottle of benzyl alcohol (the preservative in bacteriostatic water at 0.9%), which cost £10. I am going to use this benzyl alcohol as a preservative in any solutions I make up, like nasal spray solutions.