welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Friday, July 20, 2012

was born too soon

WAS BORN TOO SOON
if you have a family member or friend with alzheimers
or have a strong family history of alzheimers then 
you might want to read this

yep think i was born too soon 
wished i was born 15 years later
why
the studies on alzheimers showing promising findings
is starting to steam roll
although im participating in one of the biggest and
most important studies on alzheimers ever done
i wish i were younger so that i could some day 
benefit from these findings

at least those of you are younger than me and my kids
and my nieces and nephews and one day my grandkids
will all benefit

those who would have gotten alzheimers will actually 
be dying from something else since treatments will be
available to prevent and treat this disease

nothing we have available does this except we are
getting close

ivig (intravenous immunoglobulins)-they take the plasma 
from plasma donors and remove all the immunoglobulins that
fight inflammation disease and infections including antibodies
against that on bad sticky stuff beta anyloid and it is given in 
a vein as an infusion

you know some of you when you were younger in college
needed money so you donated at a plasma center 
thats where this stuff comes from

its not new and is actually available now
its used now against certain neurological diseases as 
multiple sclerosis myasthenia gravis some demylinating 
polyneuropathies eg
its not approved by fda for use in alzheimers
the supply is limited
and its very very expensive 

they gave this ivig to patients with alzheimers then followed them 
for several months and those who received the higher doses
got good results

with alzheimers when you have it and show symptoms the decline
is noticeable over 3 years
everyone in this study showed a noticeable decline in progressive
symptoms
those who received the higher doses did not have any 
worsening of their alzheimers  in 3 years

if you have anyone in your family who has alzheimers you know
this is an important result
my mother went from driving her car although she shouldnt have 
to being unable to care for herself in three years
the same happened to my younger brother

now the problem is this stuff is available now
it can be given to someone and they may not progress in their
disease
they dont get better but they dont get worse

on the horizon and in the final stages of studies are at least three
infusions that contain either man made antibodies or something 
that induces the patient to make antibodies against beta amyloid
those results will be published soon so well 
know whether this approach will work against alzheimers
the ivig study implies that it will

if i have alzheimers i would be a good candidate for use of one of
this iv infusions since im so early in the process
and only a small amount of damage has been done so far

the progression of the disease could be stopped and i would
not develop full blown alzheimers

another important study is the genome project
luckily i am one of 800 people in this study 
using dna obtained in the adni study that im in

basically they will take blood and will do a whole genome
sequencing (all 6 billion letters in my dna) that will take 4 months to do 
they will basically map out all of my dna and genes
they then will take this information and compare it to my 
neuropsychological exams my mris my beta amyloid pet scans
and other tests done in the study
and scientist all over the world will use this information for 
research 

this genome project may end up creating a world without 
alzheimers according to one researcher

we  sure hope so
yep born 15 years too early 

the organic green doctor

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