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 17, 2015

alzheimers news-its here

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-ITS HERE
i wrote a few weeks about namenda and namenda xr
the company that makes namenda was going to stop making
namenda since its new namenda xr was out
namenda is taken twice a day 
namenda xr is taken once a day

its the medicine that is usually added to aricept
when an alzheimers patient starts to get worse

why the xr
its a change in patent
so they can make it as a brand only for several years
at $362 a month

now the namenda 
remember its the same drug 
works the same
has to be taken twice a day
is going off patent
excuse me it just went off patent

by stopping the namenda the drug company would have forced all 
those dementia patients to go onto namenda xr
so when the namenda goes generic doctors and patients 
wont want to chamge to the cheaper stuff

the federal courts forced the company to continue to make
namenda
but not after the company pushed the namenda xr heavily 
to consumers with ads and to doctors with the good looking
drug reps

now the namenda is generic
mylan is making it 
it will show up at costco first then other pharmacies
it will be about the same price as the brand for awhile 
then drop some 
but then after 6 months it will plummet in price

eg generic aricept dropped from $280 to $160 to 
where it is now about $10
thats what i pay now for 30 days worth

so the generic namenda called memantine is expected to do 
the same

if your loved one is on namenda xr
you will need to ask their doctor to change to the generic namenda
you might save $300+ a month

then
i follow a blog called missing jim
its like ive written before oozes pain emotional pain

this last blog was painful to read
as 
this wife struggles as a caregiver finding help for
her and her family and her young alzheimers husband

this folks is what its like to be an alzheimers caregiver

read it and weep

the organicgreen doctor

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