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

Monday, February 11, 2013

video update, meeting

VIDEO UPDATE

here is the update on our video
former physician takes action in the face of alzheimers
that is entered in the neurofilm festival associated with this years
american academy of neurology conference in san diego 

here is the link to view the video and vote
http://patients.aan.com/go/about/neurofilmfestival

in the fan favorite category 
we are presently in second place of the over 70+ videos entered

our video had been viewed over 1700 times since the contest started
thats 3 times the viewings of the first place team

the fan favorite winner will be given a certificate and recognition
at the conference this year

there are also two other categories 
the grand prize 
runner up 

these will be decided by a committee made up of a panel of neurologists
members of the american brain foundation and by experienced filmakers

the winners will be judged on the quality of the story and quality of the film

these two winners will receive financial enumeration and recognition and 
their videos will be actually shown at the conference
whereas the fan favorite will not 

whats important to us is that our video is being viewed by more and more
people each day which is helping getting the alzheimers story out 
to the general public

the jest of our video is that
early detection and treatment and prevention of this disease is how we are 
going to defeat this disease

so feel free to share this video with other people
and continue to vote

the fact that we have got so much attention is important for this 
contest but also is important for the big picture
of finding a cure for this disease

MEETING
this weekend my wife she and i went to a brunch conference that was 
done by the alzheimers research center at the university of texas
southwestern medical center
researchers there talked about what research projects they were 
involved in and what was going on in alzheimers studies now

of course the most important study they are involved in at present
is the alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative study (adni) 
this is the one that i am a study subject for
it has so far produced 2000+ scientific research articles
important profiles of this disease are being developed

it seems that the goal like in the video is to identify people before 
symptoms show up or very early on like me so that treatment 
can be started real early in the disease

it is appearing that once the disease symptoms get started it is 
hard to stop it since so much damage has been done already in the 
brain it can not be repaired

the goal is to catch things before the damage starts

there are important studies starting this year that will be doing just 
that 
one in columbia and one in washington  where people who we know
carry the gene and will be getting the disease will be treated with 
iv medicine that may help prevent the disease
if it does work we will know in the next 5+ years

the other thing at that meeting was
that we were able to mingle some with other volunteers for these studies
some are in the normal control group 
that is they have no cognitive problems
(thats what i had planned to do but it didnt work our that way)

other people who are in the studies have the disease
many are early like me but some are more advanced
a couple in their 60s volunteered to be normal controls
she was ok
he was not
he has the disease and is more advanced than i 
i recognize that lost look in his eye even though he looked ok

another couple was a retired family doctor like me and his wife
she has the disease which has forced him to go ahead and 
retire early to care for her
but she again appears to be ok 
but shes not

there are a lot of us out there and there are more coming
us baby boomers who will be affected by this alzheimers thing
and they are going to be identified early in the disease
as more and more testing is available earlier on 
and as more and more people learn about how important it 
is to know earlier and to get diagnosed earlier

this was a good meeting for us 
it reinforced that my wife she and i are doing the right thing
to expose ourselves so others can maybe know what to do 

the organicgreen doctor

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