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, March 15, 2019

alzheimers news-if they get it do we get it

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-IF THEY GET IT DO WE GET IT
Image result for organicgreendoctor
ive read this several times when reading about alzheimers disease and have heard alzheimers speakers say this several times
just because our parents and grandparents have alzheimers disease doesnt mean we will
im sure that made a lot of folks rest easy

however
this recent study from the university of utah may change that view some

after i read the study i went back and looked closer at my family tree and who on those branches may have had alzheimers disease
this information was gathered from my own experiences
eg i remember both grandmothers having memory issues
cousins have related stories to me about my uncles and aunts dementia
a cousin wrote a book about her mothers battle with alzheimers and her grandparents battle with it
discussions with older siblings who remember some of these folks better than i did

in my family tree
these probably had it
my maternal great grandfather
both grandmothers
both parents
6 uncles and aunts
several cousins
two siblings

thats a real positive history there
my guess is its because i have the double apoe 4 gene which increases the odds of getting alzheimers disease a lot
the apoe 4 gene also is involved in cholesterol metabolism so the levels can tend to be real high in folks with this gene
high cholesterol is associated with stroke heart attack and probably alzheimers diease
stroke is also a common cause of memory loss and dementia

the university of utah had records on folks going back to the 1800s including death certificates
the mormons were and still are good record keepers
they looked back at at least 3 generations on thousands of folks

the risk was greater for those who had it through each generation like our family does
the risk could reach 15 x in those folks

this article goes more into depth on the study results

even with this increased risk you can alter it by living a healthy lifestyle negating somewhat your family history

at least i hope so
thats what im trying to do

the organicgreen doctor

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