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

Thursday, March 21, 2019

alzheimers news-this really funks me out

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-THIS REALLY FUNKS ME OUT
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each morning i open my google news feed to read the days news updates
there staring at me was these headlines

i must say when i read them
i was overwhelmed with the same feeling i got 8 1/2 years ago when i was first diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment thats due to alzheimers disease
when i was waylaid by that neuropsychological exam that showed me that my time my alzheimers time had arrived

i was funked then
i am funked today
i would say they rank about the same

i have seen my memory scores over these last 8+ years
i know that they dropped after my diagnosis then after 2 years have eventually returned back to normal levels
whatever i did that made my memory improve
it got better

i was certainly hoping big time that it was the aducanumab that over the last 2 years that was like the icing on the cake
my memory was already getting better before i received my first dose
so
whatever i was doing pretreatment before receiving biogens aducanumab was making me better

now i knew that removing amyloid from the brain was only part of the story
i knew removing that wouldnt cure me but i felt like it would probably slow down the disease some
in fact i still think it does

in fact i was already looking for something some study using drugs to remove the tau that would accumulate after the amyloid did its damage

i knew both had to be attacked
aggressively

i was excited yesterday as i went for my 27th infusion of this drug aducanumab
knowing that it was removing amyloid that had probably been up there for 15-20 years
knowing that even if it was removed that the damage done might not be healed
but
hoping and still hoping that it would slow things down

so
i must say i was shocked this morning when i read this article linked here
and linked here
announcing that biogen was discontinuing the study the aducanumab study that i am in

what a lousy birthday present for me this week

but
today i will start looking for a new study to participate in
i in fact yesterday i was asking the researchers about a new study i have been monitoring
in fact
i asked then yesterday if i could participate in the study that removes tau
no i was told
well
maybe today the answer will be yes

in fact i was about to blog on this new study saying i wish i could be in it
since it attacks the tau protein

to review
amyloid builds up and damages the brain cells which eventually release tau protein which causes further brain cell damage
both have to be attacked together
in fact i have been talking about this all week
i even told my wife she yesterday the problem is im not attacking the tau thats accumulating in my brain

if you look in my brain now and compare it to two years ago
a large portion of the amyloid accumulated up there has been removed
i really believe having that done will help me
granted it will start reaccumulating again

now
i need to start getting rid of the tau

i plan to start today

its like a boat with a large leak and you are trying to bail out all the water
its a losing battle
the water will win eventually
you just try to make it as long as you can

i plan to funk out today then restart tomorrow

the organicgreen doctor

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