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, August 30, 2019

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-alzheimers disease 101

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-alzheimers disease 101: ALZHEIMERS NEWS-ALZHEIMERS DISEASE 101 when my mother was diagnosed with alzheimers disease i started reading up on alzheimers disease i ...

alzheimers news-alzheimers disease 101

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-ALZHEIMERS DISEASE 101
Image result for organicgreendoctor
when my mother was diagnosed with alzheimers disease i started reading up on alzheimers disease
i realized how much i didnt know about it
then
my younger brother was diagnosed with alzheimers disease in his mid fifties
it hit him after he had retired as a fireman and had started a second career as a deputy sheriff
when he was diagnosed that made me even spend more time reading about alzheimers disease and what i could do to keep from getting it myself
then
in 2011 i was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment due to alzheimers disease
when i was diagnosed i spent a lot of time researching alzheimers disease to come up with a plan for me to follow
i also did presentations on my story talking about alzheimers disease and what ive done and what others need to do to slow things down
i also once was asked to do a talk on the different dementias for a medical seminar
this helped me understand the difference between the different other types of dementias

if you have a loved one or friend or even yourself i think its important to know and understand what we know about alzheimers disease in 2019
knowledge of your disease is important for you as you seek care for your disease

this week in one of my alzheimers newsfeeds a video came through from the university of california san francisco memory care center

if you want to know about alzheimers disease
what types of alzheimers are there
what happens in the brain with alzheimers
listen to lay folks ask their questions they want answers to after they listened to the presentation
these are the parts of my presentations i do that i like the best
when folks get to ask the questions they want answers to

the main speaker does a good job of giving a talk that lay people can understand
i use to try to do that when i spoke to patients
eg
some doctors would say well you have labyrinthitis
i would say you have vertigo
we all know what vertigo is

one of the things they discussed were visual spacial problems folks with this type of alzheimers disease have
some of the visual spatial issues can occur years before the full blown disease hits
this is something i have noticed in the past and even now

eg
i have had problems finding things that are on the shelf in our cabinets
its sitting there right in front of my eyes
he talks about this and why it happens

he does an excellent job of explaining the genetic components of alzheimers disease
especially the apoe 4 gene

he explains the four types of alzheimers disease
the one we think of when we think of alzheimers disease is the most common one

he explains what happens with amyloid and then the tau proteins and how they are involved in this disease

if you want to know more about alzheimers disease i would highly recommend this video
its lengthy but its very educational
i learned several things i didnt know
it also reinforced what i do know about alzheimers

if you have a loved one with this disease and you want to know whats going on in the brain
watch this video



on october 10th i will be part of an alzheimers panel at valley presbyterian hospital in van nuys as part of an early memory loss panel sponsored by the alzheimers greater la

on october 18th my wife she and i will be attending a ucla luncheon for alzheiemers research participants where we might learn what happened with the aducanumab study

on november 8th i will be on an alzheimers panel answering questions after the showing of the documentary  turning point at the jeff bridges auditorium at ucla

then our walk is below

also join and or donate to our teams for the walk to end alzheimers or join an alzheimers walk in your area

alzheimers disease presentation
our walk to end alzheimers team organicgreendoctor will be walking in the walk here in santa barbara on saturday november 2 2019
i was diagnosed at the age of 60
here is the link to my team and the walk

Obituary of Joseph G. Nash
my younger brothers team #team joe nash will be walking in the el dorado arkansas walk to end alzheimers on saturday september 14 2019
he died 6 years ago in the final stage of alzheimers disease
he was diagnosed at the age of 55
here is the link to his team and the walk

the organicgreendoctor blog

Thursday, August 29, 2019

organicgreendoctor: santa barbara country n news-reap what you sow

organicgreendoctor: santa barbara country n news-reap what you sow: SANTA BARBARA COUNTRY N NEWS-REAP WHAT YOU SOW when i garden i try to only plant what we will eat and try to plant so we dont have to s...

santa barbara country n news-reap what you sow

SANTA BARBARA COUNTRY N NEWS-REAP WHAT YOU SOW
when i garden i try to only plant what we will eat
and
try to plant so we dont have to spend a lot of time putting things up
i guess thats a southern wording putting things up
what it means is
canning or freezing veggies to eat later in the year

so in my garden right now i have

okra
i use it in stir fries in grilled veggies and plan to pickle some with refrigerator pickled veggies
now when i produced a lot more in texas since it loves texas hot dry summers
i would cook it with tomatoes in a tomato okra dish usually using the crockpot
the acid of the tomatoes mixed with the slimeness of the okra makes for a good tasting dish
here in santa barbara it doesnt get as hot
weve had 70/60 degree weather for several weeks now
sorry texas
the okra doesnt grow fast here or larger
my texas okra would get over 10 feet tall here maybe they get 5 feet
right now they are at 4 feet

basil
we eat it a lot in salads but my wife she makes a pesto that we use mainly with pasta or curly squash pasta
now thats not a specific squash its one thats been cut into larger curls and eaten like pasts
we also use it on sandwich salads etc

cukes
this year its been slow
we eat them a lot with salads

squash
we eat them raw or in salads or grilled or as curly pasta

billie beans or peruvan beans
these i grew enough for several quarts of frozen beans to be cooked later in the crockpot with my beans crockpot recipe

french cut green beans
these many of them never make it home as i eat them as i garden along with my cherry tomatoes
we eat them in salads or eat them in stir fries
this year i snapped them and froze them and will eat them later in soups stir fries grilled veggies

christmas lima beans
these dried lima beans or as we called them butter beans have an almost ham taste
we cook them in the crockpot using my bean crockpot recipe

malibar spinach
we eat the small leaves in salads
we use the larger leaves in stir fries
my wife she uses it to make a spinach casserole or in other spinach dishes

purple hull peas
these are grown and shelled when the pea hulls get purple
i plant just enough to shell and freeze and cook on new years day
eating them on new years day is a southern tradition for good luck

banana peppers
we eat them raw
like the french green beans many dont make it out of the garden since i snack on them while i garden
we use them a lot in salads

mild tam jalapeno peppers
we use them in cooking and in our margaritas to add some heat
i freeze them also in ziplock bags to use as we need them later

bell peppers
we eat them raw and in salads and grilled veggies and stir fries
i also freeze them in bags and use them as needed later

egg plant
we use them in the grilled veggie mix
my wife she has a least two good recipes with tomatoes and other veggies and swiss chard
she also makes a great egg plant dip with them

so our refrigerator freezer is half full with these veggies
i carefully label them and date them
my wife she doesnt believe in doing that
my rule
if not labelled or dated its gone to the compost
my wife she contributes a lot of frozen food to the compost pile i must add

yesterday i noticed i had a few okra a handful of green beans some banana peppers a few jalapenos a few bell  peppers a few garlic a few left over yellow onions some new fresh cukes a couple of small squash
so i plan to make using that jar in the picture above a jar of refrigerator pickled veggies using all of these

i will heat up some white vinegar add some dill some pepper flakes some pickling salt maybe some sugar
then
stuff all those veggies down in there
then
pour the vinegar mix over them
then
let it cool some
then
put it in the refrigerator to eat as we want
they never last very long though

i will take my okra then from my garden dunk it down in there each day as i harvest my okra
after a week or so the okra is pickled then i will eat it
you can tell by the color change when the okra is pickled good
yum is all i can say about what all goes into that jar

so thats how i reap what i sow

the organicgreen doctor

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited 18-self administered memory tes...

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited 18-self administered memory tes...: MY STORY REVISITED 18-SELF ADMINISTERED MEMORY TESTS after i was diagnosed folks kept asking me about memory tests they could take to scre...

my story revisited 18-self administered memory tests

MY STORY REVISITED 18-SELF ADMINISTERED MEMORY TESTS
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after i was diagnosed folks kept asking me about memory tests they could take to screen their memory in the privacy of their homes
i found one the sage test from ohio state university
i would say it has sort of become the gold standard for self administered memory tests
it seems to be fairly accurate
an abnormal result should be followed up with a doctors visit to have a more thorough evaluation for treatable causes for memory issues
like
depression anxiety medications low thyroid low b12 sleep issues poorly controlled blood pressure etc
treating these may improve your memory

eg
lets say that if i had done a self administered memory test on my own instead of going to the alzheimers center like the sage test and the results were found that i possibly was having memory issues
then i would have taken the results to my doctor
and
started an evaluation

what he would have found would have been a low b12 a low vitamin d3 a normal mri an abnormal more involved memory test in the office like the moca test or the more gold standard one the neuropsychological test

i would have been referred to a neurologist and ended up probably where i am now

so if you are worried do the sage test its linked here and in the blog below

another online memory test i found was one from dr oz
i know he does some weird stuff but this one has similar questions in it that are in many of the memory tests i have taken over the last few years
i retook his this morning and had a normal test
they score it for you
his online test is linked below in the old blog

then another online memory test i do every morning i wrote about in one of the old blogs below
i also recently wrote about it a few weeks ago in this blog Pa$S2u0Rd

i call it my password memory test
in fact i have taken it this morning and passed again

so you can do these online memory tests and use them as a screening memory test
dont cheat
take your time
if they arent normal
make an appointment to see your doctor only for one reason
memory problems

dont go in to see the doctor with a long list of issues
just have the one issue
memory

good luck


01-27-2011
SAGE
if you think you could have alzheimers or mild cognitive impairment
you should go to this web site www.sagetest.osu.edu

this is a test developed by ohio state university department of
neurology division of cognitive neurology

this is a self administered test that you can do on yourself or
friend or relative     
there are instructions on scoring the test

if you or they dont score well then you should see a physician
for further evaluation

my diagnosis is early mild cognitive impairment
i took the test this am and got everything correct
however when i was given a 2 hour neuropsychological exam i
failed the part on short term memory (it was a more involved testing)

because i had a normal evaluation 15 months ago and then had
the abnormal one recently plus the fact ive noted subtle changes plus
my strong family history of alzheimers got me to where i am now-
retired and on aricept (donnepezil)

01-28-2011
ANOTHER ALZHEIMERS SELF TEST
if you have not taken the sage test in yesterdays blog go do
it first before you take this one

i took the sage test yesterday and passed without problems

now go to dr ozs test at  www.doctoroz.com/quiz/memory-quiz

i took this test and did not do as well considering my age
and my amount of education (12 years post high school)
the results were the same as was on the more involved
neuropsychological test i took at ut southwestern
it is disturbing still whenever i take it

if you dont do well on either of these tests see your
doctor for further evaluation
eg depression can cause this or hypothyroidism or low b12

also if you have a friend or family member you are worried
about have them take the tests

01-19-2011
ANOTHER TEST
so theres another screening test ive came up with for cognitive
decline
first this week was the sage test, then dr ozs test, and now the
togd password test

when i do this blog and go through various email accounts,
facebook accounts, news accounts, blog monitoring accounts,
bank accounts, etc i use 10-12 different passwords

i think that if i start forgetting those passwords then its a sign
that i may have more cognitive decline

i do think about it when i type in a password and it gets rejected
and do it again and it gets rejected, oh no i got 1 more chance........
whew the caps button was on

now where did i write down those passwords

the organicgreen doctor

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

organicgreendoctor: so u cant sleep

organicgreendoctor: so u cant sleep: SO U CANT SLEEP join the circle of hope when i was in practice i would have the honors high school health class rotate students through ...

so u cant sleep

SO U CANT SLEEP

join the circle of hope

when i was in practice i would have the honors high school health class rotate students through my clinic to follow me around in the morning
these kids were interested most of them in going into health care as a career

for a couple of them that seemed to stand out i offered them a part time job working in my office assisting my nurse doing whatever she needed help with
i would while they were working show them anything that might seem interesting

one of these students esc stood out
esc was at the top of her class
she played in the band and was the captain of her high school soccer team and took honors classes and worked for me
she was highly motivated
i knew she could do whatever she wanted to do as a career whether it was a doctor a lawyer a scientist an astronaut maybe even the president

she wanted to be a physician
she attended college then actually got accepted to more than one medical school but chose the one closer to her family

as she was choosing her specialty she chose radiation oncology since her mother had developed cancer

she now is now a radiation oncologist in the mid west
she is a mother of three

she developed a website called the circle of hope  to help her patients with meditation and how to deal with the stresses of having cancer and undergoing treatments and dealing with the aftermath of all of this

her website is something we all would benefit from accessing and using her techniques and suggestions

the latest one is titled
help i cant sleep

now we have all been there

when i was in my family practice residency we all had to go through a 10 session program that lasted an hour each to learn how to relax so we could control anxiety and could relax to go to sleep
we were hooked up to a pulse rate monitor that beeped with each heart beat
we were also hooked up to a monitor that was attached to our forehead and made a noise like a sound machine that would get louder when the muscle was tensed and quieter when the muscle relaxed

over these 10 sessions i got to where i could lower my heart rate and make my muscles relax from head to toe

over the years especially when i was in residency and in my early private practice and beyond i used these techniques to relax as i would try to go to sleep
eg
maybe i just delivered a difficult delivery at 1 am and had just got home at 300 am and had to be in the clinic at 800 am
i needed to get sleep since my brain was still going at 100 mph
i would use these techniques to relax starting from the top of my head to the tip of my toes
usually i was asleep before i got to my toes

this is similar to the technique she describes in the above link

there are other techniques you will find useful on her website

one i used recently as i was facing my second plastic surgery on my nose and face
i was dreading having to have all those painful injections again and was dreading that post op period where it was quite uncomfortable for a few days

her technique for relaxing and meditating prior to a medical procedure was useful that day

i suggest if you have trouble going to sleep read the entry above and maybe spend time looking at her website for other suggestions to help you with your life

meditation will help with anxiety blood pressure control it seems it may help slow down dementia some its certain to help with the anxiety of the disease
im sure caretakers would benefit from using it also

yes
if u cant sleep
this may help

the circle of hope
we all need hope as we approach the unknown future

the organicgreen doctor

Monday, August 26, 2019

organicgreendoctor: not being able to breathe

organicgreendoctor: not being able to breathe: NOT BEING ABLE TO BREATH ive never had this issue before the closest ive ever come is getting hit playing football where i got the brea...

not being able to breathe

NOT BEING ABLE TO BREATH
ive never had this issue before
the closest ive ever come is getting hit playing football where i got the breath knocked out of me
thats a scary feeling of not being able to take in a deep breath when your body wants more oxygen

in my medical career i took care of a lot of asthmatic patients
most were kids
it was hard to watch them sometimes struggling to breath while getting maximum oxygen and maximum breathing treatments

i use to tell parents if you want to know what its like then do this
take a straw
pinch your nose
now
walk up and down a long stairs
see how hard it is to get air in and out
you arent getting enough oxygen 
your body is retaining carbon dioxide
if you kept going with the straw in your mouth and your nose pinched 
you would pass out

i just tried this with the straw above pinched my nose and walked up and down the stairs here at our condo 
luckily it was dark and no one could see me walking with that yellow straw and pinching my nose
i didnt last long before i took out the straw and unpinched my nose and took a long deep refreshing breath

now
before you read the rest of this 
go do this yourself to see what its like if you cant get enough oxygen in your lungs
that feeling is 
what asthmatics get
what copd or emphysema patients get
what congestive heart failure patients get
that anxiety that you get right before you take the straw out of your mouth and unpinch your nose
that anxiety 
that fear that they will smoother to death
its what you see in their eyes
those of us who have taken care of those patients know that anxiety look

Image result for amazon fires map
nasa picture 

now
when you hear the news of the amazon burning
think about this
those are our lungs burning down in south america
apparently it the amazon produces 20% of the worlds oxygen

if that keeps burning like that then our old earth may be like those of you who put that straw in the mouth pinched the nose and walked up and down the stairs

this doesnt even consider the massive pollution in the air from these burnings

if you are an asthmatic in central and south texas you know what this may be like when they start those massive crop burnings in central america that send its smoke up over half the state
you all know cause yall cant breathe when that happens

if the amazon keeps burning earth that means us will be screaming 
i cant breath i cant breathe

we cant afford to let this happen to us
we cant just unpinch our nose or take a breathing treatment to make it better
if the oxygen aint there
it aint there

why is this happening down there
crazy politicians
greedy folks
drought 
climate change
deliberate burning

so the treatment for this earths breathing problem 
is to fix those six things above
or
we all might be like those with straws in their mouths and nose pinched and walking up and down stairs not being able to breathe or those with chronic breathing problems

no wonder the world is upset
we most of us understand what this means to all of us

the organicgreen doctor

Friday, August 23, 2019

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-sleeper cells

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-sleeper cells: ALZHEIMERS NEWS-SLEEPER CELLS if you have followed this blog for awhile you know that i have problems with sleep and to compensate i take ...

alzheimers news-sleeper cells

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-SLEEPER CELLS
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if you have followed this blog for awhile you know that i have problems with sleep and to compensate i take a nap each afternoon after i have lunch
this sort of compensates for the lack of sleep i get at night
it sort of gets programmed into my day

eg last night i only slept 5 hours
hopefully today i will nap an hour or so to compensate for that lack of sleep
the end result is most days i am able to get 7 hours of sleep
the body likes 7-8 hours of uninterrupted sleep so one can stay in a long deep sleep without interruption
the 7 hours i get is ok but not the best way to do it
but
i have learned to accept this way of getting sleep

i thought for awhile i had the nap gene
if you inherit this gene you have to have a nap everyday
its in your genetics
actually i made that one up

i take aricept (donepezil) for my mci due to alzheimers disease
it raises acetylcholine levels in the brain cells by stopping an enzyme that breaks down the acetylcholine allowing it to accumulate in the brain nerve endings
this is why i get leg cramps muscle fasciculations some visual focusing issues after taking my meds and my issues with sleep
if i stop the aricept (donepezil) the sleep issues go away
or did
i havent stopped the aricept (donepezil) in a while since i afraid to since i think its helping me some

we in medicine know that folks with alzheimers disease have sleep issues and have frequent daytime napping as an issue
in fact one of the early signs in early alzheimers may be frequent napping
ruh roh is all i can say about that

according to this scientific article and this news article about it there may be an explanation besides just the aricept (donepezil) causing my sleep issues and napping issues

there are three parts of the brain that handles wakefulness called the wakeful promotion network
these are listed in the articles
one is the hypothalamus which is in the area where alzheimers disease starts

they have found that in these three centers in alzheimers patients that there are tau proteins that unwind leading to tau tangles that have accumulated in these areas to destroy the cells there and to hinder wakefulness
75% of the brain cells were destroyed in these centers

in alzheimers disease tau proteins build up and slowly destroy brain cells and their connections
one of the areas it attacks and destroys is these wakeful centers

when they looked at folks who dont have alzheimers disease it was found these centers were in intact

so
the aricept (donepezil) hinders sleep at night
the three wakeful centers are slowly getting destroyed by the tau tangles
both lead to daytime sleepiness

so please accept and understand my early afternoon naps
and
those of your family also so affected

the organicgreen doctor


Thursday, August 22, 2019

organicgreendoctor: santa barbara country n news-farm to fork day

organicgreendoctor: santa barbara country n news-farm to fork day: SANTA BARBARA COUNTRY N NEWS-FARM TO FORK DAY yesterday as i put the finishing touches on the rainwater barrels for catching rainwater to...

santa barbara country n news-farm to fork day

SANTA BARBARA COUNTRY N NEWS-FARM TO FORK DAY
yesterday as i put the finishing touches on the rainwater barrels for catching rainwater to use in our garden i texted my wife she
lets do a farm to fork day for supper tonight
how about a stir fry of what i can find in the garden

the last several months i have become more and more vegetarian and have cut down on my cheese intake and rarely eat meat
now i not oppose to my eating meat
i usually dont eat it unless its served to me
i use to eat a turkey sandwich every day with a slice of cheese on it but since we have had so many tomatoes the last few weeks i found i am mostly eating a tomato sandwich for lunch each day

what i have noticed is that i had to get my drill out and find the right bit that was the same size of the hole in my belts and drilled another hole in my belts to keep my pants up

i was recently weighed and was found to have lost about 8 lbs in those last few weeks
all done gradually by eating mostly veggie stuff

so i told my wife she yesterday right before i left the garden that i would find whatever veggies i could to throw in the stir fry

here is what i found
red amaranth
green amaranth
purslane
curly leaf kale
dinosaur kale
walking stick collard
bell pepper
banana pepper
jalapeno pepper
malabar spinach
three different basils a purple one a greek one then the usual green sweet one
two different mints
squash flower
some unknown asian vine a fellow gardener gave me to stir fry from her garden
french cut green beans
then
as i got home i grabbed some garlic and onion from storage in our garage

so
all these things were from my garden

i chopped them up
stir fried them with olive oil and seasonings and a sesame sauce for stir fry
this was then served over rice
with some fresh tomatoes on the side

so
folks
thats how you lose weight without really trying
and
eat quite healthy while you are at it

also i have noticed eating this way has eliminated some stomach issues i was having

if you mind your diet you will live longer and healthier

the organicgreen doctor

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited 17

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited 17: MY STORY REVISITED 17 i did new years resolutions after i was diagnosed a couple weeks earlier this diagnosis sure made me look at my lif...

my story revisited 17

MY STORY REVISITED 17
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i did new years resolutions after i was diagnosed a couple weeks earlier
this diagnosis sure made me look at my life much closer

it was interesting to read through these resolutions and i realized that doing some of them may be some of the reasons that now almost 9 years later i am doing better
that plus taking aricept (donepezil)

an aside here i read an article about how aricept (donepezil) can cause brain cells to rejuvenate in the hippocampal area and that it has antiinflammatory effects also
the hippocampal area is where alzheimers starts and where the first shrinkage occurs that can be detected on scans

i also had my first study mri after my diagnosis
these are called functional mris that are able to measure how the hippocampal area is functioning
now somehow i would get a copy of my mri report while i was in the study even though i dont think i was suppose to get them
mine have always been normal
early on in mild cognitive impairment due to alzheimers my diagnosis the mri can be normal
my mother and younger brother had abnormal scans when they were diagnosed
later
the scans i had done the amyvid pet scans for the amyloid in the brain were positive

so
this morning i read over my mri blog then read over my blog on my new years resolution
it was sobering

yes we did our hwy one trip along the california coast from san francisco to santa barbara
our oldest son got married and now has two kiddos ms b and mr h
our youngest son is now married
so i gained two daughterinlaws
all of these i was afraid i would miss
when i was diagnosed 9 years ago i really didnt think i would be doing this well

yes i got my long term disability from my disability insurance which gave me 5 more years of income plus i was placed on medicare after the first year after my diagnosis and added a medicare supplement and drug plan to it
i must say its the best health insurance combo ive ever had

so
i really had a lot going on in our life the first month after my diagnosis
so far
i am pleased how its all turned out



01-04-2011
MRI 
i had an an mri of the brain that was normal
thats good news and bad news
the good news is that there were not any changes of alzheimers seen on the mri-i did not expect any
when changes are noted usually there are more cognitive problems than what i have
the bad news is that there is not another treatable cause found for my problem

i am trying to find out what other patients that i know with alzheimers had on their mris when they were first diagnosed
i know my mom had cerebral atrophy and increased ventricle size on her ct scan early on in her diagnosis
(means the brain shrinks)

i will have a pet scan later on that may tell me more


01-11-2011
NEW YEAR RESOLUTION
my wife she and i did not sit down and do any new years
resolutions this year on january 1, 2011
we were just 2 weeks from receiving my diagnosis and
my starting medication
the previous week before new years was when we
did what is equivalent to new years resolutions

we decided to change our diets and eat better
we already generally ate an american heart association diet
but tweaked it with a mediterranean version
(except of course i have added chocolate and snickers)

we decided to start exercising every day
i do ranch aerobics every day at the country n
but now i added long walks 2-3 miles to my daily exercise
i will commonly take the dogs with us to the river so they
can swim as it is only 5 minutes away
it is so quiet and relaxing
you can just stand there watching the dogs in the river,
hear the birds, hear the wind blowing through the trees
with no outside noises
its sometimes hard to turn back to go back home

we drink a glass of red wine each night
that helps to raise the good hdl (mine was low) cholesterol 
and may help with cognitive decline but i was already doing that

relax relax   
that may be one of the most important ones of all     
i am at peace with everything      
i have accepted what may be in the future   
at least my mind may go first before my body goes     
i am lucky if it happens this way
although this would be worse on my wife she

we resolved  to get all our paperwork in order for our living wills,
will, durable power of attorney, power of attorney for health care,
(i will get no cpr tattooed across my  chest) and other paper work
together     
we will sit down and discuss all this together and
will discuss with our sons so every one knows what we want

actually everyone should do this anyway
we are lucky that we can do this now together
dont wait

we also are getting our financial house in order
i am retiring 3-5 years before i planned
but we despite making a good income for several years we have
always lived frugally and have been able to do the things we
want to do when we want to do them
this may change some 

i have to do an exit interview with the clinic i work for so will
know more about the future regards sick pay, fmla (i didnt think
i would have to deal with that personally-wish i had been better
about doing these for patients), malpractice coverage for the rest of
my life, health care (now i know all about cobra-thanks to obama
care i can now extend it to about 2 1/2 years), and work on
what to do with my 401k
i may be able to get long term disability (i have  long term
disability insurance) as i can not practice medicine again

my wife she and i want to spend more time with our families
and to do some traveling to areas we have not been
(google hwy one california trip to the right of this blog)
i dont want to be traveling to those places later if i dont know im
there
we also are in the middle of a wedding journey with our son
and his finance
so we should have a busy year 

so we had a busy week before new years
maybe 1-1- 2012 we will do new years resolutions
i just hope that both our health stays the same


i am much better today than i thought i would be when i wrote all this

the organicgreen doctor

Monday, August 19, 2019

organicgreendoctor: it was the bees day this weekend

organicgreendoctor: it was the bees day this weekend: IT WAS THE BEES DAY THIS WEEKEND this was my bee hive i had at the country n in texas the bees seemed quite happy being on our 10 acres ...

it was the bees day this weekend

IT WAS THE BEES DAY THIS WEEKEND

this was my bee hive i had at the country n in texas
the bees seemed quite happy being on our 10 acres
they had acess to all these native plants all year round
there was always something blooming around there

they supplied us with a lot of honey the few years before we moved

now the county n was a good location since it was surrounded by large ranches and they didnt have to be worried about getting zapped by some pesticide or insecticide or weed killer on somebodys corn field or soybean field

when i took my bee class before i got my bees
they said
if you live next to a big corn field you probably cant have bees
they will all die from the stuff that gets sprayed on those fields
even
3 miles away will be too close to these fields since thats how far a bee will forage for nectar

ive seen online where friends have tried to unsuccessfully have bees several times only to find them all gone or all dead
usually
its some poison sprayed somewhere close by

honeybees are important
without them we all or many of us would probably starve

they are the pollinators for many of our fruit and veggie crops

we all need to take care of them

at our community garden here we have added several hives on the edges of the property
protected with a tall fence to keep folks out
to raise honey and also to provide pollination for our orchard and veggie gardens

just this weekend i went out to look at them
swarming all around zipping back and forth
they seemed all quite happy and content
doing their job
feeding and caring for their queen
while
pollinating our veggies and fruit
and
soon to be providing us with some honey to be used in a fall event as a fundraiser for our garden
i hope to access some of the honey if its auctioned or sold at this event

fresh honey local honey tastes the best

so
saturday was national honeybee day

we should all celebrate that day each year
since
without them our food supply would be limited

do your part to protect them

for a bee story that will make you smile click on this old blog called
bouncer and the bee

rip bouncer

the organicgreen doctor

Friday, August 16, 2019

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-will downs syndrome patients give ...

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-will downs syndrome patients give ...: ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WILL DOWNS SYNDROME PATIENTS GIVE US AN ANSWER the app or amyloid precursor protein starts the ball rolling in alzheimers ...

alzheimers news-will downs syndrome patients give us an answer

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WILL DOWNS SYNDROME PATIENTS GIVE US AN ANSWER
Image result for organicgreendoctor
the app or amyloid precursor protein starts the ball rolling in alzheimers disease
it leads to the deposition of abeta amyloid in the brain
the start of alzheimers starts when this deposition starts then later the tau protein does its damage
when
we arent sure
why
we arent sure
how to stop it
we arent sure

a patient with downs syndrome has an extra chromosome 21
thus its also called trisomy 21
on the 21st chromosome is the gene for the app protein the parent protein that starts the abeta amyloid deposition in the brain that starts this alzheimers disease ball rolling

thus downs syndrome patients have an extra gene to help make the amyloid protein that gets deposited in their brains

10% of the general population over 65 have alzheimers
the downs syndrome patient starts deposition on day one of their life
it gradually worsens so if they reach 40 then 30 % of them have alzheimers
if they reach 60 then it jumps to over 50% of them will have alzheimers
it use to be before modern medicine helped them they didnt live that long
now they do

so
they the downs syndrome patient may help us find a cure or treatment for alzheimers disease

you have a population that starts to accumulate amyloid the day they are born
the chances of other causes of dementia being involved isnt as great as the general population
you have a population that you know will likely probably get alzheimers and can start treatment at a much earlier age say eg 25
the group all have the same genetic make up that is causing the disease

now they are starting a study in patients with downs syndrome using an antibody against the abeta amyloid protein hoping that it will slow down the disease before it takes off in the brain
it will probably be given before symptoms start

if it works or helps it will benefit the rest of the millions of us that may be affected by alzheimers disease

so this usually gentle happy friendly lovable population my be the group that finds the treatment or cure for the disease that is expected to break our health care system financially one day
and
the disease that is so devastating for those affected by the disease

who would have thought that they would be the ones to help the rest of us

the organicgreen doctor