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, November 20, 2020

alzheimers news-lancet alzheimers commission 12 modifying factors

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-LANCETS ALZHEIMERS COMMISSION 12 MODIFYING FACTORS

i have written several times about all the healthy things we can be doing to slow down or maybe prevent the development of alzheimers disease
when i gave my alzheimers talks i usually included a slide with these things we need to be doing 

the lancet is a well respected medical journal from great britain

in 2017 their lancet alzhiemers commission listed 9 things that were modifiable that we could all be doing to slow down the disease
in 2020 that added 3 more things so now they have 12 modifying things to do
here is a link to a lancet article on this 

here are the first nine things then followed by the three new ones

less education
hypertension
hearing impairment
smoking
obesity 
depression
physical inactivity 
low social contact

excessive alcohol intake
head injury in mid life
exposure to air pollution

according to lancet if we could alter these 12 factors we could delay or prevent 40% of the dementia cases

there is no drug available right now that can equal doing this well in treating alzhiemers

if you have a family history or have a fear of getting dementia then start altering these things
and
you may decrease your risk by this much

so i looked at my life and how i did altering these factors over the last 50 years

i did 12 years of public school then 4 years of college then 4 years of medical school then 3 years of residency training
a plus here

i had borderline hypertension for about 10 years
at that time the recommendation was to treat at 140 systolic pressure
then it went to 130 then now its 120
i have controlled my blood pressure well the last 10 years
i give myself a partial check here

i have no hearing impairment just a listening impairment according to my wife she
i give myself a check here

i smoked in my late teens and early 20s for 6 years then quit 45 years ago
so i get a check here

i have never been obese especially now since i weigh my high school weight
a check given

i have never been depressed but if i was this is the year to be depressed
a check here

i have always been physically active doing sports running jogging bicycling gardening etc
a check here also

i have always had a lot of social contact via work and volunteering
check again

i have never been an excessive drinker
check here

i did have a concussion that put me in the hospital when i was around 50
i still dont remember anything about the injury
i remember being in the emergency room and in icu overnight
i remember being post concussive for over a month
i also had a concussion at 13 from pole vaulting and at 15 playing football
i get an uncheck for this one

i lived in reiverside county which was highly polluted during college for 2 years otherwise most of my life i lived where the air pollution was low
here in santa barbara our air is a good quality unless we get a lot of fires
i get a check for this one also

so over my lifetime i have mainly improved my risk factors except for
not controlling my blood pressure for 10 years
and
a head injury at 50 and those two at 13 and 15

so i have done a good job except for those two things to control my risk factors 
what i cant control or alter is 
my apoe 4 apoe 4 gene for late onset alzheimers

i always feel like if i had not controlled these risk factors like i have my whole life then i would have already suffered the fate of my other family members who died from alzheimers

look closely at these things especially if you are in your mid 40s and 50s
i must say its nice to have lived long enough to see ms b being born mr hudson being born and get his kidney transplant and mr nolan being born

its all been worth it adjusting my risk factors

i sure would have missed out on a lot

dont let it happen to you

the organicgreen doctor 







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