MY STORY REVISITED #104-ITS CALLED SUBJECTIVE COGNITIVE DECLINE
dr daniel gibbs wrote in his book a tattoo on my brain how he had subjective cognitive issues
he had memory testing that was normal though but he went ahead and stopped practicing as a neurologist since he felt like he was at the beginning of the start of alzheimers disease
it turns out he was right after all
he has alzheimers disease and it now shows up on memory testing and his amyloid pet scans and his tau pet scans are all positive
it was only because he was superacutely aware of his memory issues that he was able to recognize he had a problem
his book is a must read if you or your loved ones are in the alzheimers world now
he tells you what its like to have the disease early on
he views it as a physician a researcher a family member and now as a patient
his story is similar to mine also
if you think you might have memory issues then get evaluated early on
then
consider finding a research study to volunteer in
he did
i did
you should also
as you read the blog below note the video interview is no longer available
nowadays those with subjective memory issues would probably end up being prealzheimers or prodromal alzheimers
ie
normal memory testing with positive biomarkers for alzheimers like blood tests and pet scans and spinal fluid tests
there are several treatment studies starting or will be starting for these prealzheimers patients using drugs like my drug biogens aduhelm (aducanumab)
an aside here
i have a mri scan next week at ucla to make sure i dont have aria or microbrain bleeds
so far i have no symptoms
in 3 weeks i get my 5th infusion of aduhelm in the restart biogen adhuhelm clinical trial making a toal of 11 infusions of the real drug aduhelm and 18 infusions of placebo at the beginning
_________
07-09-2013
I THINK THAT...
if you think that there is a problem
well maybe there is a problem
its called subjective cognitive decline
it may be the first clinical indicator of
alzheimers disease
ie
its the first sign of alzheimers disease
its the self reported perception of memory or
cognitive problems
at the alzheimers association international conference
in boston this week this was one of the topics discussed
with special interest to clinicians
if you can find ways to identify people early real early
get aggressive with treatment early maybe you can make
a difference in whether the disease progresses at all or
maybe make it less severe
right now you have aricept (donepezil) and namenda that can
be used initially or later on in the case of namenda
then
get aggressive with treatment of the blood pressure cholesterol
diabetes obesity sleep disturbances depression anxiety
and improve exercise diet and mental activity
this early subjective cognitive decline combined with new
testing with blood tests and amyvid pet scan allows for an
early diagnosis to be made
then
new treatments can be started early on these patients
also these patients can be used for some of the research studies
on new drugs that will probably work better if started early on
the disease
there are a lot of social and psychological factors to consider
of course in this early detection
the study im in the alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative
has started a study of patients who have subjective cognitive
decline and are following them with the same tests that im having
done in the mild cognitive group
im glad to see this research on subjective cognitive decline
because if i didnt have some changes on my neuropsych exam
and spinal fluid protens i probably would be in that group
here is a link to a nbc story on alzheimers disease with
maria shriver and dr nancy snyderman
this video talks about why early detection to this patient is
important
click here to watch the video
__________
so
if you think it you may have it
get evaluated
read dr daniel gibbs book a tattoo on my brain to know what its like to have this disease early on before others notice it
so much of what i have experienced is in his book
get tested early on
the organicgreen doctor
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