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, October 29, 2021

alzheimers news-these 4 drugs for alzheimers will all be available soon

 ALZHEIMERS NEWS-THESE 4 DRUGS FOR ALZHEIMERS WILL ALL
BE AVAILABLE SOON

my diagnosis is mild cognitive impairment due to alzheimers disease
this diagnosis qualifies me to receive treatment with biogens aduhelm (aducanumab) a monoclonal antibody given as monthly infusions at ucla
the antibody binds to beta amyloid and removes it from the brain
with the hope that removing amyloid plagues from the brain will slow down the disease
in clinical trials it seems to do so by about 20+%

its been approved by the fda for use in mild cognitive impairment due to alzheimers and early alzheimers

its available now in the private world
i receive mine in a clinical trial at ucla

biogens aduhelm (aducanumab) received accelerated approval review and got final fda approval     

now waiting in line are these 3 other monoclonal antibodies that have or will receive this accelerated approval review or will soon apply for it

these accelerated approval reviews are based on amyloid removal from the brain
not on how well they slow down the disease
amyloid level is easy now to measure with amyloid brain scans called amyvid pet scans

i think of it like measuring the cholesterol level in the blood to see how well a cholesterol drug lowers the cholesterol
we know that keeping the cholesterol low does prevent heart attacks and strokes

hopefully lowering the amyloid in the brain will lead to the slowing or prevention of alzheimers disease
thats what doing all this for us in the alzheimers world is all about

these other 3 may be available in the next couple of years

biogen aduhelm (aducanumab) is already approved for use

biogen lecanemab probably works better than its sister aduhelm (aducanumab) since it causes less aria or microbleeds which may make it a safer drug to use

an aside here
i have had my 5th infusion in the restart of the aduhelm (aducanumab) study
i have had 3 normal mris of the brain ie they show no evidence of aria or microbleeds
i have gone from the 1 mg to the 3 mg to the 6 mg dose
i have another mri in november and then one in january
at that time i will be on the max dose of 10 mg
if i have no microbleeds on those two scans them i should be ok
i also was on the 10 mg dose in the prepandemic aducanumab study and had no microbleeds
fingers crossed

roche gantenerumab will apply for early approval soon

lilly donanemab is the one that may turn out to work the best
it slows the symptoms down by about 30%
its given as a injection under the skin and is given for a short period of time
it probably removes the amyloid plaque better than the others
it may be the one that works the best and will be cheaper since its not given long term

we should know soon in the next 2+ years which one of these works the best

stay tuned

here is a good review of these 4 drugs on the alzheimers forum website

you can search on clinicaltrials.gov for ongoing studies on these drugs
some studies are closed for new participants though

i still consider my self lucky to have been able to access the aduhelm (aducanumab) before it became available to the general public
i got 18 placebo infusions and so far 12 real drug infusions
if it works even 20+% it will have been worth it all

i have set up my team for the walk to end alzheimers in santa barbara named
organicgreendoctor at this link

because of the pandemic we will not be walking at the walk site but my wife she and i will walk a route up to the santa barbara mission by ourselves wearing our alzheimers walk shirts and carrying our alzheimers flags

we will be thinking of our lived ones who had alzheimers 
mom nell
brother joe
probably dad charles
and
me

i seem to be the lucky one to have gotten a temporary reprieve

please feel free to donate to and or join our team to help raise funds to fight this awful disease

the organicgreen doctor

No comments:

Post a Comment