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

Wednesday, November 17, 2021

my story revisited #112-the alzheimers peanut butter smell test

MY STORY REVISITED #112-THE ALZHEIMERS PEANUT BUTTER SMELL TEST 

eight years ago i did the peanut butter smell test for alzheimers disease
i used real peanut butter first 
then
i used my wife shes monster cookies she cooks
they are loaded with creamy peanut butter and brown sugar and old fashioned oats
if you have eaten them you know why we call them monster cookies
people ask for them on their birthdays
some couples will even hide them from their spouse and kids
ive been known to hide mine from her and the grandkids
sorry ms b mr hudson mr n
some things i just dont share

i was diagnosed with mci thats due to alzheimers disease based on
my medical history
a positive gene test for homozygous ie double version apoe 4 the late onset alzheimers gene
a spinal tap showing abnormal spinal fluid values for amyloid and tau
a neuropsychological exam consistent with my mci diagnosis
more than one positive amyloid pet scan called the amyvid pet scan
now
i can add 
the peanut butter alzheimers test being positive to that list of tests 

here is a recent link to an article on the test but the old blog below has a better description and how to do the test in it from 2013

you can get out your peanut butter and your measuring ruler and do your own test

when i did this test 8 years ago i hadnt had an amyloid scan that i was given the report yet
that would be about 4 years later
i had  just recently had my spinal fluid results by that date 
i had my apoe 4 results
my memory tests had dropped some but began to improve over the next few years
__________
10-11-2013
MONSTER TEST
my wife she makes the best cookies i have ever tasted
just ask my two sons
since they expect to get a box of them in the mail for
their birthdays every year
and
like me they do not like to share them












these cookies have oat meal brown sugar unsalted butter and
i guess the main ingredient is peanut butter

so this morning i picked out the monster cookie above










got out my ruler which didnt measure in centimeters but only
in inches










then i put my nose at the end of the ruler
closed my right nostril and smelled the cookies
no smell was detected at 10 inches
so i inched it closer and closer until 3 inches away there was
that monster cookie smell
then i closed the left one and it was about the same

so what the heck was i doing with my wife shes cookie
well after the test i ate it

but theres a new test for alzheimers from the university of florida
researchers who developed a peanut butter smell test

based on the fact that the left smeller nerve that goes to the underneath
surface of the brain where alzheimers starts seems to get affected
first
that is
its the first to go
the right goes bad later as the disease progresses

so what they do is take a tsp of peanut butter
close the right nostril
starting at 10 centimeters away they move the peanut butter
closer and closer to the nose until the patient can smell it
then they compare it to the right nostril

it seems in studies that this test is positive in alzheimers patients
and not positive in other dementia about 70% of the time

so this could be used as a screen test for alzheimers disease

in other words if its positive then a more aggressive workup might
need to be done
especially as we get closer to finding a treatment or cure

now they are looking at patients with mild cognitive impairment
to screen them to see if the test is positive

so
i just did it myself
i took a tsp of peanut butter and my ruler
instead of using donald i used the organicgreen doctor as my
study subject

i started on the left side with the right nostril pinched
i could smell the peanut butter at 5 inches
then i did the right side with the left side pinched
it was about 7 inches before i smelled it
then i ate the peanut butter
nice breakfast huh

so based on the peanut butter test i may have alzheimers disease
which correlates with all my testing so far
abnomal neuropysch test showing short term memory loss
apoe4 double genotype which increases my chances of getting the disease
some noticeable short term memory issues
abnormal biomarkers beta amyloid and tau protein in the spinal fluid
amyvid pet scan for beta amyloid to be done soon

so ill just add this positive test to my list now
__________
one of the other studies i did was a sniff test of a large number of scents impregnated into circles on a piece of paper
eg cedar pine rosemary mint etc
the olfactory nerve is the first to be affected by alzheimers disease
the left greater than the right side
then it spreads over the brain

a insulin nasal spray was developed that shot insulin in the nose then it would travel up the olfactory or smeller nerve to the brain 
the insulin would force glucose into the brain cells to make them work better
they have had trouble making the sprayer and insulin stable enough to work
 
i read today of a new nasal spray that was used that has a chemical in it that activates the body to destroy the abnormal amyloid in the brain
there will be a clinical trial eventually using this but the results will be closer to 10 years away

the nose provides a quick route for these meds to get to the brain by traveling via the olfactory nerve rather than through the blood

so 
get out your peanut butter
see how well you can smell it using the protocol above 

i get my mri of the brain next week to make sure i am not having microbleeds as they increase my dose of aduhelm
next month i get my first maximum dose of 10 mg aduhelm
this dose is the one that has the potential to cause microbleeds
i get another mri in january

the max dose i got in the prepandemic study was 6 mg

i also have a day long of memory testing labs ekg neurology visit next month at the 6 months time since the study was started

so far so good

i tried to do a smell test with my wife shes monster cookies again but i tend to eat them all first before i think of repeating the test

the organicgreen doctor

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