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 26, 2022

alzheimers news-do something now if you are kin to me

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-DO SOMETHING NOW IF YOU ARE KIN TO ME

my mother and younger brother died from alzheimers disease
my mother also had multiple small strokes
my father probably had it when he died
he had coronary artery disease
he had a coronary bypass done in his 60s
he died from a heart attack at few years later
another sibling has coronary artery disease 
he had his widowmaker artery bypassed a few years ago
i was diagnosed with mci due to alzheimers disease 12 years ago
another younger relative recently this week had a widowmaker heart attack
luckily medicine has advanced enough that he was able to have this main artery to the heart opened up with a stent to allow blood to flow back to his heart

these three disease are all related
coronary artery disease and strokes and alzheimers disease
one common culprit is the cholesterol level
another culprit is probably the apoe 4 gene which all of the above probably carry
its called the late onset alzheimers gene
its involved with cholesterol transport in the body

heart attack
stroke
alzheimers disease

thats destined to happen in this family or should i say my family

you cant alter you apoe 4 gene if you have it
remember about 25% of all americans have this gene
but
you can do things to reduce the risk from the apoe 4 gene and the abnormal cholesterol levels

remember you need to start this at as young an age as you can

our family is destined to have one if not all of these 3 fates

for me 
so far i have the apoe 4 apoe 4 homozygous gene
i have if i dont treat it markedly elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels

these two destined me to be where i am now

had i not got aggressive in my younger years 
younger than that relative who just had the widowmaker but got a reprieve thanks to modern medicine
i would have probably had a heart attack by now or a stroke

so whats my relatives to do 
sorry but its the same for all three diseases 

control your cholesterol even if it takes medication to control it now no matter what your age is
control your blood pressure especially in your younger years remember normal is 120/70
control your weight so that your bmi is less than 25 or lower
control your diabetes if you have it
dont smoke
limit alcohol
exercise even its just walking or just staying physically active eg i get close to 8000-10000 steps a day working in our garden
control stresses in your life

that relative who had the widowmaker event would probably not have survived it 30 years ago

so in summary
heart attack and stroke and alzheimers disease is in your future if you share dna with me
its up to you if you want to do things to slow down or prevent these diseases

how well you do may be determined by how young you start doing preventative things
i waited until my later 30s and early 40s to do something
it would have been even better if i had done something sooner
eg
when i had my first cholesterol level done at 40 i should have been started on a statin cholesterol drug
i also should have gotten on the mind diet at that time
i should have been placed on blood pressure meds around 50 or younger

its never too late to start preventative things though
its just much better if you started them when you are younger

just look at what happened to those who closely share my dna

alzheimers disease in mid 70s with multiple strokes
death from alzheimers disease in mid 80s
coronary artery bypass in late 60s
heart attack in mid 70s
death from heart attack in mid 70s
coronary artery widowmaker artery bypass in early 70s
alzheimers disease at 53
dying of alzheimers disease at 63
diagnosed with mci due to alzheimers disease at 60
widowmaker heart attack mid 40s

thats just in my immediate family
theres more of these 3 diseases scattered diffusely through our family tree

while you are young is the time to do these preventative measures 


our team organicgreendoctor will be walking in the walk to end alzheimers  in santa barbara on november 5th 

the organicgreen doctor

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