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

Tuesday, February 28, 2023

organicgreendoctor: daylight savings time in about 2 weeks

organicgreendoctor: daylight savings time in about 2 weeks: DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME IN ABOUT TWO WEEKS i wrote this blog linked here titled leave it alone in 2015 the title states my sentiments on dayli...

daylight savings time in about 2 weeks

DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME IN ABOUT TWO WEEKS

i wrote this blog linked here titled leave it alone in 2015
the title states my sentiments on daylight savings time
leave it alone

well i was hoping that by now the law would be changed so that the time would be set and would never change
the senate passed the bill but the house of representatives did not
so 
it is with getting things done in congress
they dont

for me i prefer what is called standard time
i guess that means what it used to be before they did the daylight changing law
i like the extra sun light in the morning since i am a morning person
i tend to not enjoy the more light in the evening

some prefer the daylight savings time so they can go do stuff after work or school
me i like that extra time in the morning

so on march the 12th the time will change
hopefully this will be the last time

so lets see if i can figure this out again
i always have to sit down and write it out to figure out what time it really is

so if i go to bed at 9pm and i usually get up at 3am then the next day on daylight savings day i will wake up at 4am the new time
i usually go to the garden at 700amish to catch the first light in the garden
but that day it will be dark at 700amish so i will have to wait to go to the garden at 800am

that means it will be chilly at 800am and there will be dew and fog moisture everywhere
then at 900am which is really 800am it will be when the garden really gets going
i feel like i lost an hour of gardening already and i havent started yet

our volunteers usually come at 900am so does that mean they wont come until 1000am

with the last time change in the fall i fell backwards and my body never made the change
ive been waking up an hour earlier every day
hopefully now i will sleep an hour longer
are is my body doing it all wrong
i cant figure it out

surely i am not the only one that feels this way 

so
i vote for a return to the ole original like the farmers use to deal with standard time
so 
in november there would be a fall back and we stay back down on our time

hopefully this is our last daylight savings time change

the organicgreen doctor

Monday, February 27, 2023

organicgreendoctor: how secure is your password

organicgreendoctor: how secure is your password: HOW SECURE IS YOUR PASSWORD now i am not a computer guru i do however read and listen to folks who are in the last few years i have written ...

how secure is your password

HOW SECURE IS YOUR PASSWORD

now i am not a computer guru
i do however read and listen to folks who are

in the last few years i have written blogs about secure passwords
here are links to my most recent last two

how secure are they 

Pa$S2u0Rd

these old blogs have good links on how to do your passwords to make them more secure

today i will write about them again

if you dont have good passwords i suggest you read these two blogs and today blogs and apply what you learned

each day i have 8 passwords that i enter in to access my email bank facebook and other accounts
they are random passwords like those above
all are different 
i do this from memory
most are 8-10 characters
now i know they need to be 12

i do this as my morning memory test
i know if i cant remember these passwords that my memory is starting to fail me

my neurologists i see are always impressed by this

the idea though is to make sure these passwords are secure

kim komando the computer person posted a link to a password checker to see if your passwords are weak ones or real strong ones

here is the link to the password checker
you just type in your password and it instantly tells you how secure your password is
it rates your password weak medium good or strong
strong being the best
eg
that password in the picture above i just randomly made up a few years ago for a blog i wrote
i put it in the password checker
it got a good rating

i put in a couple of wifi passwords i have access to and it rated them weak
one password showed it had been hacked by hackers already
ill warn that person
i put in our old wifi password and it rated it weak
i put in our new wifi password and it rated it good
i put in my bank password and i rated it as good
i put in my amazon password and it rated it medium
i put in my apple id password and it rated it as good
i put in my ira and financial password and it rated it as good
none of my passwords were rated strong

this website also checks your password to see if its been hacked before
mine havent per this password checker

it looks like i have some work to do to get my passwords to the strong level
it seems 12 characters is what it takes to get your password to the strong level with a mixture of symbols cap letters and low cap letters and numbers

remember
our passwords are the internets access to our souls
i
the organicgreen doctor

Friday, February 24, 2023

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-whats good for the heart is good f...

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-whats good for the heart is good f...: ALZHEIMERS NEWS- WHATS GOOD FOR THE HEART IS GOOD FOR THE BRAIN ive written that several times and have said it multiple times the time to d...

alzheimers news-whats good for the heart is good for the brain

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WHATS GOOD FOR THE HEART IS GOOD FOR THE BRAIN

ive written that several times and have said it multiple times

the time to do all the good things for your heart is in your 30-40s
eg
we now know it is important to control your blood pressure in this age group to protect your heart and your brain when you get older

the banner institute does a lot of alzheimers research
they have an alzheimers preventaive study they do 
ive signed up for it online
i get notices from them regularly on alzheimers issues
i am part of a registry they have on potential alzheimers patients and alzheimers patients

they now have a program where they are focusing on the 30-40 age group
since this may be where the prevention needs to be started so that 30 years later that group might slow down or maybe prevent memory issues 

here is their recommendation for maintaining brain health by taking care of your heart
well described at this link

maintain a normal blood pressure
thats 120/70

maintain a normal cholesterol
have it checked annually
its easy to control with meds and diet and exercise

maintain normal sleep 
you need 7-8 hours a day
sleep is when the brain uses its garbage can guys to clean out debris from the brain

physical activity and diet
you need 3-4 times a week of a total of 120 minutes of aerobic exercise
do things you like to do
i like hiking and gardening
when younger i ran and rode bikes and played team sports

the best diet for your brain and probably your heart is the mind diet linked here

take the heart age test
find out how healthy your heart is
click this link
they do ask for personal information like an email address to send you results to and your age your sex your height 
for me they already have that info since i am signed up for their alzheimers registry at their website
endalznow.org

my results
i am 72 amd my heart health age is 72

if you do the survey you will get an email with the results

also they have a video that is all about preventing alzheimers in your 30s and 40s 
see video below

i wish i could have watched this video when i was in my 30s
and
i wish i had done all these healthy things for the last 40 years
it would hsve probably made a difference

they also have a link on that website where you can search for clinical trials in your area
eg
i plugged in my zip code and put in a 100 mile radius
i found several trials in the los angeles for the ahead study
its for folks who do not have symptoms and who have positive amyloid pet scans 
the screening criteria are if you meet the health requirements and you have a first degree relative with alzheimers or if you already have a positive amyloid pet scan
they will then do the amyloid pet scan if you havent had one

the ahead study uses leqembi or lecanemab as biweekly infusions
there is a placebo group

leqembi will probably get full fda approval later this year and many think medicare or cms will approve to pay for its use in early alzheimers disease

if i wasnt already on aduhelm or aducanumab i would be seeking out leqembi to take when it gets approved

even if you arent in your 30s or 40s take the heart age test to see how healthy your heart is

if your heart is healthy your brain may be healthy also

the organicgreen doctor

Thursday, February 23, 2023

organicgreendoctor: garden news-new garden revisited

organicgreendoctor: garden news-new garden revisited: GARDEN NEWS-NEW GARDEN REVISITED this is the picture of my new garden space as of yesterday on the left side i added a new bed that is 3x7 f...

garden news-new garden revisited

GARDEN NEWS-NEW GARDEN REVISITED

this is the picture of my new garden space as of yesterday
on the left side i added a new bed that is 3x7 ft 
gopher wire was laid down then a border of old banana trunks were used as a border
mulch plus old garden dirt plus unfinished compost was added 
on top of that was placed a deep layer of raised bed soil purchased at the nursery

this new bed is barely visible and is close to the wire fence in the first row of beds
this bed will be planted with green beans called french cut or emerite green beans

a trellis will be built along the bed using tposts and eventually wire fencing
for now i will just use twine tied across the tposts so it looks like netting
you only get one season out of this twine netting so later in the year i will add my fencing
next fall i will plant sweet shelling peas or snap peas in this bed

at the back of the second row is another new bed using the banana trunks as a border
the ingredients are the same
i will plant christmas lima beans in this bed
these are one my favorite beans to eat

down the middle of my plots i put a row of 30 gallon grow bags spaced 1 foot apart
in the bags i put mulch plus dirt plus unfinished compost plus raised bed soil
these bags were set over a wide layer of gopher wire
i transplanted from my old plots into these grow bags lettuce kale broccoli cabbage swiss chard strawberries
the back grow bag will have my malabar spinach planted in it
a tomato wire cage is added for it to grow up on
each pot has its own dripper to keep them watered

compare it to the picture below from my blog linked here from 2-9-23
this blog has a good description of my new plot and what i did to it up to that date




in the first bed on the left i transplanted my 60 leeks from my old garden plot
i will later plant egg plant and okra in this bed

in the second is celery and cilantro
later i will plant 2 peppers in that bed probably bell and jalapeno

in the third bed is several red and green cabbages
later i will plant two peppers there probably banana pepper and shishito pepper

in the fourth bed is my two curly leaf kales 
these will grow until next fall or winter when i plant new kale



this is my right side plot 
i added my garden top soil from my old plot since i had just added it to that old plot a month or so ago
these 3x7 ft frames sit on a plastic covering the soil to keep the bermuda and mint from growing
for this season i will grow my veggies above ground in these raised beds
the bed is made of mulch plus dirt plus unfinished compost plus raised bed soil plus my old garden top soil
the soil depth will be about 1 foot deep

i transferred my onions from my old garden plots to this first bed this week
i will plant two tomatoes in this bed in early spring
since there are no gopher wire under these 3x7 framed beds i will use gopher cages for each tomato

the other 3 3x7 framed beds above this one will also have two tomatoes planted in them

my tomatoes will be celebrity early girl sungold cherokee purple black krim and if i can get them to grow a grafted sungold early girl and cherokee purple
the root stock for the graft provides disease résistance to viruses and fungi

to the right along the wooden fence are 3 new beds

a 3x3 ft bed with gopher wire on the bottom
banana trunks are used as the border
mulch plus dirt plus unfinished compost plus raised bed soil is used 
in this bed asparagus will be planted

the next bed is a 3x7 foot bed using the banana trucks as a border and gopher wire underneath
the soil is made the same as the other beds
in this bed i will plant zucchini squash and tatume squash
the tatume squash will run up a large tomato cage

the last bed closer to the bottom of the picture is a 2x2 ft bed using gopher wire and banana trunks
the soil prep is the same
in this bed i will plant a collard tree or walking stick kale or walking stick collard 
it produces a large collard leaf and that grows all year round

i also am in the process of setting up my drip system to all the beds
i also need to add more mulch now that i have finished all my beds

later i will add my 7 worm composter 5 gallon buckets to my walkways so i can make my worm compost

next year i will probably remove the plastic from my walkways and dig a trench and fill it up with mulch 
this trench also acts to hold water when it rains
this mulch eventually turns into to compost and i add it to my beds
every plant has to be protected from gophers either with gopher wire under the beds or each veggie has to have its own gopher basket

i also will be add to two of my beds my 3 in pvc with holes drilled on one side and a sleeve over it to water that bed underground

these two pvc pipes will be added to my two bean beds

each young plant also has to be protected with a wire cage until it gets bigger
voles gophers rats birds like the tender growth of the new veggies

the biggest insect pest i have is aphids
i treat them first with a strong spray of water 
if that doesnt work i use insecticidal soap
then if that doesnt work i use neem oil

this garden will produce a lot more veggies than my last plot did
it will be more than my wife she can consume ourselves
so we will
freeze a lot
give some away 
donate the veggies to those groups our community garden donates to

a lot of work goes into all of this
but
its all worth it

my reward is a hand size juicy ripe tomato this summer

it also provides aerobic and a gym like work out
it provides me with meditation as i work in the garden
it provides us with good organic veggies
it provides me with one on one with nature

yep
its all worth it for sure

the organicgreen doctor

Wednesday, February 22, 2023

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited #169-theyre on the top of your ...

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited #169-theyre on the top of your ...: MY STORY REVISITED #169-THEYRE ON THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD when i read this old blog and saw the picture at the end i said out loud  theyre on t...

my story revisited #169-theyre on the top of your head

MY STORY REVISITED #169-THEYRE ON THE TOP OF YOUR HEAD

when i read this old blog and saw the picture at the end
i said out loud 
theyre on the top of your head

most of my life i have had bad vision
i cant legally drive without glasses nor should i even try without them

a few years ago i had cataract surgery on my right eye
i have 20/20 vision in that right eye and have like 20/400 in my left eye
i do wear glasses that correct for some astigmatism in the right eye and to correct my vision in the left eye to 20/15

so sometimes i will put my glasses on the top of my head and forget i had them up there since my vision is normal in my right eye

my vision was so bad growing up that in school i couldnt read the backboard
playing baseball i couldnt read the catchers or umpires hand signals
the ump and catcher and batter were one big blur
my coach would send me signals on what to pitch but i couldnt see his fingers well enough
even with that i was the best pitcher in the league and batted over 300
i got glasses when i was fourteen but didnt like to wear them
my baseball coach wouldnt let me pitch unless i wore my glasses

i played quarterback up to the 9th grade
i didnt play football after that since i moved to a school that only did basketball
i never played with my glasses
i couldnt read the scoreboard when i played
i always had trouble throwing passes to my receivers since they blurred together with the defenders

i played basketball all through junior high and high school
until the 11th grade i  played without glasses
i couldnt see the clock and scoreboard when i played
i was always the 1 or 2nd scorer on the team
my last two years in high school i played with glasses
my stats improved once i could see the basket better 

the two things i remember the most when i got my glasses was that the moon wasnt as big as i thought it was 
and
that car lights were not huge like the moon

my life changed when i got my glasses
i am amazed at how i coped for 14 years without seeing 

sorry i digressed some
back to losing things

in this old blog below i wrote about the ucla study by dr bredesen on reversal of cognitive decline

i went all in in what he recommended
more than half of it i was already doing

over time i weeded out some supplements that bothered me like bacopa valerian root ashwanghada melatonin 
some supplements were shown to not be effective in research studies so i stopped them
i also stopped the vit e and omega 3 and other supplements 

i was left with taking
aspirin 81 mg a day because of ocular migraines that could be tias
folic acid and vitamin b12 to lower my elevated homocysteine
vitamin b12 for my lower than normal b12
vitamin d3 for my lower than normal d3
probiotics 
plus my prescription meds for aricept or donepezil and atorvastatin

then i did all those healthy things i list below we all should be doing

again the majority of his 36 point recommendation is things we should be doing anyway


my next infusion #27 of aduhelm or aducanumab is next week

its cousin leqembi or lecanemab should get full approval later this year
many think that cms or medicare and medicaid will approve payment for its use
i expect if my drug aduhelm shows good results when my study is read out that cms may approve it for payment if its results are similar to lecanemab
__________
12-12-2014

NOW WHERE DID I PUT THAT...
if this is a problem thats getting worse
then read my blog today
and
the accompanying article from cnn

now i do lose things
i lost my keys to my car once
never did find them
sold the car
then years later found them
where else
but in the garden under a layer of mulch
a little rusty but still recognizable as clicker keys

we all lose things
but there is a point where it becomes abnormal

so if you are having memory issues
or a loved one is
or if a loved one is in the beginning of their decline
read on

first if you or a loved one have memory issues
they you should be evaluated
looking for easily treatable causes
like low thyroid low b12 depression sleep issues etc etc

then
take the time to read this

in the ucla study 
of only 10 folks
by dr bredesen director of the alzheimers research center at ucla
no fly by night researcher

he found 36 points to look at each patient that they could
do to maybe help out

so i put myself in that list

i have low b12 low vit d too high homocysteine
have sleep issues
have high blood pressure high cholesterol
have the apoe4 double gene that increases my chance of
having alzheimers disease
have low beta amyloid and rising tau levels in my spinal fluid

so using these things
i set up a regimen

reminder these were discussed with my family doctor
and my neurologist first

so i take 16 supplements a day
for inflammation
omega 3 vit e

to help decrease beta amyloid in the brain
some of these are anecdotal uses based on animal studies
i take bacopa turmeric acid

for sleep the stuff he recommends for me i have side effects
to and cant take

for gi health i eat a mediterranean diet and take probiotics
but dont follow his strict diet
i dont do a lot of simple sugars
i do the 12 hour fast which i was doing anyway

for possibly building better nerve connections
and
for more alertness i take several of the recommended supplements

since i have apoe4/apoe4 i take resveratrol every day
it will soon be proven or not if it works in a study to be released
next year
if it doesnt work i will stop it

i am taking vit b12 to replace my low levels
vitaming d for my low levels
folic acid for my elevated homocysteine levels

i exercise regularly by working on our country n property
volunteering doing habitat for humanity builds
and walk and hike

i maintain a normal blood pressure and cholesterol and weight
i stay happy
i meditate here at the country n
i stay active mentally

so of the 36 points he writes about in the original article
i am doing most of them
well i was doing most of them anyway

so
like 9 of the 10 folks in this study
after almost 3 months on this regimen
i notice a difference
more alertness
less fatigue in the afternoon and evening
i have noticed i have very few leg cramps now

my dreams occasionally get disturbing since
i stared this regimen
like last night a group of folks from one of those
apocalyptic movies was attacking me with swords and
knives
but i tricked them i yelled real loud and woke up
and they all went away
woke my wife she up also

my memory does seem better
adjusted some for my age
i am looking forward to doing my next neuropsych test to
see if it continues to improve
i think so

my guess is this stuff helps more early on in the process
than it does as things get worse
my guess is it doesnt stop the disease completely
just sort of dams it up a little but it bursts through
eventually

maybe it can slow it down enough until treatments get
developed that may be real close
maybe in this decade

heres hoping

so read the ucla article
on reversal of cognitive decline
and
read the cnn article
on we may be able to reverse signs of early alzheimers disease
also
look at the beginning of the article at
7 ways to fight alzheimers disease
and
click through the 7 pictures and read the captions

to get an idea on what may be done to help you/them

my view is
this stuff does not seem harmful to me
there are some side effects
its not all proven to be effective
but
you cant deny that 9 out of 10 got better on the regimen
for me
the alternative is to do nothing
which
im not willing to do
neither should you

good luck

now where did i put my glasses
__________
if you are having memory issues be sure and get a good evaluation by your medical provider before you just start taking supplements
i got tired of taking two handfuls of pills a day
i stuck with the ones based on abnormal labs or good scientific evidence that they may help

my wife she is always losing her keys and her glasses and her phone
she now has glasses everywhere so she can usually find a pair to use
her iphone has a locator she can use to find it
her keys now have an apple tag on it
now
i cant blame those lost keys in that picture above on her
i think they just fell out of my pocket while i was in the garden

also
losing my glasses is rarely a problem

follow me on twitter
follow my blog facebook page

the organicgreen doctor

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

organicgreendoctor: this doesnt sound like a good idea

organicgreendoctor: this doesnt sound like a good idea:   THIS DOESNT SOUND LIKE A GOOD IDEA national geographic for kids this is a wooly mammoth here is a wikipedia link telling you all about th...

this doesnt sound like a good idea

 THIS DOESNT SOUND LIKE A GOOD IDEA

national geographic for kids

this is a wooly mammoth
here is a wikipedia link telling you all about this now extinct ancient animal

most of us are familiar with this old animal from tv and movies
they died out hundreds or thousands of years ago
the climate and conditions became incompatible with their survival
like whats happening now to a lot of our animals and insects

their carcasses have been found some almost intact in the frozen tundra of the arctic and cold areas of the world
scientists have been able to take their dna from the specimens

these mammoths were large like the african elephant

according to this article the scientist have been able to take the dna and using gene editing will be able to produce a mammoth embryo
this embryo will be implanted into a female african elephant

i wonder if she will have to have a c section to deliver

if this all works
by about 2027 we might have a live wooly mammoth
if it works the scientists want to release it back into the arctic areas

just this morning i was reading about  a super hog from canada
yep its heading down south into the us
it was formed from crossing large farm hogs with a wild feral hog in canada
the new super hog is almost unstoppable
it even survives the cold cold winters in canada by burrowing deep under the snow to survive the cold winters
it is expected to take over the us like the us feral hogs did

is this what will happen with this wooly mammoth

will it be like some monster show where it takes over the world like the feral hog

for me
i like leaving those wooly mammoths in museums movies tv shows cartoons and my memory
not out roaming the countryside

this doesnt sound like a good idea to me

the organicgreen doctor 

Monday, February 20, 2023

organicgreendoctor: why old blackie my farm truck never got stolen

organicgreendoctor: why old blackie my farm truck never got stolen: WJY OLD BLACKIE MY FARM TRUCK NEVER GOT STOLEN thats a picture of my old farm truck we called old blackie by the time i gave her to a friend...

why old blackie my farm truck never got stolen

WJY OLD BLACKIE MY FARM TRUCK NEVER GOT STOLEN

thats a picture of my old farm truck we called old blackie
by the time i gave her to a friend when we moved from the country n to santa barbara it was not only black but it had white marks on it and lots of brown from the rust that appeared where scrapes and dents were

when i say dents i mean big ole dents no little ole dings

this is a load of rocks i got from somewhere to probably add to our rock driveway
thats our two farm dogs
one up front was maverick
he loved my wife she
all i had to do was look at my wife she wrong and he would growl at me
he was a good guard dog also
he always kept visitors at the front gate before we allowed him to let them in

the other dog was bucky 
he was called bucky because he had an overbite
he was an almost registered border collie but because of the overbite he was going to be sacrificed
so we saved him
he was the smartest dog i ever saw
problem was he was totally obsessed with our chickens
he would herd them but he would also slaughter them

he was given away to a rancher a few miles away
he sent him to sheep herding school and the last we heard he was happy shepherding those flocks of sheep

now i had old blackie for about 15 years
i actually flew to dallas from austin to buy it
a friend had traded it in for a new range rover
they sold it to me at a good price

it was low mileage and looked almost brand new
it was 3 years old when i bought it

about 15 years later it was showing its age
it had around 120000 miles on it
i went almost 5 years once without changing its oil
the seats would get tears on it and i would suture it up like a major laceration
there was duct tape all over the seats
the dash came loose once so i duct taped it back on with black duct tape
the switch to turn the lights on was duct taped in place

several times i had such a heavy load of rock or soil or other heavy loads that my front of my truck would be seeming to hang up in the air
as i drove down the highway it would bounce up and down like a ghetto car

the event that changed old blackie from a nice truck to drive to a beat up farm truck happened before i retired
i was driving on a 4 lane highway and there was a caravan of power company trucks and a caravan of travel campers mixed in with the regular traffic
the traffic was only moving about 40 mph
i had a glass of tea sitting on my floor board near my stick shifter
it slid off that hump onto the floor board
i momentarily looked down
when i looked back up this truck was about to get creamed by old blackie as it stopped suddenly at the right time
to avoid creaming the truck i moved over into the next lane
careening off a big ole cement truck
sadly old blackie got the worst in the deal

the right fender and right side of the truck bed was crunched
my rear view mirror was hanging by its wires
the headlights never did show straight ahead again
one always seemed to be spot lighting for owls in the trees at night

no one was hurt but old blackie

it would never be the same
old blackie was then relegated to farm truck status

i was able to use strong black duct tape to hold the mirror in place

old blackie never got to travel too far from the country n after that

you would commonly find in the back lots of mulch or compost or soil or rocks or some type of debris shovels fencing rock bars etc
i also used it to haul things as i volunteered at habit for humanity

i drove old blackie another 10 years after that until old blackie moved to its new home

best farm truck ever

what made me think of old blackie was this picture below i saw posted on social media by a relative mal
thanks for the picture


there was a point where i started to have old blackie all fixed up with all the dents and scrapes repaired and the upholstering repaired but i decided to leave old blackie like it was

as i know now from reading the above i realized no one would have stolen it from me

btw old blackie is still going strong

yes
best old farm truck ever

the organicgreen doctor 

Friday, February 17, 2023

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-what bruce willis has

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-what bruce willis has: ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WHAT BRUCE WILLIS HAS bruce willis the actor has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia frontal is the front part of th...

alzheimers news-what bruce willis has

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WHAT BRUCE WILLIS HAS


bruce willis the actor has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia
frontal is the front part of the brain
temporal is the side part of the brain behind the ears

it is the fourth most common form of dementia

one is alzheimers disease my diagnosis
two is vascular dementia 
three is lewy body dementia think robin williams
four is frontotemporal dementia or ftd

lewy body dementia and frontotemporal dementia can be rough on the families
they happen younger than alzheimers disease and vascular dementia
some of the symptoms can be disturbing

of course none of these are good ones to have

here is a link to information on frontotemporal dementia from the alzheimers association

bruce willis has aphasia where he basically might understand what you are saying to him but he cant answer back to you or he may have difficulty doing so

as the disease progresses as described in the alzheimers association link the person becomes bedridden and usually dies from infection like skin infection pneumonia or kidney infection

they may have a lot of behavior issues some are inappropriate
whichever variant of frontotemporal dementia he has will be a difficult journey for himself and his loved ones

i guess if i had to chose i would chose none of the above
i wouldnt want lewy body dementia or frontotemporal dementia
for my familys sake

at least my version of alzheimers  seems to be a slower version of dementia

there is not a good diagnostic test for frontotemporal dementia
it basically based on a good neurological history and negative labs and scans
the mri may show shrinkage of the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain
the amyloid pet scan will be negative

with alzheimers the diagnosis like with me can be based on neurological history normal labs abnormal spinal fluid for amyloid and tau and an abnormal amyloid pet scan

there is no treatment for frontotemporal dementia 
depression or aggression is treated with meds
aricept or donepezil dosnt help in fact it may make things worse

there is degradation of behavior and the personality and having trouble with language and having trouble with ambulation

here is a link to booklet for families to better understand the disease

here is the link to the association of frontotemporal degeneration

yes
its not a good one to have

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the organicgreen doctor

Thursday, February 16, 2023

organicgreendoctor: slavery and dna

organicgreendoctor: slavery and dna: SLAVERY AND DNA npr.com the answers to your dna is tied up in your genome how those amino acids are all tied to together tells the story  so...

slavery and dna

SLAVERY AND DNA

npr.com
the answers to your dna is tied up in your genome
how those amino acids are all tied to together tells the story 
sometimes the story is good
sometimes the story is bad

if you are black and your trace your ancestry back in time it commonly ends in a dead end
the dna just seems to disappear
sometimes that dna ends where you dont want it to

sometimes the ancestor you find is a white person
commonly a slaveowners dna

that means usually a nonconsensual union of dna

i watched finding your roots on pbs recently
a black actors ancestry dna ended up being a white slave owners dna
who according to records owned the black relative 

it is usually quite disturbing to the person searching their ancestry
one black actor was so disturbed he walked off the set crying 
he could not handle the answer 

my historian brother is a black historian and a good amateur ancestry person
he always says
dont do your dna if you cant handle what you find

its common that a black person has a slaveowner in his dna tree

its also common if you are white and you live in the south that your ancestor was a slave owner and may have been a perpetrator of this forced dna exchange

i had my dna done and my historian brother takes care of it for me

he has done an extensive ancestral tree

so
i know where my ancestors come from
i know the bad things that are in there

it is sobering to know that my kinfolks some of them owned slaves
and 
yes our dna is shared with black ancestry trees

this usually means a nonconsensual sharing of dna

i expected all of this 
im saddened by it

i grew up in the deep south ie arkansas
there was no social interaction with black people
there was forced integration when i was in high school
at that time you could go to a white school or the black school
a few brave black people came to our school

when i was in high school i checked out a book in our library that was about a black writer who moved to mostly white maine
this started me thinking a lot about racism
im sure that book and others i read in high school would be banned now
one book i read was called black like me
the author who was white took a drug that turned his skin dark 
he then traveled throughout the south as a black person
documenting his journey 

those two books and the social uprising that was going on made me think a lot about race

after graduation i moved to california to live with my historian brother 
he was stationed in the military there
the people i interacted with at work and socially and at school were multiracial

i saw a different world that changed how i thought about race

i try to think back about when i was younger and i dont remember how i handled all this growing up

i also wandered what i would be like if i lived during the civil war area
i know what i would do now
i would support the union and the us and not be a slave owner

but

what would i do if i had been there
would i have owned slaves living in the deep south
would i have fought for the confederacy

i would lie if said i wouldnt
i dont know

i enjoy talking to my historian brother as he can explain the accurate history of that time
even leading up to the civil war and afterwards

the history he taught is real history with all its bumps and thorns that sometimes gets smoothen over

when i was in college i took a lot of history classes as electives
one was a course called african american history
im sure thats not a woke description now

but
it was taught by a black professor who told the truth
the truth thats now being attempted to be removed in many states

if i could talk to my black relatives i would apologize 
but
would welcome them into our family

so
if you do your ancestry dna beware that you may or should i say you will find things you dont want to know
if you cant handle it dont do your dna

for me
i want to know the good and the bad

what i decided to do is now that i know the past
i want to learn from it
then
i only want to look forward but remembering the past as i gaze into the future

the organicgreen doctor

Wednesday, February 15, 2023

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited #168-hope this helps

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited #168-hope this helps: MY STORY REVISITED #168-HOPE THIS HELPS in this old blog i mentioned some things that might help one was coffee  drinking 3-5 cups a day now...

my story revisited #168-hope this helps

MY STORY REVISITED #168-HOPE THIS HELPS

in this old blog i mentioned some things that might help

one was coffee 
drinking 3-5 cups a day
now they say maybe just 1-2 cups a day is better
i seem to be sensitive to coffee so if i drink caffeinated coffee my blood pressure goes up
so
i drink one cup of decaffeinated coffee once a day and that seems to not bother my blood pressure
if you are having trouble controlling your blood pressure think about the caffeine in coffee affecting your readings

i didnt mention it but one glass of wine is ok but several may not be
i dont drink any alcohol anymore and i dont drink caffeinated coffee and i now weigh about 15 lbs less than i did 3 years ago

end result my blood pressure is normal off meds and off these things caffeine wine weight

cholesterol
i take atorvastatin to control my cholesterol
i eat the mind diet

milk
i dont know about this one 
for a lot of things moderation is the answer

lifestyle changes
this one is probably the best way to slow down the chances of developing alzheimers
diet exercise sleep stress anxiety depression social interactions staying active mentally 

i mentioned the bace inhibitors for alzheimers
they did not seem to work and in some cases made memory loss worse

then
i mentioned the aducanumab
i was just starting to read about this drug and was attempting to sign up for clinical trials 
it would be 3 years later in 2017 before i would get started on my aducanumab now called aduhelm in the clinical trial

the chances are is that this aduhelm will help some
how much we really dont know yet
give us a couple of years and we will know

yes its expensive at around $28000+- a year
i have had 18 placebo infusions and will receive #27 of the real drug aduhelm in two weeks
so far i have paid zero for my treatments
i have at least 18+ more months to go in this study i am in now called the embark study

i wrote 8 years ago that we should know if this drug works in 5 years 
well it will be 10 years before we will know when they read out the study i am in in 2 years

i have had at least one mri a year for the last 12 years sometimes more some years
my mri of the brain has not changed any since 2010
thats a good thing
in 2010 i really thought that in 2022 that if you looked at my mri of my brain that you would see significant changes
which you dont
__________
12-05-2014

THINGS THAT MAY HELP

a recent study showed that drinking 3-5 cups of coffee
a day
may reduce the chance of getting alzheimers disease
by 20%
could it be that easy
dont know
but
im bumping my coffee intake back up to 3 cups a day
after reading this one
even though the extra caffeine does interfere some with
my sleep
but
ill just learn how to deal with that


then i read about drinking milk every day may
decrease the chance of getting alzheimers disease
by 40%
maybe by supplying a lifetime of vitamin b12 and
vitamin d

so thats
60% so far

then there are studies especially in europe
since they keep better records than we do
that making life style changes
that ive written about here before
can lower your risk by as much
as 40%

so then if this is true
that makes me at
100% decreased risk of developing
alzheimers disease

say it aint so

well i dont like milk so that lowers down my
percentage some
to 60%
but ill take that


running more than 15 miles a week may reduce the risk
by 40%
running slightly less reduces the risk
by 25%


controlling your cholesterol with that statin
may lower the risk of dying from alzheimers
by 40%

i dont run but i walk so give me say
15%
then i control my cholesterol with statins
so give me back
that 40%
that not drinking milk took away from me

so now im back at
100% risk reduction



then new drug studies moving forward

there is a drug a bace inhhibitor thats in phase 3 studies
azd3393
sounds like something from star wars

it blocks an enzyme that is involved in making that bad sticky
stuff that accumulates in the brain in alzheimers disease
beta amyloid
by stopping the production of beta amyloid the levels
drop in the brain
thus slowing down or preventing alzheimers disease
its a pill
so we are closer to knowing if this stuff works
phase 1 studies imply it might

speed it up please
im awaiting

then
another alzheimers vaccine is closer 
aducanumab its called

it will enter phase 3 studies soon
it works by antibodies that bind the beta amyloid
and
removes them from the spinal fluid
thus slowing down or preventing alzheimers disease

so probably within 5 years we will know if these work

so in summary
drink coffee
get milk
run a lot or walk fast a lot
control cholesterol with a statin if indicated
do life style changes we have been recommending
control blood pressure diabetes cholesterol weight depression
anxiety stress be happy listen to music eat a mediterranean diet
sleep good

then

if you are at risk like i am
be saving your money to get those new alzheimers drugs
a pill and an infusion

(im sure they will be awfully expensive
but cheaper than a nursing home)

to slow down or prevent
alzheimers disease

yes
it wont be long before we will be able to say this
__________
as i have written before 
all these things i am doing plus taking my aricept or donepezil has made a difference

it helps to be proactive

the organicgreeen doctor