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

Thursday, February 29, 2024

my story revisited #199-this is what i would do

MY STORY REVISITED #199-THIS IS WHAT I WOULD DO

i wrote this almost 8 years ago
what i wrote is still what one needs to do

the alzheimers blood test is not quite available yet but the one that will be the most accurate will be available over the next few years
there are some available now but they arent that accurate

the bace inhibitor i mentioned didnt pan out
it made things worse

there are two studies ongoing now
the ahead 345 using leqembi
the trailblazer alz 3 using donanemab
they will give these monoclonal antibodies to folks who are prealzheimers
ie those who have positive biomarkers but have no symptoms
hoping that giving these drugs early will slow down the development of alzheimers disease
most universities with alzheimers centers are doing these studies

wish i could have entered one when i was in my 50s
then i would know if they worked
_________
07-03-2015

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WWOGDD
i think about this a lot
when folks ask me what to do
to prevent getting alzheimers

so wwogdd
what would the organicgreen doctor do

this week a study was published where they followed
folks every 3 years with a simple memory test for 18 years
when they went back and looked at the memory tests of
those who developed alzheimers
they found that those patients with alzheimers had some
problems doing the memory tests that were gradual
as time went on
basically looking back they could have predicted who
would get alzheimers long before symptoms occur

then another study found that those who had hypertension
were less likely to develop alzheimers
thinking that it may be something with the medication
folks take that may slow down or prevent alzheimers disease

so in 2015 knowing what i know about alzheimers
and if i were at risk for getting it
eg if you are genetically linked to me
when i turned 50 if not sooner

i would maximize my health as below

do a baseline memory test and repeat it every 3 years
i would use the moca test thats administered by a
health care provider and not the ones usually done
in their offices-the clock test or mmse
the moca will pick up early abnormalities
well it did on me at 60 but the mmse did not

i being one who wants to know where i stand
would have the new alzheimers blood test done when
it becomes available
probably in less than 5 years
accuracy will be 90-100%

but dont do this until all your ducks are in a row
long term care insurance life insurance or disability insurance
as long as there is obamacare you dont have to worry about
denial for health insurance

im sorry but if you are genetically kin to me you probably
will not be able to ever get long term care insurance

if i had high blood pressure or high cholesterol i would
aggressively treat them with medication
the blood pressure meds and the statin drugs themselves
may have benefits in slowing down the disease
separate from controlling the pressure and cholesterol

i would get moving every day with exercise
walking is so simple inexpensive to do

control your diabetes anxiety depression stress sleep abnormalities
be active mentally and socially
limit alcohol use
dont smoke
avoid medicines linked to memory loss like old antihistamines
bladder pills etc

take a bunch of vitamin and supplements that have shown to
possibly be beneficial in slowing down the disease process

now i would be ready
my health and my brain will be ready

then since in the next 10 years maybe as soon as 5 years
those who will be able to be identified as having
preclinical alzheimers
(based on a positive alzheimers blood test positive amyloid brain scan
and maybe positive spinal fluid tests)

like i was in my 50s and like my younger brother and my older brother
and my mother and probably my dad and my aunts and uncles and
my grandmothers were
we were it seems born a generation too soon

you if you have preclinical alzheimers will be able to receive
either or both

an infusion of an alzheimers vaccine antibody
( a similar method used to treat those with lupus or rheumatoid
or ulcerative colitis or crohns or other connective tissue diseases)
which will remove the bad stuff amyloid and also prevent it from
being deposited
and/or
a bace inhibitor taken as a pill that will prevent the bad stuff from
forming

if it works these drugs will slow down or prevent alzheimers disease

there are also other drugs on the way

this is all within your near future

maybe avoiding in yourself what has happened to your ancestors

please be ready
________
we should know in the next 5 years how well these drugs like aduhelm leqembi and donanemab really work 
do they really slow down the disease and by how much

they are now doing studies giving antibodies against tau to patients
these results will be available in the next 3-5 years
i dont qualify for the studies since you have to have a positive amyloid pet scan
mine is negative since the aduhelm removed all the measurable amyloid plaque from my brain

in the mean time im doing what all of you should be doing to slow down the disease or to prevent it from occurring
that list of things above is what we should be doing

thats what i would do

the organicgreen doctor

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