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, September 5, 2024

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited #208-the future is now

organicgreendoctor: my story revisited #208-the future is now: MY STORY REVISITED #208-THE FUTURE IS NOW it is always interesting for me to go back and read my old blogs the one below from 2015 was writt...

my story revisited #208-the future is now

MY STORY REVISITED #208-THE FUTURE IS NOW

it is always interesting for me to go back and read my old blogs
the one below from 2015 was written about a year before i was accepted into the biogen aduhelm clinical trial where i eventually received 18 monthly placebo infusions and 34 monthly aduhelm infusions that removed all the measurable amyloid plaques from my brain

What a difference 8 years can make 
in 2015 i wrote the future was brighter than it was 5 years ago
in 2024 its even brighter
_________
09-04-2015
ALZHEIMERS NEWS-A BRIGHTER FUTURE
i think thats true
the future is brighter than it was 5 years ago
progress has been made

as i am preparing for two large presentations on alzheimers disease
i stopped
and
contemplated how much things have changed in the
last 5 years
and
how much potential there is for the future
for
those with memory loss due to alzheimers disease

when i was diagnosed with amnestic mild cognitive impairment
that may be due to alzheimers disease five years ago
it was sort of overwhelming
i could only think of what it was like as my mother and
younger brother were at my stage
they probably werent as aware like i am of the problem
and
what the future held for them
an awful one

all i could think was what course they had
and
how bad it was for the family and friends and
for themselves

i worried a lot about my future
my wife she and i our future
what it would be like

now as i look back and can look forward
i feel more hope
and
thats important
hope

personally i feel better both physically and mentally
my cholesterol and blood pressure are under good control
my weight and physical conditioning is under good control
my diet is the best its ever been
i take a boatload of supplements that have been implied
to help slow things down but not definitely proven to help
yet
i stay very active socially mentally and physically
i drink red wine each night and 2-3 cups of coffee each morning
both may help
i dont sleep well at night 5-6 hours of sleep is all i get
but
luckily since im retired i am able to do an afternoon nap
which helps immensely
maybe we all should be doing this
im happy and contented
i still take aricept (donepezil) and plan to continue it long term
and
i am afraid to stop it as i might deteriorate some with my memory
if do

then
looking forward
for myself and others

memory issue folks can now get a very thorough evaluation
done
so that they will know why they have memory loss
and
if its alzheimers disease
by
a good history and physical
labs for anemia chemistry abnormalities like electrolytes kidney
and liver functions and glucose vitamin b12 vitamin d folate
homocysteine levels which are associated with an increased
risk of alzheimers stroke and heart attacks
thyroid levels
these lab abnormalities are all treatable
Image result for alzheimer's memory test
bloomberg.com

memory tests easily done in the office and online
mri scans
genetic tests for dominant alzheimers and for apoe 4 gene

Image result for spinal fluid for beta amyloid and tau protein organicgreendoctor.com
spinal fluid analysis for the bad beta amyloid and tau protein

Image result for amyvid pet scan
amyvid pet scan of the brain for the presence of beta amyloid
if yours is positive there is a good chance you will get or now have
alzheimers disease
Image result for alzheimer's blood test
coming soon within maybe 2 years a blood test that may be
90-100% accurate in telling you if you got it or not

so soon
like now you can find out if you have it if you have symptoms
but
some of the tests arent covered by insurance

then once diagnosed
if not sooner
get your self motivated to do those things to stay healthy
get on medicine like aricept as it may slow down symptoms
but at times the side effects suck big time
then
look into the future
as
real soon
there may be a pill called a bace inhibitor that you take
and or
a vaccine given as a regular infusion
both if  they are proven to help
will prevent or slow down the disease
you will be able to take them long term

so
i see hope in the future for myself my siblings
and
those of you affected now or soon to be
__________

the evaluation for memory issues hasnt changed much in the last eight years
 
history and exam
labs
memory testing
mri of the brain

now amyloid pet scans are more readily used instead of spinal taps to help diagnose alzheimers disease

soon the blood tests i mentioned 8 years ago will be available in your doctors offices
they are being used in clinical trials now to screen patients for the studies
they the good ones are as accurate as the spinal taps and amyloid pet scan
commonly if your blood test is positive they will do an amyloid pet scan to verify the finding

the bace inhibitors i mentioned didnt work 
in fact it made things worse

now the moncolonal antibodies are approved to remove the amyloid plaque
my drug aduhelm was approved and later taken off the market since it didnt work as well as the other two that were approved
for me the aduhelm worked by removing all the amyloid plaque seen on my amyloid pet scans

the two now available are leqembi and kisunia
they both work faster and remove the amyloid plaque
they provide about 30% slowing in memory loss

studies are being done to treat patient with no symptoms but who have amyloid plaque
so called prealzheimers or prodromal alzheimers
this recommendation to treat these prealzheimers patients will be coming soon

for me i would have received these drugs in my mid 50s if they had been available

other drugs are being studied now to treat amyloid plague and tau tangles and inflammation

eventually its thought folks will be given at least 3 drugs to treat alzheimers
an anti amyloid drug like leqembi or kisunia
an anti tau drug in studies now
an anti inflammatory drug in studies now

maybe these will do the job in really slowing down the disease

adding of course
healthy living
eating a mind diet or similar one
staying active mentally physically and socially
avoiding excessive alcohol
not smoking
getting adequate sleep
treating any mental health issues like anxiety and depression
meditating someway 
maintaining a normal weight blood pressure cholesterol and blood sugar

I still take the aricept or donepezil
i no longer take all those supplements
i do all those healthy things mentioned above
sleep is still an issue but i program in an early afternoon nap

some things didnt change over the last 8 years
but some new things are added or will be added in the future

yes the future is now

the organicgrreen doctor

Wednesday, September 4, 2024

organicgreendoctor: plastic man

organicgreendoctor: plastic man: PLASTIC MAN i was reading an article about plaque that was removed from an obstruction in a patients carotid artery Under the microscope emb...

plastic man

PLASTIC MAN

i was reading an article about plaque that was removed from an obstruction in a patients carotid artery
Under the microscope embedded in the plaque were microplastics
imagine what it could do if it got other places in your body
if its in those plaques its everywhere else like the kidneys liver heart brain 
even our young girls are having their hormones affected
you name it its there

it likes the brain the best for some reason
ive heard of neuroplasticity
it is good for your brain but not plastics from the environment
neuroplasticity is the brains ability to recover and heal the brain
plastics arent the answer

they found 50% more plastics in the brain on autopsy as compared to 2016 autopsies

the most common plastic is polyethylene found in plastic bags packaging storage containers etc

this plastic showing up in our bodies cant be good for us

i looked around our kitchen
our cheeses are in plastic
our breads are in plastic bags
our leftovers are all in plastic containers
our quickie meals are covered with plastic
my cookies i eat each day are in plastic wraps
our candy is in plastic
our olive oil is in plastic bottles
its everywhere 
this plastic

heck its even in our drinking water
so its in my coffee i drink and the water i drink and the water i cook with

its everywhere

are we going to become the plastic man
i looked at the plastic man on the internet
here is his story in this link
apparently he got a bunch of hot liquid poured on him from a factory that turned him into the plastic man

we are sort of doing it ourselves ingesting all this food wrapped in plastic
now that plastic has been around a long time our food has plastic inside it
meats vegetables produce probably milk probably eggs

but i bet we dont become some superhero like the plastic man
we will just probably get cancer have hormone disturbances have quicker heart disease or sooner dementia
all those plastics getting in our bodies cant be good for us

apparently the world health organization said no harm done as i reach down and i can pull my finger out to about a foot and tie it in knots  and it doesnt hurt

it may not be the atomic bomb that gets us
it may be all that plastic we ingested for years

no 
i dont believe the who
this cant be good for us and our grandkids

i dont want to be the plastic man

the organicgreen doctor