babies know best, cancer treatment may help

BABIES KNOW BEST

baby formula is the best thing invented or the worst thing
moms who cant breastfeed for various reasons have this option
baby formula

the problem is that it was and is way over marketed to new moms
its caused a lot of harm in years past in some third world countries
partly due to misuse and partly due to misconduct by the makers of
the formula

when i was in practice i was always a strong advocate of breastfeeding
babies are healthy
they tend to not be obese children and adults
they get held more often and due better because of this

now there is another reason for moms to breastfeed their babies
it doesnt make the babies healthier
it makes the moms healthier

moms who breastfeed their babies for longer periods are less likely to
get that awful disease
alzheimers disease

women who are pregnant for long periods of their life without long periods
of breastfeeding have an higher incidence of alzheimers disease

this all doesnt apply to women with a family history of alzheimers disease

it appears that women who breastfeed have a lower level of progesterone
and get the benefit of higher estrogen levels and benefit from better
glucose tolerance
both are associated with lowering the risk of alzheimers disease

so men we get left out in the deal
and
yes babies know best

CANCER TREATMENT MAY HELP

bexarotene an anti skin cancer drug lowers beta amyloid and may be used
to treat alzheimers disease
other similar cancer drugs under development may work the same way and
are under study now in alzheimers disease

studies looking back at patients treated for cancer have found those
patients have a marked decrease in the incidence of alzheimers disease

now
a gene called cd33 produces rna that prevents the removal of this bad
beta amyloid has been discovered
a drug thats tested for treating acute myeloid leukemia inhibits this
cd33 gene  which may lower the risk for alzheimers disease by
allowing removal of the beta  amyloid

so there appears to be some hope in the future maybe from using
anticancer drugs to treat alzheimers disease

or

if you are female just breastfeed for a long time

the organicgreen doctor

are we there yet, silent auction

ARE WE THERE YET

as many of you know i am in an alzheimers research study
at the university of texas southwestern alzheimers research
center
in this study i receive a lot of testing
some not available yet to the general public
some that are available but not readily available to the
general public
i dont get to see the results of the tests but when i take
the neuropsychological test i know how im doing when i
take the test

but
there is no treatment part to the study
just monitoring
this all helps progress the knowledge base of what happens
in alzheimers disease as it progresses
but
nothing is offered or really available to slow it down except
for managing my health and taking aricept (donepezil) to slow
down any symptoms

but
im at the point where i know that i have a window of time
maybe 5 years maybe 10 years or
maybe im too late already

as this disease starts years before any symptoms start
so that the time to attack this disease eg in me would have been
20 years ago when i first moved to texas in 1989

so im monitoring new developments and i keep a close eye
on new possible treatments

here are a few

the alzheimers vaccine
they give you a vaccine that ends up inducing antibodies that
attack the beta amyloid in the brain by binding it up and preventing
it from accumulating or binds it and removes it from the brain

it seems the time to do this is years before symptoms start

a new study will be doing that
it appears that i may qualify for this study later this year
if so i will get a beta amyloid pet scan of the brain called amyvid
and if its positive i will either get the vaccine for 3 years or get
a placebo
i plan on doing this study if nothing else shows up

if im in the treatment group i will get the vaccine for 3 years
if it helps ive benefited from the treatment
ill take what i can get
if im in the placebo then im not worse than i am now
since im on nothing already

keeping my fingers crossed on this one

several anitcancer drugs some new ones and at least one old generic
anticancer drug are starting or are in studies now
the bexarotene study is starting soon
its an old one that is available now since its fda approved already
there are reports that some people are already taking it by getting
a prescription from their doctors

my thoughts on this
is whattheheck
there is nothing to lose by taking it
the end result of doing nothing is not a good one

my problem with the bexarotene study is that im not far advanced
enough to qualify for the studies

another new drug is an enzyme that was discovered in a group of
people in iceland that do not get alzheimers disease
this enzyme inhibits the production of beta amyloid
thought to be the culprit in alzheimers disease

i hope to qualify for this study when it gets started

there is a study thats starting where a drug is given that prevents
the destruction of tau protein that occurs in alzheimers disease
ive applied for this study and again im not far enough
advanced to qualify

this all seems cruel somehow
they are treating people in some of these studies who may not
benefit as much even though they are early in the disease
since the treatment may turn out to work better if you start it
before the symptoms occur

so are we there yet
no
but we are getting closer to treatments that will work
maybe not for my generation but for the generations behind me
my kids my future grandkids my nieces and nephews

SILENT AUCTION
the organicgreendoctor team in the walk to end alzheimers has decided
to have a silent auction to raise money this year
we plan to have just 5 good items

two of the items have already sparked interest

one is a 4 foot square organic garden that is 4 ft x 4 ft x 1 ft
that will be built by this organicgreen doctor
all good organic soil will be used and will be obtain from a well
known local organic garden place
the garden will be built and placed on the buyers property by
the organicgreen doctor
he will also assist the new owner in planting their fall/winter garden
using a gift certificate to a local nursery for the plants

if youve ever wanted one of these and didnt know how to do it
nows your chance

more details of the silent auction will be posted here and on my
facebook page in the next few weeks
we may even take online bids

the other is an alzheimers quilt being hand made by one of my
medical school classmates who is a plastic surgeon who does
knitting and quilting for a hobby
folks you can imagine what fantastic work she must do
she also has a blog called
sutured for a living

today her post will be on making the quilt for us to sell
at our silent auction
those flowers on the quilt are forget me nots which are
the official flower of the alzheimers association


ive talked to several quilt  people and im amazed at how
much this quilt will be worth
there are already people who plan on bidding on this
quilt

read her blog today to find out more about this
alzheimers quilt

support us by bidding on these or the other items
more later

the organicgreen doctor

will it be there in time

WILL IT BE THERE IN TIME
thats the question im asking myself
as ive read a lot about alzheimers disease and how it progresses
real gradually it seems over 20-30 years
and probably over a lifetime
it has multi causes most likely
changing some of those causes may help
you know like blood pressure weight cholesterol diabetes exercise diet
alcohol intake smoking sleep habits etc

as scientists are getting better and better at diagnosing alzheimers
disease we are and will  be seeing more and more  people diagnosed
with this eventually before any symptoms show up

now thats the dilemma
you can diagnosis them
but you cannt really treat them except by altering those things mentioned
above
or
use the 5 medicines approved to treat alzheimers disease
none of which actually treats the disease itself but only treats the
symptoms
eg
im on aricept (donepezil) and have been it for 2 1/2 years in hopes if
my final diagnosis turns out to be alzheimers disease that it may have
slowed down the progression of the diseases symptoms

of the 5 drugs only aricept (donepezil) exelon and namenda are
really used

what is needed now is drugs or treatments to treat the disease before
symptoms ever start and probably as much as 20-30 years before it
starts to show up

possible treatments attack the beta amyloid accumulation or the tau protein
unfolding and destruction in some way
these are thought to be the two hallmarks of alzheimers disease

ive written about the bexarotene studies that are starting up
hoping that the baxarotene will inhibit beta amyloid production
like it did in animal studies
(bexarotene is an old anticancer drug used for certain skin cancers)

in another study one of the old leukemia chemotherapy agents will be
given at a low dose to slow this production of beta amyloid
it appears to work in animal models

several companies have developed new drugs also that work like the
bexarotene and are being tested now in new studies that like bexarotene
will decrease the beta amyloid being produced in the brain

excuse me it seems that you could go back and study people who
were treated with these medicines for their leukemia and cancer and
see if it helped those who were going to get alzheimers
i bet there are blood samples and spinal fluid samples stored somewhere
that could be looked at

www.nytimes.com
the big colombian study using one of the alzheimers vaccine that binds up
the beta amyloid and removes it or prevents it from being deposited in
the brain
hopefully this works because if not this approach using injectible
antitbodies against beta amyloid will not be effective
in this sudy it is given to people in their thirties who are going to get the
disease in a few years
so we will know in less than 5 years if this approach will work

right now across the us another alzheimers vaccine is being given to
prodromal alzheimers patients thats people some like me who have
positive mild neuropsych tests positive beta amyloid and tau proteins
in the spinal fluids and positive pet scans for beta amyloid but who
are really asymptomatic

i would qualify for this study but one of the criteria is that you can not
be on aricept (donepezil) and be on the study
thats a choice i would have to make
would be to stop this knowing
that if this vaccine didnt work stopping the aricept (donepezil) might
make my symptoms deteriorate if what i have is alzheimers disease

as of right now im not willing to do that

so im watching the drug studies closely for a potential treatment that
is in the works

one promising drug is being evaluated by taurx.com where the drug affects
the unfolding of the tau protein
earlier studies on a protype of this drug showed some promise

for me personally
i dont qualify because they arent testing it yet on people like me but are
only giving it to people who are in the early stages of alzhiemers
disease eg like the tennessee basketball coach pat summitt

ill be watching this one real close and if they do start a study in
people like me with minimal symptoms and positive tests
then i plan to try to enter the study
just dont give me that damn placebo

www.nature.com
another study that i read about involves an enzyme thats called
secretase
it was discovered in a group of people in iceland who do not get
alzheimers disease because of a gene inherited that affects this
secretase enzyme so it doesnt break down amyloid into the
beta amyloid piece that is thought to possibly be the cause of
azlheimers as this beta amyloid piece gets deposited throughout the brain

a new study is being looked at using this to treat people hoping they
too will not get this disease
these new inhibitors of this secretase enzyme lower the beta amyloid
in the brain and
if it works will slow down or prevent the disease
this may be the most promising of all the new treatments
ill be the first in line for that one

yes this is hope for the future
these new drug treatments that are coming
but i realize my window of opportunity is closing if what i have is
alzheimers disease because by the time an official diagnosis is made
its like being told you have stage 4 cancer
the odds are against you

so
lets hope then that one of these new drugs will be effective
soon

the organicgreen doctor

thanks guys

THANKS GUYS


thanks to those guys and gals at the fda for plans to
approve new treatments for alzheimers treatment

previously researchers had to prove patients would improve
with the new treatment to think and remember and to show
improvement in their day to day activities

eg aricept (donepezil) does this but doesnt do it for very long
and does nothing to alter the course of the disease

so finding treatments that the fda would let them test was like
only approving drugs that might work on obviously terminal
cancer patients
the success rate would be low if at all and few companies or
researchers would be interested in investing their time and
energy into developing a drug that probably wouldnt work anyway


alzheimers disease according to the beta amyloid theory really starts
20+ years before the symptoms start
when that beta amyloid accumulation occurs and when its associated
tau protein destruction cell inflammation tangles and plaques start
thats when the time to attack the disease
when it starts

eg in my mothers case it would have been when she was in her late 40s
and early 50s
in my younger brother probably in his early 40s
in me if i do have alzheimers disease it would have been in my
late 40s when i was in the prime of my career

so now drugs companies will be able to develop these new
treatments to attack the disease before it gains its foothold

previously researchers were impeded by the old fda regulations and
feel that new research will now go forward to possibly provide
treatment early to slow or prevent this awful disease


alzheimerepidemic.wordpress.com
two studies are starting this spring
one is on a groups of colombians who are
genetically programmed to get the disease in their early 40s but who
have no symptoms yet
time will tell if using the alzheimers vaccine in this group will
slow down or prevent alzheimers disease


the other study will be using the old anti skin cancer drug
bexarotene which worked in the alzheimers worms and the alzheimers
rats such that the disease did not develop
it will be used in patients early on in the disease  process

maybe this new fda change will help speed up the pipeline for new
treatments and ways to prevent the disease

there is some hope for future generations

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimer worm

ALZHEIMER WORM

there he or she is the alzheimer worm
yesterday i got to hold a petri dish full of these
alzheimer worms
i wrote about them recently when i wrote about my composting
worms i had put in my garden

holding that petri dish up to the light and seeing those
little worms that were the size of this .
i will admit that i was in awe
i did get sweaty and my heart rate picked up as i
held that dish

why

what if they held the answer that we have all been looking for

it will be pure science by researchers like those at this
ut lab i visited that will provide the answer or the piece of
the puzzle that is needed for a cure or treatment for
alzhiemers disease

the worms called scientifically c.elegans
are transparent so that you can actually see with a microscope
the neurons that run down their bodies
there are a limited number of them so if one is damaged
you can easily see it

they also have only a limited number of genes i think it was 230+
so when you add a research gene its easily identified on the
worms limited genome
humans have millions of genes

these worms only live 7 days so when a gene for alzheimers is
inserted into their genome its affects will be noticed in 3 days
in humans it will be 20-30 years
in research rats it will be months and sometimes several years
before the genes effect show up

these researchers inserted a alzheimer gene into the worms
genome that produces a protein that accumulates in humans
who have the gene and they develop alzheimers

remember this process occurs over years in humans
but in only 3 days in the alzheimer worm
so its easy to try different treatments to see if those drugs or
chemicals or foods can prevent the protein from forming
thus potentially preventing or slowing down alzheimers

they also have been able to attach fluorescence to these genes so
they will fluoresce hopefully purple since thats the alzheimers
associations color
if this alzheimers protein is produced

then it can be identified simply with the microscope instead of doing
a more lengthy and expensive procedure to identify the protein

in fact hundreds or thousands of chemicals or compounds could
be tested at one time and if there is fluorescence then that can
be measured easily

so drugs or chemicals that are new or old drugs could quickly
be evaluated and within 3 days you will know if they have
potential to work against alzhiemers disease

one drug that was tested was the anticancer drug bexarotene
when it was applied to these alzheimer worms the protein
was not produced and there was no degeneration of
neurons in the worms ie those worms didnt get alzheimers

transfer that to humans
if you gave bexarotene to humans in the early stage or even
earlier than that then they would not develop alzheimers
or develop more alzheimers
hence a cure or treatment for this disease

in fact in 2013 this drug bexarotene which is generically
available now will be tested in a study with humans next year
so we should soon have an answer on this soon

the alzheimer worm research which is not published yet implies
that it may work
from the research lab to the clinical trials
thats how this mystery will be solved

thanks to the research scientists at ut austin for giving me a tour
of their lab
and giving me some hope for the future

the organicgreen doctor

worms, alzheimer worms

Walk to End Alzheimers
we are also walking in the bell county/temple 
walk to end alzheimers on saturday november 3 2012

you can walk free but a donation to and or joining
my organicgreendoctor team is appreciated

WORMS

in digging in my compost pile
digging in my garden
digging in my flower beds
one thing i noticed was that there were very few worms

there use to be lots and lots of worms in my landscape
while wondering what happened to those worms
i realized that the drought that weve had here has taken
a toll on my worm population in my soil

since i dont irrigate my landscape anymore and i
dont water my garden in the summer unless its being
used to grow plants
which is usually only one 4 ft x 12 ft raised bed while i
let the other rest for the summer
what is happening i think is my worms are dying from
the lack of moisture
they are provided tons of organic material in the form of
compost and mulch and newspapers used as mulch

so i have found this worm farm in austin texas to order
some worms from
in fact they are giving a seminar on worm composting at
my favorite organic nursery the natural gardener on
saturday november 10th at 1000am

so i ordered 2 lbs of worms
yep just like you would order chicken or beef
theres 800-1000 per lb
so i got 2000 worms +-
they were a little sluggish when they arrived via mail
it was cheaper to have them shipped then to drive to go
get them
my mailman told me he has delivered worms before that were
all dried up
mine were alive just a little slow

once i dumped them in a hole in my garden they became
more active
i divided them into several groups and placed them in each
of my raised garden beds
all have plenty of organic material and moisture from recent rains

didnt put them into my compost pile as its in the chicken run
dont think they would have lasted long the way those chickens
go after the compost pile every day

now just need to wait until they can multiply
they are hermaphradites so each can produce babies
up to 200 per worm

hope they are ready and working hard for my spring garden next year

ALZHEIMER WORMS

well thats what i call them
alzheimer worms
their official name is
caenorhabditis elegans
c elegans for short
they are 1 mm long live in the soil and are transparent
they are used in research because you can see everything
the digestive system reproductive system nervous system

at the walk to end alzheimers this weekend in austin
researchers from ut austin were there talking about the
research they were doing on this itty bitty worm

they have developed a worm
the ones i call the alzheimer worms
who develop alzheimers in 3 days
so they can test drugs on these worms and in 3 days see
if they work to prevent alzheimers disease
they can tell by looking at the nerves in the worms to see
if they have degenerated
have those beta amyloid plaques

they are testing many new drugs and chemicals and
are also testing the bexarotene the anticancer drug that will
be used next year in a clinical trial in humans to see if it
slows down the alzheimer process in the brain

so who would have thought that a composting worm would
help me at home in my garden and in the research lab to
evaluate treatments for this awful disease

makes me have a new appreciation for those worms now

the organicgreen doctor

those rats

Walk to End Alzheimers
we are walking in the bell county/temple 
walk to end alzheimers on saturday november 3 2012

you can walk free but a donation to and or joining
my organicgreendoctor team is appreciated

join us there

THOSE RATS

there are rats and mice that have been genetically programmed
to develop alzheimers
all of them get the disease
so new treatments and tests are tried on these varmints first before
they do human studies

many times though what works in them wont work in humans

one study put a cell phone in the cage with the rats for a certain
amount of time each day and followed them for a period of months
those with the cell phone in the cage had a lower incidence of
alzheimers
must have been a smartphone
another reason its called that

in korea a researcher infused stem cells that ended up in the brain
of these alzheimers destined mice
the mice got better on their cognitive skills
didnt know they could think
and there was evidence that there was improvement in the
pathology of the brain

the stem cells were from adipose tissue
easily obtained now in the united states with our over abundant
supply of adipose

wonder what would happen if this was given to humans



bexarotene is a chemotherapy agent that is approved by the fda to be
used against certain skin cancers
so its available now and experience with it exists

in an experiment with those same old rats
they take a beating dont they
when these alzheimers rats received the bexarotene
there was reversal of the pathological changes behavior changes
and memory deficits caused by the onset of alzheimers

it apparently works by increasing the apoe gene expression which
increases how much beta amyloid is cleared from the brain
(beta amyloid is that sticky stuff that may be the cause or end
result of the alzheimers disease process)

so this could be a treatment that may be effective in people like
me who carry the sucky apoe 4 genotype for alzheimers
(i carry the double allele of this gene)

researchers are looking at starting its use in humans soon to see if
the results they got in mice will be the same  in humans

hey take me take me take me
i dont have skin cancer but i do have sunspots on my face and
ill gladly withstand the side effects of bexarotene

it cant be worse than whats coming down the pike for me if i do
have alzheimers

sometimes things are just that simple
we already got the drug
lets see if it works

i got an idea why dont they look at those patients who have already taken
the drug bexarotene for their skin cancer and see if some of them turned
out to have alzheimers later on and see if it helped them

i say game on

the organicgreen doctor

? a new drug for alzheimers, early detection, more funding

?A NEW DRUG FOR ALZHEIMERS

the theory is that beta amyloid accumulation in the brain is what
either causes alzheimers disease or is the end result of what ever the
process is that causes the disease

a lot of time and effort and money is being spent to stop this
accumulation of  beta amyloid in the brain or once its there to
have it removed

a study recently done in mice who had beta amyloid in their brains
used an anticancer drug thats used for
lymphoma
the drug called bexarotene caused the mice to have some removal
of the beta amyloid in the brain

then cognitive testing done on them showed some improvement in
their cognitive scoring

its use in humans would be a long time away as it would have to be
tested first in humans which would take a long time to do

this is one way alzheimers will be attacked in the future by giving a
drug like this to patients like me or even patients years before their
symptoms start
think of it has a statin drug for alzheimers like lipitor or crestor is for
heart disease by lowering cholesterol you can lessen the chance of a heart
attack or stroke

this drug could lower the levels of beta amyloid in the brain which
might result in clearing of or preventing alzheimers disease in the brain

this drug is already approved by the fda for cancer treatment so the
studies will be easier to do since its using an already approved drug

all these new treatments are really a generation away
ie my kids and your kids will benefit

EARLY DETECTION
as these new drugs and treatments get developed new ways to detect
people early are being worked on
find people early like me and get them on something when symptoms
start or before the symptoms start

a recent small study using just 4 questions from the alzheimers
questionnaire dementia assessment test might pick up patients with
amnestic mild cognitive impairment (mcia)-thats what i have but
have a very mild form of it

these could be used in a doctors office and could be easily used as
a screen test for patients

the questions are
does the patient have trouble repeating questions or statements
in the same day
does the patient have remembering the date year or time
does the patient have difficulties managing finances
(oops my wife she flunked this one)
does the patient have a decreased sense of direction
(oops again my wife she flunked this one also
she never could read a map)

no my wife she doesnt have mci
i pass all four of these test as mine is picked up on more extensive tests
but there are a lot of patients showing up in doctors offices who
can not answer these questions and families and friends arent really
aware they have a problem
if they dont pass the screening then further testing could be done

click here for a good
copy of the test to take

MORE FUNDING
the obama administration and congress signed the national alzheimers
plan agreement (napa) to
increase funding and emphasis on alzheimers here in the us
so at least congress and the president worked together on something that
was useful for the us

the administration just committed another $80 million for alzheimers in
addition to the $450 million now committed for research
we spend $180 BILLION a year now on treatment and care and will soon
spend $1 TRILLION

hopefully this extra funding although more is needed and new research
will soon lead to some significant treatment for this terrible disease
a disease that could overwhelm our national budget in the next few years

the organicgreen doctor