eye smell

EYE SMELL
no im not odoriferous

well sometimes i am after a good dose of beans
heck
i read the other day that those who have to smell foul
flatulence may actually live longer

so there is hope for some of you wives

last year when i went in for my annual alzheimers center visit
for the alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative
they asked me
would you like to do another study today
we need volunteers
so
i said yes
i always do


it was a scratch and sniff test
like those things in the magazines you scratch them smell the
perfume or cologne
they never smell good to me thats what i think

but this had all kinds of smells
like cedar coffee pine some stinky stuff flowers  licorice etc
it went on for a long time
some i would have to identify or say yes or no to

why the smell test
well it seems that thats the first to go in alzhiemers disease is the
sense of smell since
the olfactory nerve goes to the under surface of the brain
to the area in the brain where alzheimers starts


i wrote about the peanut butter smell test
this new scratch and sniff test works the same way
a defect in the ability to identify the odors or even smell them
means there could be memory problems down the road
it could be one of those screening tests
flunk it
maybe your need to get testing done


then the eye test
in alzheimers disease you get amyloid plaques that form in the brain
its thought to be the cause of alzheimers disease
several companies have developed retinal screens that use some
type of fluorescence to highlight the amyloid plaque that can be seen
in the back of the eye with these scans

the back of the eye is how doctors can sometimes peek into the brain

one company uses curcumin a product of turmeric acid which is
known for it use in indian food
its also taken by some people in hopes it may slow alzheimers disease
but
in this case its only staining the amyloid plaques in the retina


if you have beta amyloid accumulating in the back of your eye
then you are probably accumulating it in the brain
remember this accumulation starts years and years before
alzheimers disease symptoms show up

as we get closer to finding a treatment or cure
the earlier you know you may get alzheimers disease
the better your chance for treatment

this test appears to be extremely accurate
95-100% in the studies

so in the future maybe as soon as late 2015 you can go to
your eye doctor
get the scan
if its positive
get more definitive tests like memory tests
the biomarkers beta amyloid and tau in the spinal fluid
and
the amyvid pet scan which highlights amyloid in the brain
also coming soon will be the new alzheimers blood tests to add to
these tests
then treatment when it becomes available

because of the increased healthy living that folks are doing now
by eating correctly exercise controlling blood pressure cholesterol diabetes
their weight etc
the rate of alzheimers is actually declining finally
but
because of so many numbers of folks getting old the numbers
are increasing annually

these are exciting screening tests
after doing the smell test study i would think that the eye test
will be much more accurate and easier to do
my nose and smeller nerve were wore out
and
heck i see the ophthalmologist annually anyway

yep again
theres
hope for the future

the organicgreen doctor

newsletter updates

NEWSLETTER UPDATE

this morning i recieived via email the newsletter from the
alzheimers disease information network
when i read the first article
i said ruh roh

a new study showed that 'sleep is disturbed in people who have
early alzheimers disease but who yet dont have the memory loss
or other cognitive problems characteristic of full blown
alzheimers disease'

all of the study subjects were normal that is that they had no memory
issues at all but
about a fourth of them had positive biomarkers in the spinal fluid
(which i will blog about each friday over the next 4 weeks)
which means they had preclinical alzheimers disesase
that is they had beta amyloid and tau protein levels that were abnormal
and probably had beta amyloid accumulation in the brain already

these people with the abnormal biomarkers were found to have poorer
sleep efficiency than those who did not have them

ruh roh
i know that im in that group as i have abnormal levels of these biomarkers
in my spinal fluid and will soon find out via an amyvid pet scan of the
brain if i have beta amyloid accumulation also

and do i have sleep disturbance
no trouble going to sleep but i have restless sleep at night
just ask my wife
i nap during the day

is it the chicken or the egg
does sleep disturbance have an effect on developing alzheimers or does
alzheimers cause the sleep disturbance

my theory
these sleep changes occurs years and years before people notice alzheimers
and
the beta amyloid and tau protein abnormalities occur also years and years
before alzheimers in a person is recognized by the person and their family
those protein changes and the destruction that results
are the causes of the sleep disturbance


in alzheimers disease as mentioned above the beta amyloid protein starts
accumulating years and years before symptoms occur

researchers at the university of michigan have isolated a molecule from
green tea that seems to interfere with the misfolding of these proteins in the
brain thats been associated with alzheimers

so does that mean that we should all be drinking green tea to help
prevent alzheimers disease

maybe


nature.com

then a study from ut dallas looked at whether controlling high blood
pressure early in life may slow down or prevent the formation of the
changes in the brain associated with alzheimers disease

they looked at patients who carried the apoe4 gene which if you have
the double gene of it
like i do
you have a 15x increase chance of developing alzheimers and if you
have mild symptoms you have a 60-90% chance of developing
alzheimers disease

then they compared patients with the apoe4 gene who
had normal blood pressure
untreated mild high blood pressure
treated blood pressure

they found that those patients who had apeo4 genes and had untreated
high blood pressure had more amyloid accumulation in the brain
that hallmark of alzheimers disease
than
those treated apoe4 hypertension patients and those with apoe4 and
a normal blood pressure

so these results suggest that maybe controlling your blood pressure
may significantly reduce risk of developing those hallmark deposits
of amyloid in the brain

remember this study was done in people who are normal with
no memory issues

so gradually we are starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together
for the alzheimers disease puzzle

now all we need is some way to treat it or prevent it

the organicgreen doctor

neurology appointment

Walk to End Alzheimers
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click here to find your local walk 

NEUROLOGY APPOINTMENT
today i am going back for my almost 2 year follow up
since i was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment 
amnestic type that stage right before full blown alzheimers
disease takes off

today i went back and read some of my blogs about that
time period
here are the links to those blogs

last day thanks
the dreaded doctor visit
the neurology visit

since that time i have retired and am on medical disability 
for my diagnosis because of the risk of making a medical
error because of my short term memory loss

i know from testing that i carry the apoe 4 genotype which makes
these symptoms likely to be from alzheimers disease
i also have an indeterminate testing results for tau protein 
and beta amyloid in the spinal fluid
(those are the two biomakers that are abnormal in this 
alzheimers disease thing)
i have a normal mri normal glucose metabolism pet scan 
normal screening labs 
and a consistently abnormal neuropsychological exam
ive had eight of these since the beginning of all of this 
and one was an eight hour one 
(thats the one that convinced the disability insurance to 
pay on my claim)

i have a strong family history of alzheimers disease
my mother died in the final stages of the disease
my father may have had the disease 
my younger brother now has the disease and is in 
a long term care facility

i am on aricept (donepezil) for the possible alzheimers disease
its really the only thing that helps
but it does not affect the progress of the disease
just the symptoms 
maybe
its all there is for now

i am staying active mentally and physically 
i dont let this drag me down 
at least im alive and healthy and am doing a lot of things
that i am enjoying
except of course im not practicing medicine which is what 
i enjoyed the most 

there is a test that may give me the definitive answer
its the beta amyloid pet scan
ive had one already and will have another next year with the 
study that im in 
the (adni) alzheimers disease neuroimaging initiative

but they dont give me the results
it would be the piece of the puzzle that im missing

the test is now available commercially in some areas
the amyvid pet scan
they inject a radioactive substance that attaches itself to 
any anyloid deposited in the brain 
if amyloid is present it will show up as red highlighted areas

if i have no amyloid present then there is a good chance that 
my symptoms are not from alzheimers
not definite but as definite as you can be

if amyloid is present that doesnt mean you have alzheimers but
it implies that you might

i want the test to add to what i already know

now we just need a treatment to stop or slow this disease down
if my test is completely normal i might have a chance if this 
disease shows up later for that treatment that is coming

otherwise my generation has missed out on the cure or treatment

but at least i will know 
i want to know

its like having metastatic cancer
theres no treatment 
but i want to know if its metastasizing
so i can speed up my planning for the rest of my life

i want to know

the organicgreen doctor