the pill

THE PILL
when i write the pill
the first thing you think about is the pill
you know the one that the supreme court is trying
to decide if insurance has to cover
why in 2014 are we having this discussion

however thats not the new pill that im writing about


i have a long time love affair with chocolate
with my most favorite source being a snicker bar
i know they added all those peanuts and sugar and fat
but it satisfies my sweet tooth more than anything

if fact my dentist who has gotten wealthy off me over
the years
and
he really encourages me to eat more of them
not really
but i wonder when i write those checks for root canals
and fillings and crowns

my mother in law works for sees candy in california
and
has a ready access to lots of chocolate of different sizes
and shapes
my favorite is what i call the chocolate cream ones
i know thats the ones she sends because the box
is so darn heavy

however my biggest problem with chocolate nowadays
is sleep
yes i said sleep

there is a lot of caffeine in chocolate especially dark chocolate
my favorite
when you add that to my 2 cups of coffee a day
the caffeine level in my blood stream goes up
plus me like many of you cant  just eat one of those sees candies

add the effect of of the aricept (donepezil)
which knocks off about 2 hours of sleep a night
when i chocolicize myself
i dont hardly sleep at all when im on a chocolate binge
not hard to do when you are faced with a box of chocolates
from sees

life is like a box of chocolates
you just have to take it all in

now mars candy the ones who make my favorite snicker bars
ok sees is right up there with them
has decided to finance a study to see if chocolate can improve
heart health
it already seems to help some with alzheimers disease
so
i try to treat myself everyday

in the study they will extract flavanols from chocolate and give
it to volunteers
maybe i want in that study
the problem is its in a pill
how good can that look in a box
and
the taste wont be there
the pleasure of the flavor not flavanols wont be there
and
the slight rush and burst of energy from the caffeine
wont be there

somehow all this just doesnt seem right to me
its like when they extract vitamins etc from vegetables and fruits
and we take it as pills
however
the health benefits arent there in the pills vs the eating the real plants

maybe thats the way it will be with these new chocolate pills

i say
no pleasure
no benefit

the organicgreen doctor

dreamified

DREAMIFIED
i am on a run of dreams
that occur now when i nap and when i sleep at night

they are all triggered from the side effect of aricept (donpezil)
that i take for possible alzheimers

i don t know why they have increased in degree lately
and why they are so vivid
ok i dont really care
as generally i enjoy them as usually they are pleasant
and nondisturbing
usuallly

a google search found one researcher who
said it activates the visual association cortex during rem sleep
boy does it ever make stuff real vivid

like last week when that lady dressed like an antebellum southern
belle who was like a witch
was drifting along the walls of our bedroom
i tried to warn my wife she but i couldnt wake up enough
to yell and scare that wench away the bellle not my wife she

i was paralyzed it felt like but i woke with a start
swinging my arms and yelling hey hey get the hell out of here

i turned over and there my wife she was
sound asleep
i didnt need to make such a scene after all
so
i went back to sleep

so the donepezil enhances the rem sleep to make things
more vivid
think legal lsd
tripping out every night
heck
last night i was stuck on this pedestal over the ocean
it was real high
too high to jump
but i had to get down because the time was out and we
all had to leave
why i was there and why we had to leave i dont know
just tripping was all i was doing

taking it in the morning makes it less likely to occur
wait i already take it in the morning
wow what dreams i have at night though
so vivid
and
lately my noon naps are good ones also
makes me looking forward to the next episode
you know like true detective or something

heck
last week we were staying at this house
the house was my parents house
but not really it was a house we lived in just north of here
for a few years
but not really that one but another larger one
then
this marauding motorcycle gang came by with their
machines aroaring
but they were all in suvs instead of cycles
they chased us into the woods
luckily for us
i woke up and no one got hurt

then the other night i was working at the last clinic i worked
at when i retired
and some of the doctors were conniving to get rid of me
because they heard that i might have alzheimers disease
and was on aricept
they didnt want the stigma of having me around
so
they were trying to force me out
but
i beat them
i woke up and they all went away

why am i writing about this
if you have a love one on this drug
be aware how confusing it may be for them if they are
more advanced than i am
they im sure will get these dreams interwoven in with reality
and may not be able to tell the difference

plus
one of my goals of this blog since i am so early in the disease
is to let you know what happens in the brain
what your loved one may be thinking
what effect does this have on you the patient
no one really has written about all this before

i have time
as i expect things will progress slowly
to let you know
whats happening upstairs in this brain
and try to put in on paper or on this page

whoa what was that over in the corner of the room
that just flashed and went away
am i in rem sleep or what

oh whew it was just my verizon card flashing letting
me know the signal had dropped off

sometimes this all seems strange at times

but i plan on dreaming on
let you know when they are good ones

the organicgreen doctor

whats the price

WHATS THE PRICE
in the next 2 years several alzheimers disease studies will be started with
different criteria for who gets in them
most of not all will be given a new biological infusion called
solanezumab

this will be given monthly for 3 years
it works by binding with antibodies to beta amyloid the sticky stuff
that accumulates in the brain
that  is thought to be the cause of alzheimers disease

the beta amyloid  is then removed from the brain
if it works it will slow down the disease
or
if we are all lucky cure the disease

there are several diseases now that use the same approach for
treating them
one eg is rheumatoid arthritis
patients may get an infusion of biologicals every 1-2 months
with names like infliximab or adalimubab
thats remacaide and humira

cost of getting infusions for a year are $10,000-$30,000+

note the similar sound to their generic names to the new drug
for alzhiemers disease that will be used in these studies

the drugs for alzheimers disease used now
remember they only treat the symptoms
not the disease

these prices below are for 30 days treatment
cash prices from costco pharmacy

donepezil generic aricept $11.41
aricept brand                  $417.67
aricept 23                       $388.90 this was designed after the aricept
went generic and the price plummeted for the generic
folks dont let doctors put your family on aricept 23
its the things big pharma does when their drugs go generic
it doesnt work any better
and it cost you hundreds more a year

rivistagmine generic exelon $52.64
exelon brand                       $226
exelon patch                       $352.25
its no better than donepezil
its used instead of donepezil when donepezil causes stomach issues

for me
my stomach issues improved after 30 days and i was able to tolerate
the donepezil

namenda for now its brand is only $328.08
later this year a new product will be introduced called
you got it namenda xr
sounds familiar
the patent on namenda is going out next year
then other companies can make it

it will not work any better than namenda or the new generic
namenda
you know the cost will probably be in the $300-$400 a  month price range

namenda is usually added to the donepezil when the donepezil
loses its effectiveness later on in the disease
or
some are taking it with donepezil as soon as the diagnosis of
alzheimers is made
i have opted not to do this combo yet
when it is needed i probably will not be capable of making that
decision

if you presume all patients with alzheimers disease in the united states
are on donepezil
5,000,000 people have this disease now
thats $57,000,000 a year for the generic drug
add namenda to them
thats $1,640,000,000 a year more

now
we know this new solanezumab that will be used in these new
alzheimers disease trials will be expensive
if it works all those newly early diagnosed patients will be getting it
and
those of you who are young and who are tested for alzheimers disease
will probably start this drug early in life
maybe in the 40s
and will take it for the rest of your life
if you want to slow the disease down

cost im presuming for a years treatment will be $20,000-$30,000+
a year
we are talking about 20 years of people who will be told you will get
alzhiemers disease
there will be millions of people wanting this drug

if you multiple the cost times 5,000,000 people an underestimate
thats $150,000,000,000 a year for this new drug

but can we afford as a society to spend that amount of money
each year to prevent or treat this disease

that 150 billion dollars just so happens to me the amount
that medicare and medicaid spends now each year on
alzheimers disease patients

interesting huh
and
that does not include what private health insurance pays what long term
care insurance pay and what we all pay out of our pocket

its a financially devastating as well as socially devastating disease
but
can we afford these new treatments

well
maybe we can

lets just hope that in the next 3-5 years that this new drug
works to slow down or stop this disease
so that we can answer this question

the organicgreen doctor

wtea update, damn pill, my way

Walk to End Alzheimers
click here to donate or join 
the organicgreendoctor.com team

click here to find your local walk 

WTEA UPDATE
heres the update on our wtea team for 
saturday september 29 2012 at 
georgetown texas

our goal is $5000 and we have raised $3100 
so far
we have 20 team members and 
have had 46 donors so far

we hope to reach our goal of $5000 and are
open to anyone who wants to walk with us 
that day 

DAMN PILL

one of the things i want to do with this blog is to 
write about things as i go along with this possible
alzheimers disease while i can 
as it progresses if it does i realize that my ability to 
write this blog will gradually diminish

i quit those omega 3 pills not because of the recent
journal article questioning whether they help or not 
but because they were big and because i was tired
of taking extra pills
i even quit my fiber pill also that ive been taking for awhile

i sure want to quit that dam pill that aricept (donepezil) 
that im on because i might have earlyearly alzheimers
even though taking it may not really help me much 
30% chance itll delay things 30% chance itll stay the same 
and 30% chance it wont help at all

the biggest problem with that damn pill is that it 
causes insomnia
sometimes i just cant sleep as can seen by my posting 
of my blog sometimes
i compensate by my noon napping to make up for lost sleep
i guess it all comes out even sometimes
but it does interfere with what i like to do sometimes

my younger brother with alzhiemers takes his at night and
never had any problem with it 
it was recommended that i take it in the morning so that it 
wouldnt affect my sleep
that doesnt work well

so i decided this week after two sleepless nights to take 
it at bedtime like my bro does

that was a mistake
i was wide eyed all night got 3 hours sleep and was ready to 
post my blog that day at 230am

so ive decided to go back to the am taking of that damn pill
and try to limit my noon nap some to see if that would help
i also cut back some of my am coffee to see if that would 
help and
worse have cut back some on my chocolate
thats the hardest to do though

i do exercise every day so that helps some
i have noted that if i do an all day work day here or at
the habitat for humanity house build that i sleep real good

i do think about all those demented patients who are taking this 
pill though who cant verbalize the side effects they are having

damn pill guess for now ill just have to keep taking it

MY WAY
i think my wet suitcase sisterinlaw and my wife she sent me 
this picture for a reason 

the organicgreen doctor