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

Showing posts with label hippocampus. Show all posts
Showing posts with label hippocampus. Show all posts

Friday, June 27, 2014

habits can be good, A4 study we need help

HABITS CAN BE GOOD
i frequently give presentations on alzheimers disease
or question and answer ones which i like to do since
people can get their answers about this disease from someone
who is
a doctor and has treated alzheimers patients
a family member of parents who had the disease and a younger brother
a patient himself who may have the disease

one of the areas i always talk about in my presentation
and
an area i make sure i talk about in the q&a sessions
is
things to do to slow down or prevent the disease
so
im always on the lookout for articles on how to do this
that may add to my list

recently i found an article from abc news
on 5 healthy habits that can cut your risk of alzheimers disease










go organic
a lot of our vegetables come from foreign countries that have
not banned ddt
ddt breaks down to dde which has been found in alzheimers
patients at levels 4 times those found in persons without the disease
going organic means no dde

eat healthy
even if you start in your 50s and even if you have a genetic
predisposition to get alzheimers disease like i do
you can slow down the progression of the disease
or
even in some of you prevent the onset of the disease
by eating a healthy diet like the mediterranean diet
fruits berries veggies nuts milk products lean meats fish olive oil red wine
in moderation of course
and
by maintaining a normal body weight

the risk can be decreased by as much as 90% according to recent
research by eating healthy

speak another language
and you can delay alzheimers by 4 1/2 years
speaking that extra language develops parts of the brain that
handles executive functions and attention tasks

sleep right and read
sleeping greater than 8 hrs or less than 6 hrs plus not reading
increasing the risk for cognitive impairment by 2.6 times
in a recent study
thank goodness for my naps each day so i can stay in that sweet
spot between 6-8 hrs sleep and i read every day



feed your hippocampus
thats where alzheimers disease starts
by atrophying that underneath area of the brain

those folks who had a genetic predisposition to alzheimers
if you are kin to me thats you
had a 3% drop in the size of that area over an 18 month time period
if they did not exercise
adding exercise those who were susceptible maintained the
volume of the hippocampus ie it did not shrink

if you do ancestry.com and get a dna hit to me
i highly recommend that you do the exercise every day
as well those other things above
and
all those other things we recommend

the trifecta of controlling your blood pressure cholesterol and diabetes
controlling stress anxiety depression
being happy
being socially active
listening to music
dont smoke

so yes there is something you can do to slow this down
most of it doesnt involve medication or special treatments

A4 STUDY-WE NEED HELP!!!

antiamyloid treatemt in asymptomatic alzheimers study
they are looking for

people age 65-85 years old
who have normal thinking and memory

patients will have the new amyvid pet scan i have written about
so many times
it identifies those who have that beta amyloid in the brain
patients with alzheimers disease have beta amyloid in the brain










for those with postive scans  some will be given an infusion of a
new alzheimers vaccine
that will hopefully bind to the accumulated beta amyloid
and remove it from the brain
and hopefully remove it also before it can get stuck in the brain

if this all works then you wont get alzheimers disease or if you do
it will be much milder

folks i would jump at this in a minute as its right now my only hope
to slow things down beside those healthy things i mentioned above
i would be first on the list
except im too young to qualify

what if i told you
you can have a test that may show you may have alzheimers disease
but you could take this new drug that may make it go away
would you do it
no doubt i would

and i know that its really about helping your kids and your grandkids
your nephews your nieces
im afraid to say but it appears that once you get  alzheimers disease
and have symptoms then this stuff may not work as well

take to the time to go to these two links
look for your state
and consider joining the study

researchers have to sort through a lot of volunteers to find those
at risk
they desperately need volunteers!!!

so dont give me this crap about you dont want to know
were talking about your kids their kids and future generations
being able to be treated for this disease years before it hits them

just think of your family member or friend who has or has had
this terrible disease
what if you could have prevented it from happening to them

it can only happen right now if you folks help us out in finding a cure

click here
a4 study
and
a4 study now is the time

to read more about it and to find one near you
they need more volunteers

please pass this information on to those who might qualify

the organicgreen doctor

Friday, April 25, 2014

what is alzheimers

WHAT IS ALZHEIMERS
or
click here for the link to the video

this is a question i get asked a lot
what is alzheimers disease

please watch
the video above as its is the best video ive seen on      what this disease is

words to know
beta amyloid-the proteins that stick together to cause alzheimers disease
tau protein-the protein that gets destroyed as the process proceeds
hippocampus-the undersurface of the brain where this all starts
acetylcholine-the level drops in alzheimers patients
           aricept (donnepezil) increases that level and helps the symptoms
                for awhile
alzheimers vaccines-under study now in several large studies
           antibodies will bind up beta amyloid in the brain and remove it
                and if we are all lucky it will work to slow down the disease or
                prevent it

if i do have alzheimers which i think i do based on
changes in short term memory on serial memory tests
strong strong family history-mother father brother grandmothers
multiple aunts and uncles
apoe4 gentoype double version that increases risk 10-20 times
positive or abnormal levels of the bad stuff beta amyloid and tau protein
in my spinal fluid
soon to be done beta amyloid pet scan of the brain called amyvid

then i hope to benefit from new treatment studies coming available
using the alzheimers vaccine and using nasal insulin
hoping not to get put in the placebo group

also if i have it i will already have those changes going on
in my hippocampus thats well described in this video
they just havent advanced far enough yet so that they can
be seen on regular mri but would on the amyvid pet scan

but
sorry to say even if i have those plaques forming there they cant
be undone
for you see
thats this cruelty of this disease
once the disease manifests itself early early it may be to far gone
to be treated
so
treatment when it becomes available will have to be started years and
years earlier
in those of you who read this blog who are in your 30s and 40s

lets find a cure please
do the walk to end alzheimers in your area to show your support
contact your congress persons-its election year and they do listen
support any caregiver that you know

the organicgreen doctor

Monday, August 8, 2011

happy anniversary, thanks congress, fb, mri

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY
today is the first anniversary of this blog
it was started one saturday afternoon after my wife she
watched a show on public tv about a women who started
blogging about her life as she was going through a bad time
in her life
her blog caught on and she has now over a million followers

i told my wife she that i had always wanted to do that
so i did my first blog that day
i originally wanted to do it on organic living, green living, medical
topics, life as a family doctor, and other things

little did i know things would change in a few months when i
added alzheimers disease to the list and did less on life as a
family doctor

i have had almost 50000 viewings of my blog in the first year
my most popular blogs have been about my story from last winter
and my most recent posting on the three part blog of my story
final answer

80% of my viewers are from the usa with 20% from foreign
countries with russia, england, germany, and japan as the most
visited from nations

thanks to you the readers of this blog for taking time to read it
at times i find this blog therapeutic to write and always enjoyable to
write

i hope to make you smile each day but also to educate you on
things in this blog

thanks again

THANKS CONGRESS
i also would like to thank congress for getting us into this big
mess that we are in now
we have been downgraded to aa from aaa by s & p
guess our fica scores dropped down also

from fb posting i found this entry if pro and con are opposites
then the opposite of progress is congress

this says it all

whats scary is that we are in much better shape than most
countries and that other countries are buying our bonds even
though they are barely paid any interest because they feel that
their money is safer here in the us than other countries

if they dont do something about this mess i plan to vote against
all incumbents in the next election-thatll show them huh

FB
am so ready for football
went to the cowboy camp on saturday
they didnt look very good
hope things get better
it was nice and cool in the alamodome though

exhibition games start this week
cant wait

MRI
have an mri of the brain today as part of the adni study
during the 5 years of this study i will have 4 of these done

this mri especially looks at the volume of the hippocampus
the hippocampus is on the undersurface of the brain and is
where short term memory occurs
changes in its size occurs in early alzheimers

the organicgreen doctor