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
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