organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-ptau 217

organicgreendoctor: alzheimers news-ptau 217:   ALZHEIMERS NEWS-PTAU 217 write this test down ptau 217 it will be coming to your doctors office soon it may tell you if you have alzheimer...

alzheimers news-ptau 217

 ALZHEIMERS NEWS-PTAU 217

write this test down
ptau 217

it will be coming to your doctors office soon

it may tell you if you have alzheimers or if you might get alzheimers if you are having symptoms of memory loss
it may save you from having to have a spinal tap or get an amyloid pet scan

first you have to deicide if you want to know
i thought about it a lot and if i was 40 or 50 i would have liked to have known if i was headed into the alzheimers world

i could have done a better job of planning for what was coming for me

i was lucky i guess since my rainwater brother who was a certified financial planner or cfp advised me to get my long term care insurance in my late 50s

i did what he said and applied and passed the memory testing with a 100% and received my insurance

about 3 years later i was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment that has turned out to be alzheimers based on positive memory testing spinal fluid for amyloid and tau and a positive amyloid pet scan

Nowadays they might have done a ptau 217 blood test which would have been positive

if i had done my ptau 217 earlier and it was in my medical records i might not have gotten my long term care insurance
i did have disability insurance with the medical group i was with
had i not had that insurance i would probably have gotten it before testing or done the testing and not let it get on my medical records until i had full coverage in place for life and long term care and had i not had disability i would have gotten that first
luckily i was covered via a group disability  plan

these are things to think about before getting this test
other diseases are this way eg huntington's disease
my friend purchased all of these plans before he was tested for huntington's
his huntington's test was positive
he died about 18 years later from the disease but had full insurance coverages that paid medical care and long term care and he received disability checks

put some thought into this before you get tested
once its on the record its there forever

eventually blood testing will be done before symptoms start
those clinical trials are ongoing now

Now i had these blood tests in clinical trials but do not get to see those results
knowing what i know now they were probably all positive

besides this do you want to get tested do you want to know
for me
i would want to get tested as soon as its recommended to do it

I would have loved to have known at 40 or 50
for some they dont want to know

it makes you change your lifestyle which long term can make a big difference when it strikes you
you could watch for clinical trials of new drugs that are being tested in folks who test positive but have no symptoms
that would be me when i was 50 i would have gladly done that 
i did in fact start a study at 60 then a treatment study at 66 that has now left me with no measurable amyloid plaque in my brain

for me knowing at 50 i would have been aggressive in modifying my lifestyle which i did when i was 60
that 10 years of healthy living might have made a difference

some people do not want to know 
so where does this test fit into the workup for memory loss

if you have memory loss
you need to see your primary care or specialist like a neurologists to do

a history and physical exam 
labs
memory testing
a mri of the brain

this may show something like depression or sleep apnea or anxiety or medications or low thyroid or low b12 as the cause of your memory loss

if the screening memory test is abnormal a longer neuropsychological exam is done
if the memory testing is abnormal and the labs and mri are negative

then they nowadays would do a ptau 217 blood test
if it is positive you probably have alzheimers disease

they might then do a amyloid pet scan 
if you have alzheimers the test will be positive

if you are early in the disease process
you need to be placed on aricept or donepezil or other meds
consider taking the antiamyloid drugs leqembi or kisunla 
be aggressive about taking care of your health like
diet
blood pressure
blood sugar
cholesterol
be active socially physically mentally
treat and control mental health issues like anxiety depression stress
get adequate sleep

avoid head injuries
avoid alcohol use
avoid tobacco use
treat hearing loss
correct vision 
get immunizations especially shingles
treat early or premature menopause

we are getting to the point where alzheimers is not an untreatable disease
in the next few years it will be like some of the cancers 
it will be treatable 

doing all of these above can slow down symptoms and can in the case of antiamyloid drugs like lequembi and kisunla they can slow down the disease some

i do feel lucky to have been able to access all of this early in my diagnosis so that 16 years later i am sitting here writing this blog with my cognition or memory intact
Had i not done something in 2010 i might not be here today mentally

if you are early in memory loss you can do all of this now that its all out in the research world into private medical practice

the timing has to be right for the testing and for when to use the meds

i am better
because i did all of those healthy things listed above
took aricept or donepezil as soon as i was diagnosed
took aduhelm which removed all of the amyloid plaque

next
i am waiting on clinical trials to be completed on new treatments

so dont go out and do the ptau 217 without an evaluation
it can only be interpreted in the context of a full memory loss workup

This ptau 217 test is not a screening test so dont use it that way

i just wish it had been available in 2010 and i might not had to get those two spinal taps

the organicgreen doctor

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