early on

EARLY ON
a couple of years ago i met this guy in the discussion group
in the alzheimers association website www.alz.org


his name was sandy halperin
he was recently diagnosed with early onset alzheimers disease
and like me was anxious to tell his story about his disease
and probably like me wanting to tell it while he could

now i have early amnestic mild cognitive impairment
that stage between normal and full blown alzheimers
i have no doubt that i have alzheimers disease

so ive communicated some with sandy halperin over the
last two years via email and facebook

he was a dentist in florida who use to teach at harvard in
their dental school
while working in florida on the state dental board when
he would review cases he noticed that he couldnt recall
the material he read so he eventually got evaluated

he being someone like me i guess who wanted to know
as much as possible where he was with the disease

he quit working and has been an advocate for alzheimers
disease education and research
like i have been

i feel this kinship with him even though he is slightly
more advanced than i am

recently dr sanjay gupta from cnn has done a series on
dr halperins story
below is the first of the series


i found it hard to read and watch but i did it

here is the link
click on the video and watch it

click here

in there are symptoms that i have but maybe not as bad
but i know im headed that way

also read his story below the video
the more we see people early on and talk about it
maybe more people will reach out for help early on

maybe more people will understand what its like early on

this week i read an article about a ucla research study looking
at 10 people with memory loss using 30+ treatment therapies
on each one
they all got better and some returned to work
the only one that didnt improve was a more advanced
alzheimers disease patient

i am doing many of these of course im not taking hormone therapy
but i do stare some as i mentioned in a recent blog
thats sort of like yoga

so maybe there are things sandy and i and others can do
to slow down the process
larger studies on greater numbers are planned

i have a lot of admiration for sandy halperin exposing himself like
this so we can understand what its like early on
in this disease  process

upcoming walk to end alzheimers events we are participating
donate and or join us or join your local walk
help sandy and i out some

travis county walk to end alzheimers october 12
team austin regional clinic

bell county walk to end alzheimers november 1
team organicgreendoctor

little rock arkansas walk to end alzheimers november 8
team #joe nash

the organicgreen doctor