alzheimers news-is it contagious

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-IS IT CONTAGIOUS

there is a disease called cjd or creutzfeldt-jakob disease
most of us know a version of it called mad cow disease
a protein called a prion sits in the brain sometimes for years
then one day takes over the brain
causing a form of dementia and devastating neurological disease
called cjd

nature.com
if youve seen pictures of cows with mad cow disease
you can only imagine what it must look like in humans
these folks also develop dementia with the disease

well i would wish it only on my enemies

in years past
growth hormone like the athletes use was extracted from the
brains of cadavers
as a medical student i can remember harvesting the pituitary
gland during autopsies
from this gland growth hormone was extracted
this stuff was used on folks who couldnt produce it themselves
now its manufactured artificially in larger quantities

now what they have found is if the cadavers had that prion
in their brain it may have been passed to the recipient of
the growth hormone
causing the person to years later get
mad cow disease or cjd

other ways it may have been transmitted are
sometimes people received dura mater transplants from cadavers to cover
defects in this lining over the brain that can occur from
disease and trauma
or
from the use of contaminated instruments during brain surgery

the same thing seems to have happened to some of these
folks
they got cjd
a fatal disease

the mad cow disease was commonly transmitted in cattle feed
from feeding cattle ground up sheeps brains infected with the
prion
humans eating this contaminated beef could get
mad cow disease

cannibals also were found to get cjd or mad cow disease from
eating the brains of humans

now what they have found in the brains of some of these
growth hormone folks and dura mater transplant folks
are that they have changes in the brain that are seen with
alzheimers disease
the accumulation of the bad stuff beta amyloid and its plaques
implying that
maybe just maybe alzheimers disease may have been contagious

so
lucky for all of us is that this use of pituitary gland extract from
humans and the transplanting of cadaver dura mater doesnt exist now
so
hopefully this form of
contagious alzheimers disease will disappear

this disease after all is bad enough
without adding new ways to get it

the organicgreen doctor

country n news-1 potato 2 potato 3...

COUNTRY N NEWS-1 POTATO 2 POTATO 3..

if you google keyhole garden then click on images
you will see the keyhole garden i made from an old
watering trough that started to leak
i filled it with cardboard newspapers twigs and
good hill country garden soil
keeping it maintained with regular additions of good ole
country n compost


last spring i planted my peppers and cilantro in this bed
which produced from may to sometime in december
i then removed the plants
added 4 inches of compost with the addition of
ladybug 8-2-4 organic fertilizer and ladybug cottonseed meal
also adding some green sand to put back some minerals and
iron into the soil
then i watered it all in well with liquid humate and molasses
covered it all with leaves
then let it sit for about 2 months

now i went to the nursery and got a bag of 20 red losota potatoes
i try to pick the smallest ones
since i dont cut them and apply sulfa
seems like too much work
i just throw the potato in the hole cover it and im done

in this keyhole garden i dug a curved trench 8 inches deep
about a foot from the edge
then i simply dropped a potato in the hole every 12 inches
added some 8-2-4 between each potato
then covered up the trench with about 2-3 inches of soil

as the plants grow up out of the hole
i will pull more soil over them until eventually i get a mound
this provides a good 8-12 inches of soil for the new taters to grow

then
a foot above this trench i dug another trench the same size
doing the same thing as in the first trench

so i have two trenches with a total of 20 potatoes planted
in this keyhole garden
it should yield about 2-3 5 gallon buckets of
country n organic potatoes

then i covered up all the bed with a layer of leaves as a mulch
during the cold weather

then i added a thick row cover to keep this bed warm
during the cold days of february

i see baked potatoes mashed potatoes grilled sliced potatoes
grilled veggies with potatoes in my dreams

this bed will produce potatoes that will last us until about
november of this year
harvest usually occurs in may

then finally

this is a picture of where i store all the bags of leaves that
you have given me over the last 2 years
they were  used something like 150 bags to refill
my chicken coop and its runs
the space between my beds in my garden
my compost area in my chicken pen
as mulch to winter over my beds
as well as mulch for my winter veggies

you can see that my holding area is now empty
i need leaves
so if you live close to me and have bags of leaves
i want them
as long as no pesticides or weedkiller or poisons are
used on your landscape

thanks

the organicgreen doctor

you got first

YOU GOT FIRST
i read this article the other day about the teachers in another
state where the funding for their teacher retirement
was only funded at 35+-%
what that means is that there is not enough money stashed away
in that state to fund all the teachers retired or soon to retire
so they rely on the state legislators to fill in the gaps each year
the problem is that the gap is getting bigger and bigger
you know whats going to happen right
yep
the teachers will get screwed again
there will im sure be eventually a reduction in pensions for all
or
worse the whole thing will end all together
there is a push to do that for many public pensions

yes the writing is on the wall if you are working where there is
a pension
feel sorry for those 20 and 30 yr olds who are just starting out
many companies have already drawn a line  a date line
start working after this date there will be no pension
only
a 401k or 403b

so
we all need to start paying ourselves first
to be ready for whats coming

do you have $1000 cash that you can grab today if you needed it
many folks dont even those making what i would call good money

do you have 6 months expenses sitting in a cash account
like a money market or savings account
most people dont

do you have credit card debt that requires half your monthly income
to make the payments
if so you are in big trouble
you need credit counseling services like right now

do you know who dave ramsey is
if not you should start reading about his approach to money management

we all need to be prepared to take care of ourselves in retirement
we need to be investing in your retirement plans at a rate of 15-20%
of our income over our careers

you can start at 5% and increase it a percentage point a year
or
if that 5% is too much start at 1% then go up a point a year

the odds are that social security will be there
but if you are young you will almost have to be 70 before
you can get full retirement

be wary of any pensions that you are promised
they can easily and are being jerked away from folks now

do a budget a strict budget
dont know how
dave ramsey has the answer
if you follow his recommendations you will be financially set as you
get older

now i dont follow his plan since i follow the country n or the ogd plan
that was already in place before i discovered dave ramsey

its not much different

as a physician i have social security and my 401k money that i invested
over the years
always getting maximum matching and usually more
had i like many physicians not done this
and
had i not did a b u d g e t downsizing our lifestyle
we would be in financial trouble

as we are
we are able to live modestly comfortably doing all the things we like
to do
travel to the places we enjoy
no we dont go to cancun or do oceanliner tours
we dont enjoy those things
we like more outdoor things hiking seeing national parks etc
weve seen new york washington new orleans etc
so were satisfied there
there is no desire to go overseas like europe or china

so here is my advice to you
if you cant figure out how to do this
do the dave ramsey method

do a budget and stick to it
save $1000 in cash-here is an easy way save $1 a week then $2 a week
then $3 a week etc until you have it saved
then save 6 months of living expenses like food gas electricity etc
start saving 1-5% of you income increasing it 1% a year until you reach
15%
yes do that even if you are promised a pension
cut up your credit cards or freeze them in a bag of water
i did that once and my wife she threw that frozen bag of water away
start paying off you debt doing the smallest debt first then the next smallest
debt until they are all paid off

live on a cash only basis

if you and all of us dont do this
there is going to be a lot of real poor old people in our country

now my wife she and i live on less than what a full time teacher
late in her career makes
we have no debt
we have monies in our retirement plans to help us if we need it
we live simply for our past income levels but do all we like doing
we should have enough to last us into our late 90s
we operate on a cash basis rarely using our credit cards except for
online purchases airline reservations etc
they are paid as soon as we use them

hopefully all of you will step back and look at your financial
situations
then
start fixing them for the better

you have to take care of yourself
pay your yourself first

remember
you got first

the organicgreen doctor

dear ms b-howling

DEAR MS B-HOWLING

our upstairs bedroom is called the tree house
because
it has open windows to the south west and north
the house is now surrounded by trees
so
when you look out into the distance
it feels like you are up in the trees

now at night since we have a prevailing south wind
we if the weather is warm enough will leave open the
windows in our tree house
letting in the nice breeze
which is great for sleeping
like you are at the beach

it also lets in the nighttime noises
like
the hoot hoot of the night owls
the far away mooing of the cows
occasional sounds of horses neighing
in the early morning you can hear the gobble gobble
of the turkeys as they ascend up from the river
sometimes in a misty scene like from a movie
then
if its real quiet you can hear way way off in the sky
the faint sound of a jet flying over on the way to
somewhere else

the other night
as happens sometimes
there are other sounds not as happy
like
those of the coyotes as they rep up their frenzy
usually after some more animal
thats the way nature is
that night they were real loud
it almost sounds like they are on our front porch

as they got louder and louder
our two dogs began to howl
louder and louder and louder
like a concert i guess

now ms b
i take this old medicine called aricept (donepezil)
youll understand why one day
it interferes greatly with my sleep
first it chops off a couple of hours a night off my sleep
thats why youll see me take a noontime nap every day
to compensate
but
ms b
it also makes me have these real vivid dreams
usually not disturbing
but
here recently all kind of things have been trying to
break in and get me at night

why last night i fell asleep in the chair
i woke up howling
and
fighting the ficus leaves from the tree that we had moved
for some work on the ac heater
it was touching my forehead
those folks were trying to get me again
i sure beat up those ficus leaves howling the whole time

but the other night
i fell asleep on the couch
seems to be happening a lot lately
there were these things that were breaking into the house
trying to get me

now i know that if i howl like a wolf they will run away
why ive scared off zombies games of throne folks thugs robbers
doing this
so i started to howl and got louder and louder and louder
until it woke me up
when i woke up all those bad guys were gone
so i went to bed and went back to sleep
see it worked

now the next day my poor wife she your gma
told me about the coyotes ahowling real loud
then the dogs began ahowling real loud
then they stopped
then i began ahowling real real loud
then the dogs began ahowling again louder than when the
coyotes were ahowling
she thought the dogs were ahowling because they were
worried about me

the end result was
the coyotes shut up
as did our dogs
i went to bed and got a better night sleep
my wife she your gma
she looked real tired the next morning


so this all made me think of the fox and the hound
audio we use to play for you dad and your uncle
when they were little kids
that little hound would howl and howl
they both loved it
maybe
ill read it to you day
and
howl for you

the organicgreen doctor

the man

THE MAN
three years ago i ruptured the disc in my back
the worst pain ive ever had
barely relieved by the drugs i was taking
several days just have disappeared from my memory
they are real foggy like

i remember the severe pain
the numbness in the rt leg
the loss of strength in the lower leg

now months later
i have residual nerve damage
noticed only by myself and the neurologist
as he recently did my neuro exam
and
displayed the deficits
i already knew them
since
i have trouble standing on my tiptoes
i trip sometimes real subtle like
most probably dont notice
then
at times at night i have nerve pain thats uncomfortable

so its with this perspective on what a disc can do to
an important nerve
that
i watched peyton manning play football yesterday
knowing that his disc was in his neck
affecting his throwing arm
knowing what has happened to my leg
knowing the same process was going on in his arm
and his throwing arm

there must be this loss of strength in that arm
that affects his ability to throw passes
especially affecting the accuracy and speed of the passes
then
just the loss of strength holding the ball
makes
his story seem more remarkable
since
he is mainly using his brain to win these games
its his brain
his cerebral approach to the game that other teams coaches
and players fear the most

omaha omaha
not sure what that means
but im sure it scares and bothers the other team
whats he doing when he yells that

now granted his team the broncos have the best defense this year
but
manning yesterday used his brain again
made some good passes
heck he even ran like an old horse to make a first down
the leading rusher he was for awhile

then also having suffered from severe planter fasciitis like
he had this year in the past
knowing how painful and long it took to heal
im amazed that he could run at all
make those passes that require him to set himself
on that bad foot
then
make passes with that nerve damaged arm

yep
hes the man alright

my mvp this year

go broncos
go manning in the super bowl

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimers news-volunteering for the soul

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-VOLUNTEERING FOR THE SOUL

i feel like the soul is in the brain somewhere
so it was with interest i read this article on volunteering
volunteering benefits the brain

for new readers of this blog
heres a quick summary
while volunteering for a alzheimers research study as a
normal control subject it was discovered that i had
short term memory loss that was more than it should have
been for my age and degree of education
so
eventually i was labelled to have early mild cognitive impairment
felt to be due maybe to alzheimers disease
i retired because of this diagnosis
and
was placed on aricept (donepezil) to help slow down symptoms
remember
as of 2015 there is no treatment or cure for alzheimers disease
yet

so i did a lot of research on what i could do to slow this down

evidence shows these things may help to slow things down
and
over a lifetime to maybe prevent the disease
all of these i have done since my diagnosis

aggressive blood pressure control
aggressive cholesterol control
maintaining a normal weight
staying active physically-i do what i call ranch aerobics
staying active mentally
eating the mind diet
staying active socially
maintaining normal sleep habits-im always fighting the side effect
of donepeizil which interferes with my sleep
avoiding stressful situations-its actually hard to make me mad now
i take a handful-12-of vitamins and supplements a day all based on
the mend protocol

what i have noticed and what shows up on my memory tests
is that my memory has returned to normal over the last 5 years

so something in all of this that i am doing has helped
is it the donepezil
is it the healthy stuff im doing
is it the mend protocol
im not sure but i dont plan to stop any of it
although i would sure like to stop the donepezil since sometimes the
sleep problems it causes interferes with my day

something or maybe all of it together has made a difference

oh
the other thing i added was something i had not really been doing
volunteering
usually 2-3 days a week

volunteering at habitat for humanity
volunteering at meals on wheels
volunteering a lot at the alzheimers association in central texas
now officially called alzheimers texas
volunteering helping school gardens
volunteering doing presentations on alzheimers disease

so it was with interest that i read this article on the effect of
volunteering on folks based on memory tests and mri brain scans

two elderly groups
one who volunteered
another that did not volunteer

the volunteer group over time had either no change or an increase
 in the brain size overtime
and no worsening of memory

the non volunteer group over time had a decrease in brain size
and worsening of memory all age related changes

so i guess all that volunteering may have contributed to my memory
stabilization and improvement


so since i believe the soul is in the brain
volunteering is good for the soul
ok its also good for the heart

try it

the organicgreen doctor

country n news-its time

COUNTRY N NEWS-ITS TIME

yesterday as i was chopping up an onion
one that i bought at the store
my eyes were aflowing with onion tears
wishing
i had some of my country n 10/15 onions that i grow every year

hanging them in those onion chimes
to cut off one as i need it
knowing that those organic onions
dont make my eyes water when i cut them
plus
they seem to have better flavor

so each year at this time i get the onion planting itch
knowing what the end result will be in the late spring
lots of onions for the next 8 months

so if you live in this area central texas
now is the time to plant your onions
plant them from onion plants
sold like this in bundles of 25-50

these are readily available at this time of year
at most nurseries and feed stores

ive noticed for some reason that this years plants
seem to be larger and just look better

first you have to start with the right soil
remember put a $5 plant in a $50 hole

the bed i planted them in is 4 ft by 12 ft and is about
2 feet deep mostly raised
a few months ago i added 4 inches of my
country n compost plus organic fertilizer plus cottonseed meal
plus a sprinkling of green sand plus a soaking of
liquid humates and molasses
covered with a layer of pine straw and leaves

this was then allowed to ferment and enrich for several weeks

i raked all the leaves and straw off

then
i planted each plant about 1 inch deep
1 hookem horn width for me thats 6 inches apart
covered the base with soil
then
i watered them all in with a liquid organic fertilizer
johns formula
then
i covered the bed with a layer of pine straw and leaves
to provide mulch to keep the soil warmer

i usually dont use row cover on my onions
since the mulch seems to do the job keeping them alive
and growing

this bed has a 3 row of drip irrigation for the top
for deeper irrigation when the plants get larger
i have added 40 ft of underground perforated 2 inch pvc
which i can add water or a fertilizer solution directly about
a foot into the ground

now i have planted about 175 plants
anticipating a good harvest this year
like we had two years ago

then
as i went to sleep
i was dreaming of my
onion chimes
sweet music it is

these are one of the easiest plants to grow
try  it
in a pot in a barrel in a flower bed
make sure it gets plenty of sun
keep it fertilized

it will be all worth it in a few months
we also pull the green onions as we need fresh onions for
salads and cooking

bon appetite

the organicgreen doctor

it hurts

IT HURTS
it hurts
us all
one way or the other

as a family doctor i was always caution about ordering
pain medicine for folks
especially chronically

over my career i worked a lot in the emergency room
you sort of get hard hearted about things
especially folks wanting pain medicines in the middle of
the night

it is hard sometimes to tell the difference between real pain
and addiction
the red flag complaints were migraines toothaches neck pain
and the worst low back pain
now eg with migraines when they are really uncomfortable
their blood pressure is up their heart rate is up
plus they look like they hurt
those things are hard to fake
ive only had a headache like that once
from a flareup of iritis
i would have easily taken a pain shot in the emergency room
to get relief

in the late 90s to early 2000s in texas
there was a push by the state board of medical examiners
to start punishing doctors especially primary care for not
treating patients pain with meds like hydrocodone
many a doctor was reprimanded by the board for not
giving folks pain meds

this made you feel some pressure to ease up your restriction
of pain med prescribing
so even i noticed over time i tended to give folks more pain meds
i became a more liberal prescriber of these narcotics

now enter the drug companies with it oxycodone
a great med taken less often that works good against acute pain

then big pharma the drug companies did all those things they do
to get more people on their drugs
advertise to the public wine and dine doctors

then enter the specialty
pain doctors

now as a practicing doctor i liked pain doctors
so i sent folks to them to get their drugs
they seemed to be free with the use of the drugs
but did require contracts and controls like drug tests

so now folks could easily get the drugs legally they needed
one thing i noticed was that folks with real chronic pain
were able to get their pain controlled

but way back in my brain there was this nagging uneasiness
over all of this
there seemed to be a lot of folks who got hooked that really
didnt need the drugs anymore

if you listed to the addicts it was the system and the docs that hooked
them

since ive retired im amazed at how common it is for folks to freely
take narcotics and how many use them

then came the government again
you know things will get worse when they try to fix things
now a big restriction on how often the drugs can be ordered
only a month at at time
a trip for many to the doctor to get a prescription that could be
called in before or written for several months

so now you have this large group of folks that are hooked on
all this pain meds
thanks to the system doctors pharmacies drug companies
the government
that are now cut off from their supplies

a big vacuum a big void occurred
you can almost hear the sucking sound that is going on


ink magazine

its called heroin
cheap easy to get addictive
life changing
the new white person pain reliever replacing oxycodone and hydrocodone

the new middle class cancer

all created by a system without a brain

the solution
decriminalize all this
make drugs like these opiates legally available
providing safer cheaper sources for these addicts
provide an intensive aggressive treatment centers for them
not new jails for their incarceration

ok we know this probably aint gonna happen
more folks have to die
it will probably take a high ranking politicians child
to die tragically from this disease
to get something done

you know
like when an intersection finally gets a red light
even though everyone who drives the area
police fireman tow truck drivers emts
all
have known for years
the red light was needed

so it is with this problem

most of us know someone a friend a friends child a neighbor
a fellow employee more sadly a loved one
affected by this addiction
and
worse
those who have died from their use

we need a solution
that works

the organicgreen doctor

dear ms b-have a dream

DEAR MS B-HAVE A DREAM

yesterday was a holiday
called mlk day
mlk stands for martin luther king jr
i feel he was the greatest american who lived
during my lifetime

had he not came along and preached his peaceful
approach to the black movement
our country might have been involved in some type
of guerrilla warfare
since there was a militant phase that was developing
but
mlk eventually took over the movement
what he had to say
hopefully youll read his speeches
or
even better listen to his eloquent speeches
they involved nonviolent protest

i remember where i was when he died
sad to say at that time i was surrounded by
folks who didnt like him

later after his assassination the cities most large ones
starting burning
it looked like what you see on tv now

i remember going to little rock at this time
seeing in the distance part of little rock burning
helmeted police were everywhere
an uneasiness was everywhere

so i hope you can have a dream
like
he had his dream

now i know im a baby boomer
your dad and mom are generation xers
maybe older millennials
wonder what your generation will be

i expect yours wont care about race that much
the majority of folks will be non white
maybe by the time you are the age of your parents
there will be a new race
called
american
a multiracial person who really doesnt identify with any
particular of our present day labels

maybe that would be a good thing
what problems it would solve here in the us
if we all looked alike

yep i like that
a new american race

i can dream cant i

maybe your generation will be called the peaceful generation

the organicgreen doctor