dear ms b-its been a year

DEAR MS B-ITS BEEN A YEAR

ms b
we have been here a year next monday
when we packed all we could into our two cars
leaving everything else in texas either donated
or sold or given away
all our heirlooms and other keepsakes were filtered
through and given away or discarded or kept
our loved ones were given the option to keep what
they wanted
what wasnt retained is now all gone

we did the job that kids usually have to do when their
parents leave this earth
we did all the sorting and deciding ourselves
sparing you and your dad and uncle from having to
do it

off we drove for two days across the middle of america
to arrive in what we call paradise

i realized ms b that i never look at my weather app on
my iphone anymore
since i dont need to since the weather is always usually
perfect here

can you tell ms be we like it here so far

for me the biggest joy has been to introduce you to the garden
where i have my two plots
ive made you a 4 ft bed for you to dig around in
and water and pick the produce in your beds

so far ms b
youve eaten a couple yellow tomatoes from your tomato plant
eaten several green beans
why last week you wondered over and picked several ripe
strawberries and plunked them into your mouth also
then i went around to the kids garden and grabbed a couple
of blueberries for you

just past where we are standing is your
giant big ole pumpkin plant
that has whats now a baby pumpkin on it

just farther over from that is a big ole giant sunflower
thats yours that will have a sunflower bigger than your
head
can you believe that

i also ms b introduced you to the big ole compost pile
where you could take your two garden tools to scratch
and dig around until you found those wiggling worms
that make you cackle as you watch them wiggle

then you and my wife she dug around the edge of the childrens
garden bed looking for things to dig up
like those wiggling worms that made you laugh so much
ok hopefully when you read this you will be much older
and will understand this
but
i confess
when you werent looking i dumped a handful of worms
into the hole you just dug and covered them up
you were so excited when you found them
it was worth it at the time i did it

you always well its the first thing you do when you enter the
the garden
you go right to the chickens
you bravely feed them old bread and their favorite swiss chard
which i pick from the big garden
it allows me to clean up the swiss chard plants removing any
damaged leaves
you and the chickens could care less about that

then you also like to clean out the birdbath with the bluebird
in it
ok i understand you just like to play in the water
it serves three purposes
the birds get fresh water
the chard and strawberries get water from the spillage
you get to play in the water

its a win win win

over the last year
you have developed a familiarity with the garden
that was my goal all along
you dont mind picking up worms or digging in the dirt
you can easily spend an hour or two in the garden
its almost become your playground each week
when we pick you up from your nearby preschool

i sometimes watch our neigbor across the way
who has alzheimers wandering outside getting lost
one day the police brought him back home

i know ms b that will be my fate one day
sorry but its in the cards

i want you when i start doing that to read this and
hopefully you can remember this all and me
at my best

yes ms b
its been a year now
a real good year
we as my wife she your gma and i discussed
have absolutely no regrets

the organicgreen doctor

the merger

THE MERGER


two issues affecting all of our planet
are
clean water
food

there may not be enough of either

enter
bayer
now when i see bayer i think of bayer aspirin
i take one a day the 81 mg dose to prevent a
stroke or heart attack
i hope

well i take a generic one since it costs a lot less
so far its working

but
bayer is also about seeds and weed killers and other things

the merger with monsanto that has happened
or will happen
is a big deal

now
those of us
in the nongmo organic antiroundup antinonorganic pesticide
antinonorganic insecticide movement
know these two companies
bayer and monsanto

they are the devils

just ask a lot of the farmers who arent looking forward
to this merger
it probably means higher prices for their seeds and bad
chemicals they spray on their crops
that we all consume

you know what this means
right
your foods gonna cost more

i read where one of these companies has designed a new
herbicide and will design plants that are resistant to it

that sort of seems strange
to grow crops that their poison wont work on

i feel better when i am eating stuff out of my garden
since i know that there is no poison anywhere thats being
used
its an all organic garden

when i go to the store or even better the farmers market
i try to buy all organic all nongmo food

it just doesnt seem right
messing with mother nature
changing up those genes
its better if we let mother nature do it
its call adapting

i always figured that one day out in those gardens there
will be this giant frankenstein veggie that will take over
the farm destroying all living things

thats what happens when you mess with mother nature

this merger and those companies
well they just might be the frankenstein that takes
us all over

this all seems wrong to me
just take a drop or two of roundup and place on your tongue
then see how you feel
or
open a bottle of it
sniff twice real deep

then enjoy the trip

we are all eating and drinking that stuff

we have to help feed the world
but
do we have to poison everyone while we do it

in many third world countries these two companies
and their poisons have come in using their engineered seeds
like wheat or corn
the soil eventually gets depleted of it biological life
production drops off

these places have found
that going back to the old garden practices
using old ancient wheats or corn that have adapted itself over
hundreds to thousands of years to the area
it increases their yields

yes
mother nature knows best
dont mess with her
she will fix things for us

the organicgreen doctor

where have all the flowers gone

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE

im kinda like the republican congressman who asked the folks
in charge
how can you lose 1475 children

once we release them to whomever we release them to
then its not our responsibility he said

no one it seems will take the responsibility for losing
all those kids

now in texas they cant even keep up with their nonimmigrant
kids
they had a problem with them getting abused
and some cases killed
but
they never lost any of them

where did those kids all go

im sure there is not a good ending for many of those kids

theres no excuse

now
the kids are being separated from their parents once
they cross over the border
some parents have been sent back without their kids

separating kids even babies from their mothers
that just seems immoral to me
almost
third world like

have we become a third world country

we are better than this
there is no excuse
we cant let our government do this

deterrence doesnt trump decency

when i see stories like this
i think of my granddaughter
getting lost like this
how devastated that would that be

i sure hope folks who make these decisions
have trouble sleeping at night
have trouble looking their kids and grandkids in the eye

yes
we are better than this

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimers news-whats next

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WHATS NEXT


if you take a cholesterol drug
why do you take it

i know i know
because your doctor tells you to
but
why do you take it

you take the cholesterol drug so that down the road a few
years your arteries wont get all clogged up
and cause you to
have a stroke
have a heart attack

thats really why

so it is with the goal of a new alzheimers drug
you start it early years before its time to lose your memory

these new drugs
based on those in the works
prevents or removes beta amyloid from forming
or
maybe
prevents or removes the tau protein tangles that may form
after amyloid plaques form

both are believed to be what happens in alzheimers
to kill brain cells

so
all the new drugs for alzheimers slows or stops this process
hopefully

they like the cholesterol drugs will really need to be started
before symptoms start to have their maximum effect

the problem is many of them may not work at all
maybe
either they were tested wrong or they just dont work

some may have been tested in folks way too advanced in the
disease to have an affect on the outcome

much like taking cholesterol drugs after youve had
a major heart attack or stroke
it may help some but not much

we are now at the point
maybe a breaking point
in alzheimers research where its possible none of these new drugs
will work to cure or treat alzheimers

a former patient was diagnosed with lymphoma
she is about to start a 5 drug regimen to treat her lymphoma
which is now considered a curable cancer

one of the drugs she will take is an antibody against a protein
on the lymphoma cancer cell
it grabs the protein by doing so kills the lymphoma cell

my drug aducanumab grabs the beta amyloid protein and
extracts it from the brain

they work similar ways but on different proteins

now her antibody will not totally wipe out the lymphoma
thus she will be given 4 other drugs that each attacks the
lympoma cancer in different ways
they will weaken the cancer so it gets wiped out completely
ie a cure

thats what i think will happen in alzheimers treatment
my drug eg will be given to remove and prevent more amyloid
from being formed
being developed are drugs that attack the alzheimers forming
mechanism in the brain in different ways
this combo like the lymphoma treatment
may cure or keep the alzheimers at bay or stop it where its at

i read an article just this week that aricept (donepezil) that i take
that if given to prealzheimers folks
those who have beta amyloid accumulation with no symptoms
this may delay the deposition of beta amyloid if the aricept is
started early

oh wait what if you took aducanumab my drug with the aricept
would that make it work better like with treating cancer

i hope so since im on both of those now

usually aricept is started when symptoms start and the disease
starts to worsen

so
this week i noticed that he company that makes my drug has
gotten a favorite recommendation from the financial world
because well it seems the financial world seems to know these
things before the scientific world gets the information out
to all of us

i think what will happen is
aducanumab will not cure alzhiemers
it may slow it down or stop it where its at but if its stopped
the alzheimers will then take off again

a combo regimen will have to be used

well at least i am like my former patient with lymphoma
i am getting the preliminary treatment with my antibody to clear
things out until that regimen is invented

please hurry
we can hold down the fort for only so long

the organicgreen doctor

kinder gardeners

KINDER GARDENERS

the black composter in the far right of this picture was donated to the
kindergarten class by a fellow alzheimers committee person who had
it at her house and was not using it
so
i set it up in the garden then talked to the kids about composting
using
browns like leaves newspapers cardboard limbs twigs
greens like kitchen scraps egg shells grass clippings weeds veggie trimmings

they put this stuff in the composter
added water
stirred it all up

in fact twice we emptied it all out on cardboard
stirred it real good and put it back in the composter

we added a piece of plastic a log a pine cone also

last week was harvest the compost day at the garden
so
i laid out a row of cardboard
shoveled the compost onto the cardboard
spread it out in a heaping row down the cardboard

the kids surrounded the compost like in the above picture
picked through the compost
removing the worms
removing any big pieces of material
removing the not composted plastic log and pine cone

they harvested about 4-5 5gallon buckets full of some of
the richest compost you would want to put on your garden
so
thats what we did
put it on their garden
all 5 buckets of it

it was their gift to next years class

its interesting to watch the kids especially the ones that were
a little squeamish at first picking up worms or pill bugs or wet
dirty compost
they seemed to be the ones that dug around in the compost
the most

its a good day when they can get their hands dirty
get compost and dirt under their nails
it apparently makes kids more healthy if they do this

so today we will do a similar harvest from their
worm composter

its been a good year
i plan to return next year

what i have learned
can be explained in my statement at the end of my
two hour stint in the garden with 24 kindergartners

how in the world do those kindergartner teachers do
this all day long five days a week

how in the world can they keep that many kids corraled
and do what they want them to do

those kindergartner teachers are a skilled group

its sad that all kids in all grades dont have the opportunity
that these kinder gardeners had this year
planting veggies and herbs
making compost
digging in the dirt and compost
eating what they planted
collecting and understanding how to collect rainwater

yes
its been a good year

the organicgreen doctor

sb country n news-garden update

SB COUNTRY N NEWS-GARDEN UPDATE

almost a year ago we drove into town after a long two day
trip with all our possessions in our two cars
we saved our kids from having to sort through all that stuff
that kids have to sort through when their parents leave this
earth
well
we sorted through it for them
one day they will thank us
for relieving them of that burden

the next day after arriving
i started my garden having signed up for a community garden
that i had visited months before when we were looking to decide
whether to move here or not

i told my boss my wife she i have to find a place to garden
if we move

this is what my bed  above which is about 20 ft x 10 ft in size
looked like

now this bed had sat for awhile
it sits right next to where folks tend to sit and talk
and
where a lot of garden activities occur
like kids educational classes weekly harvest for food kitchens
things like that occur there since there are picnic tables and
a big ole oak tree and the community sink folks use to
wash their vegetables

over time a lot of traffic occured there
some right over that bed
packing it down so that eventually the soil became dry
and hard as a rock in places

enter
togd
to the rescue

after one year and obtaining the plot next to mine
so that i now have approximately 400 square foot of
garden space

here is what it looks like this week after a years work

i over time dug up 4 ft squares that were holes 2ft deep
i then added layers some would call lasagna gardening
that included cardboard newspapers lots of mulch
soil compost so that now the soil is rich
almost like the texas country n soil
almost
im getting there

its different gardening here but actually its the same as
in texas

its drier here as we get only around 13 inches of rain a year
whereas austin got around 34 inches a rain a year

where i garden now it never freezes so thats not really an issue

here we may get fog sometimes that lasts all morning
this sets veggies up for diseases
especially fungal diseases

here we seem to get more aphids than in texas
i guess cuz of the increased fog and moisture

here you can grow beets and carrots all year around

my tomatoes are the best looking plants ive ever had
i remember i had these once at the country n
then a hail storm weedwacked them to smithereens

so overall its easier i think to garden here so far
no oppressive heat and no freezes
it needs to rain more though

one of the things i did is to put up a rustic wood
lattice between the picnic area and my garden bed
this has kept wanderers off the bed
i added string up and across the lattice for vines
to grow
i grow sweet peas in the winter
green beans and malabar spinach in the warmer weather

i added a 1 foot wide and deep trench around my beds
and through the middle of the bed where i walk
it is filled with mulch
this spring after 9 months in the trench
the compost although rough was dark and rich
and full of worms

here is what i have planted
vine green beans of several varieties christmas lima beans
several mystery beans bush green beans
arugula beets carrots basil swiss chard leeks sunflowers
ms bs giant pumpkin zucchini squash three types of cukes
cantaloupe melon okra japanese eggplant and
purple hull peas

the purple hull peas we eat but they also operate
as a cover crop for any bare soil to help enrich the soil

i am growing what will be a dinasaur kale tree
i keep the lower leaves peeled off
we eat them usually unless the chickens talk us out of some
it should or can get up to 5-6 feet tall
well see

oh yes
i buried 8 5gallon buckets with 3/8 inch holes in it
filled it with food scraps and shredded newspapers
added a few compost worms
so
now as of yesterday i have about 4 5gallon buckets full
of pure worm compost
on of the best things to put on your veggies
we dump in paper pieces food scraps not meat weeds
cuttings from the garden pine straw some leaves
this is something i wished i had discovered year ago

so
i am producing most if not all the compost ill use
in the garden from
my worm towers
my 1 foot trenches

i also water conservatively
ive added buried black plastic containers that are 10 inches tall
every 2 ft in my garden
added a shovel of compost and some pine straw
i water my plants once they are established once a week
by filling these pots with water twice
i also will put an organic fertilizer in the pot or pour a liquid
mix of fish emulsion seaweed molasses in there

today i will be burying a 15 ft 2 inch pvc with perforations on the bottom
covered with a drain sleeve
this will be buried along the side of the lattice
you can see the trench for the pvc in one of the above pictures

this is how i will be watering and feeding my plants as they grow
on that lattice

of course there is ms bs little garden in there also by the small bench

this week for supper i harvested some zucchini squash that we used
to make squash pasta with
lots of greens for salad like some cherry tomatoes arugula lettuce
swiss chard basil curly leaf kale dinosaur kale amaryth

for our stir fry i harvested amaryth collard kales onions
yes the 1015 sweet onions grow here yes

unless nature has other plans i will have the best tomato crop
ive ever grown

we see lots of veggies in our future here
and
happiness

the organicgreen doctor

there will be an answer

THERE WILL BE AN ANSWER

wlos.com

there has to be an answer
it probably will be somewhere between
what the gun advocates want
and
what the gun controllers want

here is the 2nd amendment wording

 "A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free 
State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be
infringed."

to me that says that folks can have guns
it will take a change in the constitution to change that fact

its up to all of us to set the parameters of that gun ownership

the one video that stood out to me this weekend
was the video of the high school girl
who looking down
she look so sad
she said

i was thinking it was going to happen eventually
its being happening everywhere

it was chilling to watch her as she said those words

now that we have a granddaughter i think of her
when i think of things that affect kids

its sad that we in the united states allow our kids
to have to go to school and fear doing so

even i when i volunteer at the school think as im
standing in the school garden what would i do
looking around the campus
theres really nothing you can do

it has to be done before it happens

thats where the answer is

maybe the victims or their families would be allowed to sue
the gun owner and or the gun manufacturer and or the nra

these lawsuits usually will change what congress wont do

one of my neighbors in texas is a red neck cowboy
as country as you can get
he has lived in the country near us for 40+ years
he was from far west texas
guns were part of his life
he owns several
he has pistols and shotguns and hunting rifles

it wasnt unusual to hear him shoot at something at night
it was some varmint destroying something
recently it was wild hogs tearing up his pastures and garden
bam bam bam bam

it never bothered us that he had those guns
each one was used for a specific purpose in his ranch life

once his dog saved his horse he was riding from being attacked
by a ratttlesnake
the handgun was used to shoot the snake
he was wearing it while he was riding

it never bothered me when he rode by our house with the gun

it was not unusual during deer season or turkey season or dove season
to see hunters with hunting guns shooting them in the distance

i would never try to enter his home even if he knew i was coming
without making a lot of noise or knocking loudly on the door
he used his guns also to protect himself

now hes not a right wing super conservative person
his politics is pretty much aligned with mine

i thought this morning
the solution to all this might be with folks like him

lets have people like him who uses the guns he has in his daily life
for a reason
lets let them help us come up with a solution

no hes not a nra member

people like him
i think may have an answer
we cant
let it be
this problem

weve lost too many kids in the last 10 or so years

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimers news-females get it more than men

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-FEMALES GET IT WORSE THAN MEN

i saw a statistic this morning that said
72% of people diagnosed with alzheimers disease
are women

why
probably because they tend to live longer
the longer one lives male or female the higher
the chances of getting alzheimers

those over 80 have a 1 in 4 chance to get alzheimers
most folks over 80 are female
thus the 72% number

so if you are female 30-50 years old
you are looking at a good chance of having alzheimers disease
when you get over 80
alone without a spouse

what can you do in that age range 30-50 to change those odds

from this article on a personalized approach on preventing
alzheimers disease from harvard
there are three things to do

how you move
what you eat
what you do

how you move
regular aerobic exercise can delay the onset of cognitive decline
if you exercise regularly you can delay the onset of memory loss in your
later years

what you eat
its the mind diet or if you are really motivated a plant based diet
the mind diet is not complicated
its a combo of the mediterranean diet and the dash diet for hypertension
green leafy veggies grains berries nuts olive oil fatty fish beans
poultry red wine with moderation of red meat fried foods butter
margarine sweets

what you do
these lifestyle habits have the greatest impact on memory loss as
you age
smoking
sleep issues
excessive alcohol intake

be careful of the meds you use for sleep
some can affect memory

this seems simple to do
if you are female i suggest you start these things as early
in your life as you can

i would also add maintain good control of your blood pressure
your cholesterol your diabetes your weight
these can be controlled if you do the above things harvard
recommends without taking meds for them
dont be afraid to take pills though for your blood pressure and
cholesterol and diabetes if you cant control them

then
remember
the biggest obstacle to finding a treatment or cure
for alzheimers disease
is the lack of clinical study volunteers
not funding

volunteer if you can
see clinicaltrials.gov or www.alz.org/trialmatch for trials
that you may qualify for

the organicgreen doctor

who is she

WHO IS SHE
(in my blog yesterday the link to facebook where you could find
out if you were russian botted was down
it now is working
here is the link to the blog)


npr.com

this is henrietta lacks
the mother of research

she a poor women went to john hopkins complaining of
bleeding
it was discovered she had cervical cancer

some of her cancer cells were harvested
to use in research
the immortal line of cells were and are called hela cell line
named after her initials

these hela cells were used in finding a vaccine for polio
in aids research cancer research and research on
flu hemophilia leukemia etc

probably if you did cancer or viral research in a university
for the last upteen years
you used her hela cells to do it

they were used all over the world

her legacy
her cancer that killed her
has saved thousands if not millions of folks lives

when i went to university of texas southwerstern and later
to ucla
there were a stack of papers i had to sign
giving them permission to use my dna my rna my blood
my spinal fluid my scans for research
without any limitations
if some university or company makes a drug from that information
gained from my cell lines or dna etc
i agree that i dont get nothing from it

i knew that when i started
i understood
i signed those releases

these didnt exist when her cells were harvested

the problem was this poor black lady with no insurance
had no idea her cervical cancer cells were harvested
to be used for research

her family wasnt told until years later
she never knew they were used


there is a book about her life
the immortal life of henrietta lacks
i read it


there is an hbo movie about her life
called
the immortal life of henrietta lacks

the picture above is a portrait that hangs in the
in washington at the Smithsonian national portrait gallery

she is smiling which she apparently always did
she was religious thus the bible
the pattern in the dress and surrounding her represents her
hela cell line
there are two buttons missing on her dress which represents
those cancer cells that were taken and used without
her permission

if you havent read her story or seen it in the movie
maybe you should

she saved a lot of lives
because of her all our medical privacy is now protected

she is deserving of this portrait

here is a link to nprs article on her
here is a link to wikipedia on her

the organicgreen doctor

were you botted

WERE YOU BOTTED
apparently those russian bots botted folks of
all religions all races all political beliefs
well they got all of us
or
they tried to at least

i was hoping i didnt get tricked into being botted

if i saw a posting that seemed to be far one way or the other
i didnt click on it
even
the ones that i totally agreed with

my rule was if someone posted a posting
that wasnt from an organization i recognized
like abc nbc cbx cnn fox nytimes la times washington post
etc
then i didnt click on them

i also wondered what a russian bot looked like
so
i googled russian bot
clicked on images
there it was
a russian bot

the daily beast

huh
they dont look that bad
how could they disrupt our election
cause riots in the street
some say donalds followers are 50% bots
wonder if i have bots following me on twitter
i hope not

so
i went to this link on kim komandos website
that will let you know if you got botted
its at the bottom of this blog
so i clicked there   note you can click there also
logged in to my facebook as per instructions

i got cold and clammy
my heart rate and blood pressure went up
my hands were shaking
please on please say
i didnt get blotted

so here it goes
click
theres the answer

you didnt get botted

made my day it did

now
see if you got botted
heres the link
click on the above link
you will be asked to
log in to your facebook
you are then directed to the facebook page
that will say whether or not

were you botted

let us know what your answer was

the organicgreen doctor

whatcha gonna pay for your meds

WHATCHA GONNA PAY FOR YOUR MEDS

finally a non partisan issue
thats not necessarily democrat or republican
we all no matter our party beliefs are affected
equally most likely

there are two things to remember
two things that will determine the answer to the question
above
whatcha gonna pay for your meds

those things are
big pharma
and
a fox in the hen house

those two will set the prices of what you pay for
you meds for blood pressure and cholesterol and diabetes
etc
and
your special drugs like
chemotherapy
arthritis infusion drugs
new treatments like alzheimers when it comes around

big pharma spends $240 million a year on lobbying
our government to get their deals done
they win
we usually lose money in that deal

a fox in the hen house
it worries me that the person who is going to make many
of these decisions was an executive for a large drug company
eli lilly

if you put a fox in the hen house
they 100% of the time will eat all the hens
usually they are nice
they just eat one a day until they are all gone

the secretary of health and human services may be that fox

im hoping he is the opposite of those folks who had the dog
that wouldnt eat dog food
turns out he was a fox

im hoping this guy is a what we think is a fox but really
is a dog
im skeptical

for me
i pay $20 a month for my aetna medicare d the insurance that covers
my drugs
i am on 4 drugs a month
this last week i picked up a 90 day prescription for three of these for
$4.48
i cant complain about any of the way my drug plan operates

yesterday i finished #16 of my experimental alzheimers drug
called aducanumab
i have 4 more to go then there will be a long term extension of
the study so that all subjects will get the real drug
no one will get the placebo
this goes for another 2 years+

this drug if it helps at all will be on the market
it will be fast tracked since its an alzheimers drug
it is estimated it will cost around $4,000 a month for the infusion
if it works it may push the disease down the run
so that i will die from something else

what will my medicare d pay for this new drug
probably 50% maybe if im lucky
or
it may be one of those drugs that goes under medicare b
where you go to the doctors office to get it
then medicare b may pay more than medicare part d

this is one of the areas a fox in the hen house is messing with

for me its this drug that will be affected the most
probably not my other 4 drugs since they cant get much
cheaper
most of you though will be affected
all of us all 325 million of us

one solution i would like to offer
to keep these prices down
will not sound good to
big pharma
and
a fox in the hen house
but
it will probably help most of us

there are 1.281800 million folks in the active military
there are 9.4 million folks on the military tricare health insurance
there are 9 million folks using the va medical system
there are 44 million folks on medicare
there are 70 million folks on medicaid
medicare spends $130 billion each year on drugs

can you see where im going here

i know theres overlap here with folks being in more than one group
but
lets add these numbers up
that comes to over 133 million folks
thats not even counting federal employees pf 2.7 million folks
so lets make it 135 million folks are on some type of federally paid for
health plan that pays for drugs

thats about 40% of our population

thats a lot of bargaining power

why cant we do that
bargain as a federal group to keep prices down

seems awful simple to me

oh yea
its those
big pharma
and
a fox in the hen house
things

one of the reasons eg great britain pays less for drugs
well
you know those brits
they think different than we do
they
well
they bargain as a group
to get good prices
much much lower than what we pay

they have 58 million folks
they pay 4.5% income tax to cover them
they pay 8.4% of their gdp on health care
we pay 18 %

seems they have already figured this out
why cant we

oh yea
its those
big pharma
and
a fox and the hen house things

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimers news-blank stares

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-BLANK STARES

if your loved one has had or has alzheimers disease
you know
what
blank stares means

its the look that they all seem to get near the end

my mom and my younger brother had it
i hope that i dont last that long
i dont ever want that blank stare

jay allen is an up and coming country singer
whose mom has alzheimers disease

he wrote and sung this song about those
blank stares

the video starts with a phone call from his mom
if your loved one has had or has alzheimers disease
expect to tear up
youll recognize this message since you probably heard
something like this yourself

now i started crying when the message started
and cried all 4.46 minutes of the video
my eyes are still teared up as im writing this

listen closely to the words
we all have felt them

here is a link to a new article on the video
and
here is the you tube video

we all should listen to it

if you are crying after you watch and listen to this
that means you probably had a loved one with the disease
listening helps

the organicgreen doctor

sb country n news-share the harvest

SB COUNTRY N NEWS-SHARE THE HARVEST

one morning a week i volunteer in the community garden
where i have my 2 garden plots

any food grown in the center part of the garden is donated
to food kitchens

each week i do different things
last week i made a structure for growing loofahs
if you dont know what loofahs are
then google it

the kids when they come through in the fall
love the loofahs
they grow up the structure and look like cucumbers
early on before they dry out
they look like a large straight 8 cucumber
they are soft though
then
as they dry up
you can shake them and hear the seeds inside
then
you can peel the outer layer off
whats left is a sponge

kids love it

this week my job was to plant a row of lettuce that was
grown from seed in the greenhouse
yes you can grow lettuce here this time of year
its the tale end of the season though

then
a plot holder had given up their plot since they werent
able to garden on it anymore
so
we a few weeks ago planted leeks and cabbage and broccoli
the cabbage and broccoli have been harvested already
and sent off to the food kitchens
the broccoli plant was left in place and allowed to go to seed
the flowers were enjoyed by the bees and butterflies

so now this plot will be cleaned up so a new plot owner
can start gardening there

so i removed the cabbage and broccoli plants
dumping several into the chicken coop for our 4
hens to enjoy
toto itchy scratchy and chocolate ms b calls her
ice cream

the rest were dumped to be chopped up and put in
the composter
in a few weeks it will be compost for use in the garden

the circle of life in the garden

the leeks were all harvested
they are large enough to be transplanted into new beds
so that later this spring or early summer
they will be harvested for the food kitchens

the plot was then deweeded and raked so its ready
for a new gardener

there are several community gardens in this area
most do some type of donations to food kitchens
its amazing the amount of produce that our community
garden donates each week

its a win win for all
i get to volunteer doing what i love to do
just a few feet from my garden plot
it allows ms b to come visit
and
garden their also

this has become my main area of volunteering that im doing
now

volunteering is more fun when you do so in an area you are
passionate about for me its gardening and alzheimers disease

the organicgreen doctor

take care of them

TAKE CARE OF THEM

my historian brother has these isms or sayings
one is
take care of your tools

i say
take care of your teachers

now im a little biased here
since
my three sisters were teachers
my brother was a teacher
my sisterinlaws two of them were teachers
my brotherinlaw was a teacher
my wife she was a teacher
both parents at one time were teachers

so
i have teachers in my family
it must be in my dna

as my wife she worked as a teacher
and
as she neared retirement
as she retired
i saw first hand how poorly texas funds
education
teacher salaries
teacher benefits
even worse teacher retriement
even worse teacher retirement insurance

now
its not just texas
its other states too
but i know texas personally

texas seems like a rich state with all that oil and gas
they have no income tax
yet
they ranked near the bottom of the pile in a lot of things
like health care
for teachers pay they are in the middle
they should be at the top though

one relative retired 18 years ago with a monthly retirement
of lets just say $1,000 a month
now
18 years later
she still draws a check for $1,000
inflation passed this benefit by several years ago

as she ages
her monthly retirement check will be worth less and less

now she is lucky though since she retired before the law
was passed preventing teachers from drawing full social
security even though they and their spouses paid into it for
years

now using my wife she as an example
she had paid into social security for 18 years
she enter teaching at 47
i paid for years also many of those were max years

so lets say i qualified for $30,000 a year
she would qualify for around $15,000 a year based on mine
and around $10,0000 based on hers
she will get around $3,000
when i die she should get around $30,000 a year
instead she will get around $15,000 a year when i die

i wonder where all that money we paid in for social securty
went
that almost $300,00+ of benefits we paid for with our taxes
i guess someone else gets it

lucky for us were in the financial situation where we could
afford to put back into our 403 b to compensate for that money
few teachers can afford to do this

then there is the insurance thing
the health insurance thing

when my wife reached medicare age
she would be forced into a medicare advantage plan
which if you live in austin texas is a good plan
sometimes maybe
if you live elsewhere it may not be a good plan
usually its not
i call them medicare disadvantage plans
if you dont understand your plan you might not know if its
good or not

living here in santa barbara it was a lousy plan
so
we stopped the medicare disadvantage plan
added the medicare supplement f
added the medicare drug plan

we pay a monthly amount for each
when i go to the doctor theres no copay or deductible since i chose the
better plan that covers those
when we go to the pharmacy we pay little for our drugs
eg i just got a 90 day supply of three meds for $4.42
my wife she paid $0 for her three meds

these two plans cost her around $145 a month plus the cost of her
medicare

so the teachers who retire pay
for their medicare disadvantage plan when they pay for their medicare
they pay a $500 deductible a $3500 out of pocket max and copays for
almost everything some set some 5%
there are copays for drugs
for my $4.42 copay a texas teacher would pay $100 for the same 90 day prescription

we have no copays or deductibles on our health care

once my wife she chose this method to drop the teacher retirement
she is not allowed to return
i think she can live with that

so choosing what to do for a retired teacher is based on how good
the teacher retirement plan is where you live
and
if your providers and hospitals stay on the plan
this can change annually
eg here there were only a few providers like 4 on the plan

we chose to exit the teacher retirement plan health insurance
we feel ok with it

we know that its doubtful that the texas legislature will make
things better

im sorry
but sometimes we have to pay more taxes to get better services
to take care of those whom we need and should be taking care of
like
babies
pregnant moms
womens healthcare
teachers
education
roads and other infrastructure

not football teams or such things

take care of your teachers

the organicgreen doctor

hows yours doing

HOWS YOURS DOING

about 8 years ago mine kept inching upwards
even though i was doing things right
so
i finally gave in
i started blood pressure meds

the first one i took worked great
within the week my blood pressure was normal
then
i began to cough
i began to have what felt like something in my throat
i stopped the meds
it went away
i restarted the meds
it all came back

so i changed to a different blood pressure med

this week we were at a friends house in the la area
as i sat outside on their patio
there was this magazine

real simple may 2018
i opened it
there was this article
on why do so many people have high blood pressure

this is a summary of the gist of what the article said

use to 140/90 was the limit
now
its at 130/80
at that reading the risk for heart atttack or stroke doubles

so when the recommendation changed
a way lot more of us just developed high blood pressure
or
also called hypertension

high blood pressure ranks 2nd to smoking as the leading
cause of death
did you know alzheimers disease may soon be number 3

men and women get it equally
black women are at greater risk
if it runs in your family you are at greater risk
just like with alzheimer disease

after these new guidelines there are  now 100 million of us
in the usa with this disease
most will have to get on one of several meds that are available

what other diseases you have may determine what particular
one you are given to take

when you read the side effects
realize that some of those side effects arent as bad as having
the diseases you can get from poorly controlled blood pressure
like stroke death heart attack kidney disease and
yes alzheimers disease

now there are lifestyle things you can do that may help
even if you do these you still may need medications

exercise
pick something to do and do it regularly

fix sleep issues

check your meds prescriptions and over the counter
eg thngs like the arthritis pills ibuprofen and naproxyn etc may
make your blood pressure go up
it did me

eat less salt and more veggies
i suggest the mind diet or mediterranean diet
all the foods are there they are just rearranged some

watch how much you drink
a little is good
too much can cause high blood pressure

watch your weight
no dont watch it
make it decrease
usually if you eat right drink less and exercise that will do it

de stress
whatever you like to do that makes you de stress do it
yoga or meditation
for me its gardening

make time for friends and families
ie socialize

so do those things
youll live longer
feel better
you might not even need blood pressure meds

if you do have to have them these healthy things keep the dose
you have to take lower

oh
if you do these lifestyle things over your lifetime
you will decrease your risk for getting alzheimers by
maybe 40%

its a no brainer
if you dont do something

the organicgreen doctor

dream a little dream

DREAM A little DREAM

i am on a roll
dreamin like crazy

why just last night when i was working in the
emergency room as an add on doctor for the
night since they were expecting a busy night
in the emergency room
this guy
this truckdriver
he needed to move his semitruck across the highway
so he could go through the check out line those trucks
have to go through with the highway partrol

he couldnt drive
right now i cant remember why
but in the dream it was explained to me why
so
i got in the big semi
backed that thing back
going north
then drove it over the median
you know where you arent suppose to go
but the police do it all the time
so
i ued it
where i turned there was a big trench deeper
then the truck
as i was uing the wheels on one side dropped
into the trench
down down into that trench it went
it luckily didnt turn over
it just slid kerplunk into the trench
all wedged in like it was in a box
so
the truckdriver swapped places with me
so i wouldnt get in trouble
then
i went back across the highway
back to working in the er
then
in walked the highway patrol
they asked me a lot of questions
i knew for sure
i was in trouble
but
then
i just woked up
solved that dream didnt i

i told them
just call tom hell get that truck out of there

now im on a dream roll
im not sure why
these dreams quite vivd at times
i call my aricept dreams
the medicine i started 8 years ago for alzheimers
has this side effect

i do realize though
that these dreams are part of the disease process
as it progresses
just hoping thats not why

sometimes i think it might be better not to know too much

some nights im having three dreams a night
if i happen to wake up twice during the night
thats three vivid almost real dreams
that i can never finish

i thought about it a lot this week
when that teenager that they were going to harvest his
organs for donation since he was brain dead
he woke up
then described this death dream he had

then
i read where yale is going to do this death dream research
i call it where brains will be kept alive outside the body
they are using pigs
so i guess all they can do is dream and thats it
sounds creepy to me

thats what my dreams feel like sometimes
like my brain is out of my body

lucky for me
many times in my dreams i do something that wakes me up
why just this weekend
i was in my high school gym in mt holly
demonstrating how i could go up and over a tall person
and
do a one handed left hand dunk
as i dunked i heard this loud thunk
i completed the dunk in my dream
but
woke up quickly

there on the other side of the bed was a throw pillow
laying where it bounced off the wall

i was saved again
from
the confines of my dream

dream a little dream for me

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimers news-maybe a little here and a little there will help

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-MAYBE A LITTLE HERE AND A LITTLE
THERE MAY HELP

the clocks aticking
i realized this this week
when an alzheimers wife called me about her husband
listening to his story i realized that he is past the halfway point
on that downward slide that doesnt end well
it that slide will intensify over the next several months
then he will fall off

he was diagnosed the same year i was
he was a working professional forgetting things
he has now reached the edge and will soon start that fall

when he and i were diagnosed
i really expected to be where he was today

instead
here i am giving advice to an alzheimers wife who
when you look at her you see the fatigue dripping from her face
that tired tired walk she has
he is taking her down with him it seems
not on purpose though
its part of the disease
this caregiving thing

she was asking me about getting him into research studies
i thought to myself
its too late way too late to do anything else for him
but love him and care for him
and
get yourself some relief and help

i didnt encourage her to seek research help
it would be fruitless

this last week merck the drug company is publishing results
of its study on its new bace inhibitor
that blocks the production of the bad beta amyloid that gets
deposited in the brain in alzheimers

in the study it worked but the folks didnt get better
maybe because the folks were like the above guy
too far along in the disease

now
the long term studies that are being done are done on folks
who are early in the disease or have no symptoms at all
ie they have positive scans for alzheimers
but who have no symptoms

those are the ones that may be helped by these bace inhibitors
they dont remove the stuff the amyloid and plaques like
the infusions that i am on

my infusions remove the amyloid and the plaques and stimulate the
garbage cells to clean up things
the bace inhibitors only stop the amyloid production
doing that after the fact doesnt undo whats been done

so for me and others my age
the drugs like the aducanumab is our last hope
if they dont work or the bace inhibitors dont work
the next wave of drugs for this awful disease is meant
for those in the generation behind us

if this stuff fails all we have to work with is maybes
like

eating a mediterranean or mind diet that may delay things if done
long term by a few years

looking at the 36 point plan outlined in dr bredesens reversal of
cognitive decline article
highlight the above and google it

i am doing all those things he recommends if i can tolerate them
no
they arent proven to help scientifically
they many of them are maybes

well doing all the healthy things on the list are almost sure to help
the supplements are maybes

but
my and our choices are what

there is not one if the aducanumab like drugs dont work

we are left with the maybes
we as a generation missed the ride to the cure

now i do feel like that something im doing has slowed things
down a lot
im not sure what it is
but
i plan on continuing what im doing
and
adding any maybes that may appear in research that
wont cause me harm or interfere with my medications

my most recent maybe is
cbd oil
ive found the research that says maybe
maybe

i know what dose to take
i plan to take it
just
when i come to visit texas or arkansas this summer
i have to leave it at home since i could get busted with it
in my possession

how does it work
it seems to help remove the bad beta amyloid in the brain
well why dont they just do the research to know if it does
for sure
the federal government makes it almost impossible to do the
research
so
i cant wait on this maybe
at least
i live in a state that allows me to purchase it legally here
and
not feel like a criminal

i can see it now
retired austin doctor arrested at the airport with illegal substance

so
im getting ready
if my aducanumab fails
starting now
to take my maybes
that maybe helps
maybe

ive told several well all of the doctors that i see what im doing
they give me that look
i know it cause i use to do the same thing to patients
but
i really have no other choice
other than do nothing

i know thats not going to help any

the organicgreen doctor

if there is no taste thats good

IF THERE IS NO TASTE THATS GOOD

pure good clear water
well it has no taste
if you smell or taste your water
usually thats not good

at the country n we drank pure rainwater for several years
it was filtered multiple times ran through a carbon filter
then sterilized with ultraviolet light

what came out of the faucet was
pure
unadulterated
so pure it was almost sweet tasting

one place that it really showed how chemicalless it was
was with my drip system in the garden

previously i would use well water to irrigate with
every year i would have to clean out each individual dripper
to remove all the crud buildup that would stop them up

once i changed to rainwater
they always stayed open
there was no white crude buildup in the holes

in fact plumbers and rainwater gurus tell me that
when you start using rainwater it slowly begins to
clean out the water pipes in the house
gradually removing all that gunk in the pipes

this week we sprung a leak in our condo water pipes
in the courtyard
the plumber after he removed the broken pipe
and repaired it let me look at the segment removed

all i could think was
that looks like the inside of an artery thats all corroded
from cholesterol buildup that makes folks have
strokes or heart attacks

what our pipes here really needed was a stent
like they do in folks with clogged arteries

really what they need is rainwater for a water system

problem is
it dont rain much here

the water smells of chlorine when you run it into a glass of water

after drinking rainwater for years
we really notice the taste and smell
remember you shouldnt be able to taste water
so
we filter our drinking water
so it doesnt taste
bad

all this made me think of flint michigan
where switching water sources and adding new chemicals
released lead into the water system
poisoning folks
especially growing kids
sometimes permanently
seems sort of criminal to me

i wonder what gets released here as the chemicalized water
hits all that clogging stuff in the pipes around here
wonder what it does to those who drink it

the water is tested before it gets to the tap
before it goes through bad pipes
this sometimes is where the contamination occurs
in those bad pipes
this
the water faucet is where the test should occur

we were spoiled
first drinking well water that tasted good but had a lot
of calcium in it
then
drinking the pure no tasting rainwater with nothing in it

i guess we will just keep filtering our water
thinking of that rainwater with every sip we take

the goal
no taste
no odor

im afraid to have it tested

the organicgreen doctor

hes the man

HES THE MAN

first i will confess i am a long time cowboy fan
not a jerry jones fan
even though he is from arkansas

every once and a while a player comes along
that embodies
what a football player should be like
what a man should be like

that man
that football player
is
jason whitten

he is retiring on his own terms
soon to be an announcer for espn

ive watched him for years
just do his job
every day
sick or injured or sad or happy
no matter what
he was there
rarely missing a game
doing his job

his job was
tight end

he could block
really well
maybe the best in the nfl
hes one of the reasons that the cowboys had a good
running game
well until that running back hit his girlfriend
upside the head
and got suspended

jason whitten
would never ever do that
he was as good off the field as on the field

he could catch the ball
the go to player for several quarterbacks over
their career

just ask tony or dak how important he was
if you arent a cowboy fan
thats the last 2 quarterbacks for the cowboys
he was their security blanket
throw him the ball
he would catch it

theres not many like him in the nfl now
probably none
most tight ends
are really just wide receivers
others
are just smaller tackles there to just block

not jason whitten
he could do both
real well

other players on his team or not
didnt mess with him
you didnt see them taunt him
i think they all had too much respect for him

he was the walter peyton man of the year
he won the bart starr award
he has his own foundation
thats done a got of good for other folks

hes well
a good man
he is almost the prefect football player
the perfect man
i admire him
as do many others

hes the man
he will be missed
there may not be another one like him

he is what all football players should be like
what all us men should be like
hes a good man

the organicgreen doctor