there are folks who get early alzheimers disease
commonly they carry a gene for early onset alzheimers
its rare
about less than 1% of the cases
if you get the early onset alzheimers gene you will 100% get the disease
well
maybe
in a mountainous area of columbia there is a large group of columbian indians that carries the early onset gene for alzheimers
they call it la locura or the madness
of the 6000 inhabitants 1200 carry the early onset gene
do the math
thats 20% of the population that will die from alzheimers disease early onset type
using historical records and dna analysis it has been determined that this gene was introduced into the population years and years and years ago when the spanish invaded columbia
this gene has persisted and they have this highest rate of alzheimers disease in the world
there is a columbian neurologist who began documenting the disease for years
they also have church records note the word church here showing what folks died from
the name of the town where the patient described below lived was called christchurch
there are a lot of research thats been done on this population of columbians
including a well known researcher here at ucsb
one study called the columbian study is using a drug like my drug biogens aducanumab to treat a group of these affected columbians while they are symptom free to see if this approach will help to slow down the disease
i like them hope it works
then there is the late onset alzheimers disease gene apoe 4
if you get it your risk for alzheimers disease is increased
if like me you get the double gene or apoe 4 apoe 4 or homozygous apoe 4 then your risk is increased 10-20 times
if you get the single apoe 4 gene your risk is increased 5 times
unlike the early onset gene if you get the apoe 4 gene you dont necessarily get the disease
but you are at higher risk
how you live your life and how you manage your health determines if you get alzheimers disease
so
if you are genetically kin to me you should live a good healthy clean life and the apoe 4 gene you got from both sides of our family will probably not have an effect on you
there is the apoe 2 gene which protects you from alzheimers and the apoe 3 gene which you can get a milder version if thats a good thing to have of the disease
so
you want apoe 2 then apoe 3 then apoe 4 but not the apoe 4/apoe 4
but now maybe you want the one described below
doing the genetic analysis of the family the gene they have is the early onset one and is called the presenelin gene or presen1
get it
its a kiss of death
usually in the 30s or 40s or early 50s
but
it was noticed that one lady had the gene but she was in her 70s and didnt have hardly any symptoms
doing more analysis looking at the apoe gene it was noted that she had an apoe gene they hadnt seen before
they called it the christchurch mutation
she had apoe3 christchurch apoe3 christchurch
something about that combo double homyzygous gene interfered with her presenl early onset gene to keep her from getting the disease
looking at relatives of hers they found folks who had a single apoe christchurch mutation
they still got the early onset disease anyway
something about the double homyzgous christchurch mutation of the late onset gene gave her some protection against the early onset disease
if we can find that thing whatever it is she has in her brain protecting her
maybe we can find a treatment or cure for alzhiemers
when they did the amyloid pet scans like the amyvid scans i have had that are positive in me they found she had a lot of amyloid in the brain
but very little symptoms
when they did the scans for tau tangles in the brain she didnt have very many of them
refresher here
the amyloid forms plaques in the brain which kills and damages brain cells
this leads to the damaged cells to unwind the tau protein in the cells to form tau tangles to be released out of the cells
these tau tangles tend to correlate with the development of alzheimers symptoms that we see in our loved ones
so they had this study with just one subject
maybe the only one that exists
as they analyzed her apoe protein and apoe protein in the brain
they found that it attached itself to a sugar on the tau protein which prevents it from forming tau tangles in the brain
thus this is the reason she had no symptoms even with all that bad amyloid in the brain
ie she had very little tau tangles
now they are developing an antibody that will bind to that sugar on the tau protein to prevent those tau tangles from forming
if that works you may can slow down the development of symptoms in us with the disease
for christs sake or should i say for christchurchs sake could it be that easy to find a treatment for this disease
here are links to articles on this story
click here for article one
click here for article two
the organicgreen doctor
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