alzheimers news-aduhelm has new updated use guidelines

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-ADUHELM HAS NEW UPDATED USE GUIDELINES

aduhelm (aducanumab) is the new drug that was approved for use by the fda in alzheimers disease
it is a monoclonal antibody that binds to amyloid and removes it from the brain
it seems that removing the amyloid may slow down cognitive decline in alzheimers disease

biogen developed this drug by obtaining the antibodies that were produced by older folks who didnt seem to get alzheimers disease
these monoclonal antibodies are then made in the lab and then are given to patients like me

i was in the phase 3 study that looked at whether it worked or not
i got 18 months of placebo i found out later and got 7 months of the real drug before the study was stopped

it was recently restarted as a 2 year study where i will get at least 24 infusions
i have had one already and have my second one scheduled in 10 days

can i tell if it has helped me
no i cant
i was already improving on my memory tests before i started on the aduhelm study 
i attribute my improvement to being on aricept (donepezil) and all of the healthy things i am doing like eating right and being active physically and mentally and socially and maintaining a normal blood pressure cholesterol and weight etc

if aduhelm works my decline will be slowed over the next few years
i havent really had that decline since i was diagnosed in 2010 with mild cognitive impairment due to alzheimers disease

today if i was being evaluated for mild cognitive impairment i probably would not meet the criteria for that diagnosis

my diagnosis would be pre alzheimers or prodromal alzheimers disease
what that means is i have normal memory but my biomarkers are positive
the biomarkers are
the positive amyloid seen on the amyvid pet scan
the positive amyloid and tau protein seen on my spinal tap 

when i was first diagnosed with mci my moca memory test was in the mci range which is less than 27
for a few months after my diagnosis my moca scores continue to drop  then it began to improve so that now my moca memory test is in the normal range
i usually score a 28-30 

when i first tried to get in the aduhelm study i was  turned down but after biogen reviewed all my medical records with my memory tests and scans then i got approved for the study 

so
i am a perfect candidate for aduhelm 
if it is going to help in anyone it will be me

this week the fda changed its use for aduhelm to only mci patients or early alzheimers patients
ie
you have to be early in the disease process before you qualify for it use
this is probably the criteria that medicare and other insurances will use to approve its use

there are 1.5 million patients in the us that meet the criteria for aduhlem

even with limiting its use to mci and early alzheimers patients it still will cost us 4.5 billion dollars by 2025

i will never be able to qualify for another alzheimers treatment study 
this is my only chance to get treatment in a study
so
i plan to do the 24 months of this biogen aduhelm study 
then
if they dont extend the study i plan to transition to the private world for my monthly infusions

my time in alzheimers research studies will then probably end
i will have given them over 10 years of use of my brain then when i die they get to look at my brain to see if all their tests were really accurate

then
i will feel like i did my part to help lead us to finding a treatment or cure for this disease

i read frequently studies on alzheimers disease that have used my lab tests and scans and memory tests and used my dna and rna and whole body genome in these studies

it feels good to see some important alzheimers discovery being made knowing that your samples were one of the few hundred samples to make that study possible

i feel ive done my part
im glad i did

you know all of you could be doing the same thing

then
i also know that coming right behind my aduhelm is several treatments that will probably work better than aduhelm
ill just transition to those when they arrive

lets hope that they will slow things down some for all of those affected with this disease if its caught early enough

remember alzheimers is going to be like cancer 
the early you diagnose it
the easier it is to treat it

we are getting closer to that time

the organicgreen doctor