Thursday, September 19, 2024

my story revisited #210-it may not help

MY STORY REVISITED #210-IT MAY NOT HELP

when i was diagnosed 14 years ago i was looking for anything that may help to slow the disease down
i changed my diet to a mind diet
i aggressively controlled my blood pressure my cholesterol and my weight
i stayed active mentally physically and socially 
i started on aricept to slow down symptoms
starting aricept so early in the disease may have helped slow down the symptoms a lot
i added an afternoon nap to make sure i get 7-8 hours of sleep a day
then
i looked for new clinical trials of promising drugs
eventually 6 years after i was diagnosed i ended up in the biogen aduhelm study where i got 34 monthly infusions of aduhelm which has removed all the measurable amyloid from my brain
also
i looked for other things to help slow it down
i found dr bredesens protocol and started it 
most of the 30 plus things i was already doing
i took vitamin b12 because my b12 level was below normal
i took vitamin d3 because my level was below normal
i took folate since my homocysteine level was high
a high homocysteine level may be associated with heart disease and strokes and maybe alzheimers

he had other things i took for awhile but stopped them since the evidence wasnt good that they really helped
i was on about 20 plus pills a day 

today i take a cholesterol medicine a reflux medication a baby aspirin a probiotic vitamin b12 vitamin d3 folate and my aricept
i added citicoline since it may increase acetylcholine in my brain which is depleted in alzheimers
the use of citicoline is not proven yet to be useful 
when and if its proven for sure it doesnt help i will stop it

my cholesterol blood pressure weight vitamin d3 vitamin b12 and homocysteine are all normal

i was on the resveratrol mentioned below but i stopped it
see below

__________
09-18-2023

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-GRAPES FOR WRATH
Image result for alzheimers association logo
for those of us who have seen alzheimers disease
up close and personal
we know what the wrath of alzheimers disease is like
weve lived it

so now if you drink a 1,000 bottles of red wine a day
you can get enough of a chemical called
reservatrol
to slow down the cognitive decline from alzheimers disease
dying of course not from alzheimers
but from alcohol poisoning along the way

so what the researchers did
is isolated resveratrol so it could be taken in a capsule form
eg
Image result for resveratrol supplement
here is a bottle of the stuff
Image result for resveratrol capsules
here is some of the pills that have 500 mg in them
horse pills are what they are

it seems that in this small study of slightly more than 100
people with mild to moderate alzheimers
excuse me
when will they learn
doing studies on folks who already have it
may not work as well
since the disease is so well established by the time you are
that far along

why not treat folks who are programmed to get the disease
to see if it can be slowed down or prevented
seems easy to me

so off my soap box
they found that these folks had an improvement in their
activities of daily living
like eating communicating walking around getting dressed
take care of their daily needs
and
that their was no increase in beta amyloid in the brain
and
the brain shrunk in those on the reservatrol

why
the thinking is that the inflammation in the brain
was decreased significantly by the reservatrol
thus the smaller brain volume

the same thing happened in patients given the new
antiamyloid alzheimers vaccines

so the brain got better
the patients got better

a+b=c

it seems reservatrol turns on a protein called sirtuians
which changes the ratio of the amyloid proteins in the brain
a 2/3 calorie restriction diet does the same thing
well thats not going to work
is it
in the us

several months ago when i read dr bredesens article on ways
to slow cognitive decline
one of the supplements he recommended for the patients
in the study was
reservatrol
ive been on it since i read the article

ive noticed my brain doesnt seem quite so tight up in my skull
no i made that up

now the researchers are looking to do a larger phase 3 study on
hundreds of patients to see if this really works

as i raise my hand
excuse me sir researcher
could you please do it on those destined to get alzheimers but
who have no symptoms
or
folks like me who are really early in the disease process
it seems to me that we would be helped the most by all of this

so
i plan to bump up my dose of reservatrol to that used in the study
to do my study of one person

of course ill keep drinking my glass of red wine each night
it relaxes me
relieves stress
another potential cause of cognitive decline
two birds with one stone
________
the reservatrol did not prove to be helpful in clinical trials
it didnt cause any harm
there will probably be more studies done on it

in the meantime
im not taking it
i dont drink wine or alcohol anymore because it affects my reflux
it might be good if i had a glass of wine at night
but for now i have none

so this reservatrol might not help at all

i found over the last 14 years a lot of things that dropped off the list of things that might help
i dont try them now unless they have better scientific evidence it helps

the real secret to controlling your risk for alzheimers is to start taking care of your health when you are a child and do so all your life

a treatment we all should be doing
right

the organicgreen doctor

2 comments:

  1. Hi Dr. Nash. I appreciate you sharing your story. It is very helpful. How hard was for you to enroll those research projects without having a final diagnosis of Alzhaimers disease? I tried to get on several projects three years ago, but I was always rejected because the PET scan did not show the amyloid build up despite the symptoms, the APOE gene, and the strong family history. I gave up on my doctors, and decided to focus on running, strength exercise, diet, sleep, my job, family, and friends. For a while, I thought I slowed down the symptoms, but currently, I believe I am losing that battle.

    ReplyDelete
  2. in 2010 i applied for the ADNI study in the normal control group. During the evaluation i was found to have Mild Cognitive Impairment. Many of the Alzheimers clinical treatment trials do not have normal controls. A prerequisite to getting into these studies is an abnormal Amyloid pet scan. Some one with Alzheimers will have a positive Amyloid pet scan. There are other causes of dementia besides Alzheimers like vascular dementia. TOGD

    ReplyDelete