welcome to the organic green doctor blog

i am a family physician who was diagnosed with
early mild cognitive impairment(mci) amnestic type on december 21, 2010
this is a precursor to alzheimers disease
because of this diagnosis i have opted to stop practicing medicine
this blog will be about my journey with this disease
please feel free to follow me along this path
i will continue blogging on organic gardening, green living,
solar power, rainwater collection, and healthy living
i will blog on these plus other things noted to be interesting

Friday, November 15, 2024

alzheimers news-why so high

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WHY SO HIGH

this graph above is from the cdc and a newsweek article linked here
if you click on the cdc site or the newsweek article there is an interactive you can click on to see the numbers from each state

the alzheimers association color is purple
on the map the darker the purple the higher the death rate from alzheimers

why is it high in washington
if you look across the deep south almost all of the southern states have a higher rate
why
poor health outcomes like obesity hypertension diabetes poor diet poverty and lack of health care
mississipi ranks number one 
maybe they should be spending more money on their health than on their highly ranked football team
priorities i guess

when it comes to your health you get what you pay for

interesting is that these southern states have the highest rate of alzheimers ie for older folks and they also have the highest rate of maternal and infant mortality 

both due to poor health systems

texas eg has the highest rate of maternal and infant mortality
worse even more than some third world coundtries

they are killiing off folks at both ends of the life cycle
doesnt have to be that way
texas is not a poor state
there is no excuse

washington is higher i think because like utah and idaho they have an older population 
the older you get the increased chance you have to get in alzheimers

the last several years there has been lots of research that shows that addressing ones health and ones communitys health can address or lower the incidence of alzheimers

eating a healthy diet as early in life as possible is important
the mind diet is a good place to start

avoiding obesity 

exercising and staying active mentally and socially

controlling your blood pressure starting early in your middle age
controlling your cholesterol taking medication to do so if needed

controlling anxiety stress and depression

learning to meditate in some way 
i do gardening

getting adequate sleep 
sleep is when your body cleans out debris in your brain that left there accumulates over time

dont smoke
dont drink or drink limited amounts

doing these over your lifetime can decrease the incidence of alzheimers by almost 50%
that works better than aricept or donepezil or leqembi infusions work

additionally it also helps prevent strokes and heart attacks

today as i sit here thinking about this as we approach our 14th year of doing walk to end alzheimers i see a lot of progress being made in alzheimers treatment
but
like it was in 2010 when i was diagnosed
the best treatment plan is still even with the new moncolonal antibody infusions like my aduhelm or leqembi or kisunia and even the newer treatments in clinical trials
it is doing all those healthy things as early in like as possible
it will always be that way probably

take heed will you

tomorrow as i do my 14th year of these walks i look forward to just being a walking participant and walk with others who are affected by this awful terrible disease

wherever you live
look at that map above
click on your state
do what you can to help slow down this disease

look for a walk where you live and participate in it
the alzheimers association is the main reason we are making progress with this disease
support them
www.alz.org
all you need to know about alzheimers is at that link

we will be thinking of my mom my younger brother and my dad
all who suffered with this disease
and
of course me who so far has it slowed down 



if you are in the santa barbara area join us for our walk to end alzheimers at the link below
or
join a walk where you live
here is the link to our team organicgreendoctor to join or donate 
see you on saturday november 16th at chase palm park

the organicgreen doctor

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