Posted 6/11/21
Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. Ephesians 6:11
Some reading and video watching may help here and will help you find meat in what I say and spit out the bones:
Interesting, if Somewhat Dated Discussion
NIH Explanation of What I Will Shoot From the Hip About Here
Helpful Piece about Cell Death and Humanin
Cell Death Video and Another Good One
Howdy ho, all! ‘Tis nearing the weekend and all we have to do is endure today. 🙂 For the 24/7 caregiver, I am sorry for rubbing your nose in it. 🙁 I, personally, need this weekend to recharge my batteries. I am very tired physically, mentally, and socially and I am due for a sleep-in day. 🙂
Today’s topic may sound odd in the title, but the phrases do correspond with each other and dovetail nicely into my goofy little brain’s attempt at a “lesson” today. There are two drugs that have made the news lately, one much more so than the other, that we need to briefly discuss here. Aducanumab (Aduhelm) and the slightly lesser-known Donanemab. (These two sound like a parent’s attempt to make twins’ names catchy, like my relatives Edie and Meadie.) These two are going head-to-head and both have all of their eggs in the “Beta Amyloid is the cause of dementia” basket, if you will. The main thing I want to talk about regarding these two drugs and the title as a part is Antibodies and Cell Death. (These two drugs are essentially antibodies sent to target BA in your brain.)
First title term up for bids: Apoptosis. (Note: This is NOT to be confused with K-Poptosis, a boy band from Seoul, or with Simple Chronic Halitosis, which just stinks) Apoptosis is the programmed safe and clean death of a cell at the right time and place. It an extremely important part of growth and development, of living a healthy life, and of finishing strong. However, if this process is broken or triggered at the wrong time, bad things happen. Listen to the narration of this link. Very bad things happen… As the link mentions, one example is that fingers are separated in their formation by this process from what would look like duck paddles. However, a bunch of other worse things can also happen when this goes haywire. (Cue ominous, Howard the Duck music/ show expensive Covid stage props…did you see them?) One terrible example: Cancer cells that stop dying grow and form tumors that harm and kill. Birth defects aplenty are caused by cells living too long or not long enough. This is a process, as you have seen from the videos and your self-study. They don’t just stab the pathology they are sent to kill, nor inject them with a syringe (I think I watch too much Criminal Minds). They start a cascade of events that kills the cell in such a way to leave no issues behind and to not cause other cells to die too. It is truly an amazing part of Creation…that we are hard-coded with a plan for living and dying, to the cell-level. Dementia also involves cell death, at least partially because of this process being broken.
Second: I threw in POT in the title because of my distain for it and because it kills brain cells. They don’t call it dope because it makes your brain work better… Oh, and pot in any form doesn’t cure dementia. It may cure not eating…maybe…but so do other things. Oh, and Epstein didn’t kill himself either.
The last of my catchy rhyme was broken symbiosis. It appears that the plaques and tangles that make up the pathology of the disease are targeted by natural antibodies which try to kill them as told to and end up either killing the good cells around them or triggering the cascade of natural cell death/life again….which messes things up. This either is caused by apoptosis or is a result…but what used to be a great sorta symbiotic/mutually-beneficial relationship where the body rids itself of bad things goes terribly wrong and there is friendly fire everywhere… (Note: it isn’t really “symbiotic” because both sides of the relationship don’t benefit, if you will… but I liked the rhyme so I went with it…you get the point. Give me a break…this isn’t a science blog. 😉 Stick to the links and just smirk at my attempts at fun and you won’t go wrong.)
Bottom line here…the brain is super complex. It tries very hard to fix itself where it can and usually does amazingly at that. It keeps itself clean and it knows right when to die or not, to the cell level. Amazing! These new drugs I mentioned before are antibodies. They are targeting the plaque (Beta Amyloid/BA) that is causing/triggering these things as best many in science can tell. Incidentally, the Covid and most other vaccines are also antibodies and/or designed to trigger antibodies. So I wonder…what if the boogie man isn’t the BA and all we are doing is clearing out the results of the real boogie man and not the boogie man himself? I suppose we will know soon if these drugs don’t do much to help. I hope they do, but my excitement is hinged on BA being the cause and that these drugs can rid us of BA without triggering anything that will hurt us. We shall see soon enough…
There are many, many more resources, some of which contradict what I have said. It is a challenging topic, but one we and our doctors need to understand to make good medicine choices. Hoping and praying? Me too…
#EndALZ
Update: Nothing to report. Still in the hole. In isolation. No visits. A lot of sighing and being bummed out, waiting to reenter after another employee’s positive Covid test.
Run update: $5565.00 raised including the shirt money and some new donations! Woot!!!!!
The temp according to the ever-changeable long-range forecast is expected to be 85 degrees, inching up 2 degrees since yesterday. Rain chances are thankfully low. 🙂 One week and one day until I scoot in my boots. 🙂
Have a great weekend!!
Last note: If you are a science-type and are willing to do so, please feel free to offer corrections. I will correct as needed. I am not a scientist, nor play one on my blog. I do, however, hate this disease.