Keeper was able to get me a trial of CBD oil (cannabis oil similar to Charlotte's web oil which stops seizures in children).

It has negligible THC so there is no feeling of being altered.

Started with rice grain size dot which he puts inside coconut oil glob to avoid taste and I swallow it whole with water. Trial is for 4 times a day and I am first ALZ patient to try it from the compassion group up here making it. It is expensive and they are supplying 2 cancer patients and 2 epilepsy patients - those people take more than I would ever and making a constant supply for them uses most of the cannabis leaves the local group of medical marijuana growers can provide. It would be very expensive for us but it felt like the decline was a real life changer so we started.

I was going to wait until house was finished (guys supposed to come today and tomorrow to be DONE) but my despair was growing and I felt my ability to speak had declined, posting was too difficult as was keeping up with emails. Again I figured I had permanently lost more function and was deeply anxious.

All I can report is that this morning I could find my way around boards better, and knew I had posted a bunch of dog photos. I slept 3 nights very soundly (had been having nightmares and hours in bed worrying last week). 

My anxiety evaporated. Have not used MM in vaporizer in 2 days, and will see if the missing anxiety is placebo of result of CBD oil ina few hours when carpenters show up and start asking questions and noise etc.

So far: the taste is awful and sticks like glue to inside of mouth, but better sleep, and my sense of humor came back.

 I also held my ground trying to settle insurance claim on house water damage from frozen pipe a year ago and was able to DO SIMPLE MATH after talking to agent and figure out that we had not been cheated by insurance company, and put that 6 month old delusion to rest.

I am typing this pretty straightforwardly. Past few weeks/months ? it could take me 2 hours to make a cogent post. Thought I was quitting boards due to this.

 CBD oil comes in capsules, liquid and spray at big dispensaries but we do not have have that type of provider near us.

 also back pain has eased up, could be coincidence? 

If marinol does all this and you can get some Bill,  let us know?

I imagine insurance covers marinol for other diseases? I smoked some years back on occasion and sometimes I would get paranoid? Is it the THC level that can cause paranoia? I greatly appreciate you sharing these experiences on the board. Your breaking ground here for others like me who cannot take meds and may want to consider other alternatives. 

I have pain in back, hip, knees and shoulder. I have high tolerance pain threshold and get by on OTC medication so far. I am afraid of being altered. Nevertheless, I am limited in activity because of the pain and the suffering that ensues afterward. I swear by yogurt and water to keep colds and flu away. Last time I got flu shot I got sick and my arm ached for over a month from the shot. Fortunately, I do okay with pnuemonia shot and think that's a good idea for PWD also. 

That is good encouraging news you.    I am so happ you.  <3

Looking forward more progress reports this. 

I don't seem to be able to post the studies, so I will just do the links.  This one is for the effects of cannabis oil containing THC on behavior in Alzheimer's disease.

Safety and Efficacy of Medical Cannabis Oil for Behavioral and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia: An-Open Label, Add-On, Pilot Study.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26757043

The next one is for cannabidiol for cognition--it was done on mice overloaded with iron, so the results have to be taken with a grain of salt, but the researchers are likely on the right track.

Writing in the July issue of Molecular Neurobiology, they concluded that CBD has significant potential in restoring brain function and protecting the brain from further damage.

“Our findings support the potential of cannabidiol in reversing cognitive decline and its clinical use in treating neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson’s Disease and Alzheimer’s Disease.”

Iron has been shown to cause brain degeneration by promoting oxidative stress. On the other hand, CBD – a non-psychoactive chemical found in marijuana – is known to have powerful antioxidant properties, making it “a promising candidate” for treating these disorders, wrote the authors.

Now that I am not trying to post studies, I think that I can write as much as I want.  I never insist that people with dementia or their care partners try "alternative" treatments for Alzheimer's disease.  I try to allay fears (without ignoring potential side effects) and provide studies that suggest effectiveness.  Cannabis oil with very low levels of THC is likely one of the more effective alternative treatments for Alzheimer's disease.

Bill, I hope the jumpiness is temporary.

alz+, thank you for all that you post.  I can already see improvements in your writing and there also seem to be significant improvements in personal orientation.  It reminds me of a friend who had a traumatic brain injury and then was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. She was quite literate before the accident, but now had to struggle to write sentences that were minimally coherent.  She had almost no short-term memory.  She had studied botanicals in the past and began using her knowledge of herbs (including essential oils via aromatherapy) to treat herself.  Now she writes nearly flawlessly and remembers nearly everything.  I often forget that she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.

Keep us informed.  I hope the progress continues.

This is a really difficult question, but important question to answer.  The improvements in behavior Joel saw with his mother (in the video) was using marinol (also known as dronabinol).  To my shame, I largely overlooked his original post because I thought marinol (synthetic THC) would not be as effective in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease as medicinal marijuana containing several other components.  

The cannabis oil alz+ is using contains a little bit of THC and cannabidiol.  My thinking is this: THC may have a greater impact on behavior whereas cannabidiol may have a greater impact on cognition (this is based on a very limited number of studies, however). If one can get ahold of it, the type of cannabis oil alz+ is using may be somewhat more effective than marinol but it would be nice to see head to head studies (although I doubt that will ever happen).

well, long day.

I did MATH again today. I was writing up expenses to close insurance claim and after an hour working on that form and adding subtracting and listing who was paid for what...I suddenly went WHOA.

Have not tackled numbers in years. I am also still pain free in back which was hurting after a fell on ice.

The man who made this oil thought the CBD was best choice, while his son who also grows and studies the chemistry and stuff thought the THC oil would be better.

Lane was right - the THC does something different. CBD quiets epilepsy, and seizures which are unnoticed apparently create further brain damage and increase dementia progression. I think I have been having these staring seizures for years and only recognized this recently.

I feel calm - but not at all drugged. Took 2 doses so far today. I also attended online class this afternoon through dementia alliance international. 

Don't know what I thought would happen, but expected this to takes days for anything to be noticeable. Now when I vaporize Indica cannabis I will get very sleepy and usually drift off to sleep. If I vaporize Sativa I will usually get energetic and creative, talk about odd stuff with Keeper or write. Both of those states feel altered but I feel more myself, what I called "normal". This is a whole new sense of normal.

Paranoia...

I do not like feeling altered, I do not like alcohol.

Marijuana when smoked takes effect within minutes and some types "come on" over an hour, the effect keeps building. Being "high" is dependent on how much you smoke. So what someone uses to get "blitzed" and slump on the couch is different than someone who takes one puff and waits to escape pain or distress. Smallest effective dose is how i take any medicine.

***********

The oil seems to have kicked on function buttons. It is making me wonder about this illness and just what is the malfunctioning part/s. I was pretty sure my MATH section was...erased.

If I have not been able to handle numbers for years, and I take CBD oil and am typing up a claim form and adding and subtracting numbers from 6 different sources...does that indicate  it is not permanent damage but a lack of fuel of some kind? Is an antioxidant effective immediately? 

Or is it finding new pathways to use? No one claims it cures seizures or cures dementia, and it could not HEAL some  major brain damage in 24 hours. It must mean the capability was still there but missing a chemical it needs to work.  ???

I also discussed with carpenters today where to place these red cedar board shelves I bought and noticed I was speaking...fluently and they were talking to me normally. I measured somethings without thinking about it!

Now if I do not take it tomorrow will I be back to talking like I had a stroke and math-less? what the heck. and if it works this well and I can move without pain how would i keep paying for it? 

**********

I just started and maybe it will not work tomorrow. But this is shaking up my view on what exactly is malfunctioning in a person with dementia, and if a shrinking brain is indicative of much at all. I can also see the type face here - just realized that. This is weird. Loving it.

I will follow this with great personal and scientific interest.  I don't know what to expect.

The key compound for short-term memory is acetylcholine.  I can never understand how this compound or any compound can help us store and/or retrieve short-term memories, but it does.  Early in Alzheimer's disease, this compound is broken down by an enzyme called cholinesterase, but another problem not only early on but throughout the disease is that oxidation and/or nitration inhibits choline transport, inhibits the enzyme which converts choline into acetylcholine (choline acetyltransferase) and inhibits the release of acetylcholine.  This explain why in most people drugs designed to inhibit cholinesterase activity (aricept, exelon, and galantamine) only provide symptomatic relief early in the disease and do little good in most cases as the disease progresses.  It also explains why you just cannot pop choline supplements to improve short-term memory.

If you use certain antioxidants, everything begins to be reversed.  Choline is once again transported in the brain, it is converted into acetylcholine, and acetylcholine in cells is released again.  A person begins to be able to store and retrieve some short-term memories. Cholinergic neurons also begin to be regenerated, although perhaps not enough to fully offset the neurons that have died.

In every case I know of where a person temporarily stopped taking antioxidants that lead to some improvements in cognition, the damage to the brain returned again.  On the other hand, if a person continues to take the antioxidant the progress usually stops after a certain point, but any further deterioration is halted.  Or to put it another way, Alzheimer's is a treatable but not curable disease at this point.

I have personally seen or read about improvements using antioxidants in a period of time ranging from a few weeks to a year so a couple of days is remarkable--perhaps cannabis oil is a very potent antioxidant. 

Except...

Aricept be "choline" enzyme inhibitor, no "acetylcholine" enzyme inhibitor. 

And...

I also be take Mestinon, an "acetylcholine" enzyme inhibitor (for muscle weakening autoimmune condition, Myasthenia Gravis)...an it does no help brain one bit.

By same token, logic speaking, dopamine should help cognition - as it be involved so man those functions...but is no indicated in dementia. 

<3

I did not write that right: Aricept is an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor--it prevents the breakdown of acetylcholine.  I read once that it is an antioxidant but at levels much higher than one can safely take.  So it does not change the course of the disease.

Dopamine receptors and transport systems are also damaged in Alzheimer's disease so giving someone with Alzheimer's dopamine indeed does little to no good even though dopamine is an antioxidant.

OK. Day 3 or 4.

Guys came to house to use old boards I "found" to make kitchen shelving.

They are now just asking "is this what you want?" and when I stand staring they say "This will work out, you'll like it."

BUT woke up and back to speech which I call "post stroke" but could also be described as "thick tongue".

Keeper got me the rice grain CBD packed in tsp coconut oil and about 20 minutes later speech is fluent and I can grasp size of shelving in relation to counter tops.

Also found "lost" curtain stash, and fabric I  have been missing for a couple years. And where I had put these things made SENSE, like I can understand why I put this where it was very close to remembering putting this stuff away there.

So so far I can say it is not curative but acts on immediate ability to think and talk.

Whatever is in this then may be similar to Aricept in action except it has no DRUG feel to it, no artificial feel. I dressed this morning after oil WITHOUT THINKING IT THROUGH. Just realized that. A week ago I had to rotate underwear a few times to figure front and back, and find sweat pants and get foot into each leg hole, and stare at closet to pick out a shirt and then  find head hole, arm holes...would take 15 minutes.

Today after oil did not even think about putting on the clothes until now.

Absolutely no sense of being on a medicine. Also took heart med without 4 trips back and forth of what did I come in here for? So it must be a fuel?

I gave a talk last year and said how it seemed to me if a brain is shrinking, and if it is at all relevant to symptoms of dementia, it must be being eaten or it is starving. This could be fighting an attacking agent or feeding a system involved in thought and speech.

It is getting increasingly difficult for me to post any study.  I did find one more human study indicating that THC positively affects behavior in human beings and one mouse study where cannabidiol improved social recognition but did not affect anxiety in mice.

This study may be the most important one.  I am going to try to type it out rather than cut and paste it to see if that makes a difference.

Cannabiniol and tetrahydrocannibinol are neuroprotective antioxidants

Previous studies have shown that glutamate toxicity may be prevented by antioxidants. Cannabidiol, THC, and several synthetic cannabidiols all were demonstrated to be antioxidants by cyclic voltametry.  Cannabidiol and THC also were shown to prevent hydroperoxide-induced oxidative damage as well or better than other antioxidants in a chemical (Fenton reaction) system and neuronal cultures.  Cannabidiol was more protective against glutamate neurotoxicity than either ascorbate [vitamin C] or alpha-tocopherol [vitamin E], indicating it to be a potent antioxidant.  These data also suggest that the naturally occurring, nonpsychotropic cannabinoid, cannabidiol, may be a potentially useful therapeutic agent for the treatment of oxidative neurological disorders such as cerebral ischemia.

Lane - thank you! It also wears off, so that is why the grower said 4 times a day.

Think of this: many times at END STAGE of ALZ a person talks fluently again.

If they were not ABLE to speak for a few years before this and people thought they were mentally gone already because of permanent damage from ??? then that damage would not be repaired just before one dies.

So my intuition that we remain conscious and knowledgeable through the entire illness but lose the ability to move knowledge to speech makes sense.

Plus the Nuns Study which showed brain shrinkage in some without dementia and some people with dementia did not have shrinkage.

This could all be from endo-cannabinoid system and receptors, or a gateway in consciousness, some part of us like Imagination, Creativity centers.

also think of how many people with dementia begin to make fabulous art, how painting becomes such a loved activity when the person had no prior interest. Again with Music!

I have enough oil to go 12 more days. Then there not be a supply of it left for me because the rest goes to cancer and epilepsy patients. The growers are limited by law to 100 plants at a time which makes the production of the oil very difficult to keep available.

The Chaga tea I drink gives me physical energy but my speech never got better. It did not change having to think through getting dressed. 

Shelving is up, counters are in, sink will be reconnected by tonight. One more day of labor from these guys and we will have a kitchen.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endocannabinoid_system

Endocannabinoid system

This is really a great point, alz+--the damage done to the brain is not permanent, it can be at least partially reversed.  Short-term memories are not destroyed, they are lost.  Or perhaps better put--they cannot be found because the levels of acetylcholine needed to store and retrieve short-term memories are so low.

Before death, a person with Alzheimer's disease often cannot drink or eat much.  This leads to  the buildup of ketones in the body and the brain which provide an alternative energy source (ketones are found in coconut oil) and act as an antioxidant.  This likely is the explanation for increased lucidity in some people at the late stages of Alzheimer's disease.

The key is to find the best antioxidants to restore acetylcholine levels so a person can access their short-term memories again.  I have spent the last few years trying to figure out which are the best antioxidants.  It certainly seems like cannabidiol should be added to the list.

This may be close to the heart of the matter:

Inactivation of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor...is likely to be a factor in the continual decline of Alzheimer's patients, even those taking acetylcholinesterase inhibitors [such as Aricept].  Natural antioxidants...may improve the effectiveness of acetylcholinesterase inhibitors and prove useful in the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer's disease since the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor is required for memory, and decreased cholinergic function is a critical deficit in Alzheimer's disease.

Although I sort of understand, I am sorry that cannabis oil is being rationed due to is usefulness in the treatment of other diseases.

Alz+

Thank you for this thread . I am considering this option for my Mom and reading along with your experience helps . I appreciate you sharing.

Lane - thanks as always for the info you share.

Thank You !!!!

Sandy

Thank you for sharing that information.

I would think since this is 2000 year old medicine and since we have endocannabinoid receptors the whole plant version would work in a different and more complete way than trying to extract parts of plants or making dummy versions.

Your wife! I am so happy for both of you. to sign in and post this may help many people.

Helped me. My husband is going to make some muffins for me from buds some time soon.

Does your wife eat just a bite of a muffin? I ate a whole one once and I was knocked out as if going for 8 hour surgery. 

This info you posted was really helpful. The results prove (to me) that this is NOT an untreatable disease requiring all kind of further research. It may be possible to really live better for most of the way until death.

I imagine you could not inform your physicians how wife is now backing up a car after grocery shopping. I can say the difference for me in just the cbd oil is so immediate it is kind of weird.

Man, appreciate it. world view changing info. Hope more people come forward. RE: the long sleep - why wouldn't worn out CGvrs jump on it?

The price will sky rocket as 100000 people look for oil or butter.

Thank you, too, for your very informative and helpful post.  It is so good that you were able to help your dear wife.  Hope can become reality.

alz+ thank you and to everyone else on this board who have showed what is possible.  One of these days the narrative of this disease will change and it will be changed by one person at a time sharing experiences.  

All of a sudden, everything ties together:

As we know, science has identified and characterized the molecular structure of around 20,000 terpenes, which makes it the largest category of plant chemicals. These aromatic compounds are found in the essential oils of plants and flowers, and plenty of studies have been done on their effects.

Of the 20,000 identified terpenes, there have been more than 120 found in cannabis. Only a few of them appear in high concentrations, but they have been found to have a number of benefits

Terpenes could also aid in Alzheimer’streatment with cannabidiol (CBD). Linalool, which is prominent in lavender, helps counter stress and anxiety. Limonene is commonly used in aromatherapy to improve mood, and pinene is known to promote alertness and memory retention. Combining these terpenoids with a CBD-rich extract may help treat the wide-ranging effects of Alzheimer’s disease. 

Cannabis contains a number of other terpenes that have proven useful in the treatment of Alzheimer's disease including eugenol, carvacrol, and geraniol.

http://www.medicaljane.com/2013/09/23/terpenes-may-improve-effectiveness-of-medical-marijuana/

The Terpenes of Cannabis Their Aromas and Effects

https://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=295057

In a perfect world, how hard would it be to use or develop strains of marijuana with high levels of selected terpenes to treat Alzheimer's disease?

this is still working. I was wrong about how much we have to work with. They growers and oil makers said 4 times a day - I am still at once a day because of my proclivity for being cheap and to make things "last".  

However, on one morning dose of a grain of rice size of cbd oil folded into half tsp of coconut oil I am doing so much (compared to pre-oil) I am not motivated to take more.

Have sorted and cleaned living room/kitchen boxes and vacuumed and been to pool, walking dog a lot. To exhaustion.

I have built my strength though by pool workouts but maybe LOW ENERGY is part of ALZ. Anyway, have been able to look over checking account online and it all makes sense to me.

Also doing laundry is now without thought about steps to do it. Dressing is without thought about it, my speech has improved. The guys at pool are surprised at my sudden ability to carry on conversations. My mood is very upbeat.

I am sleeping again. I have a sense of perspective which shows me I have enough oil to last me...a couple MONTHS, even if I took it 3 times a day.

We had some canna-butter from last summer and Keeper made cookies with it, very relaxing. 12 cookies left.

I think Liberpublicrat (thanks for the challenge to recall avatar name !) his wife is having more fun with a THC based supplement.

So depending on plant success I should end up with cbd oil and/or THC butter for baking by mid summer.

Because of my visual disturbance which made riding in a car seem like being under attack from moving objects, I am on automatic about riding in back seat but while walking dog this afternoon the road did not appear 15" from my face. Did not realize vision has improved until that moment. I have been wondering if I would be able to drive again but think my confidence is shot and won't risk it.

I would love to regain my imagination for writing again, so far it seems all I regained is every day functional stuff. "ALL I regained" - I am thrilled and still stunned.

A friend sent me Lavender sachets and I put them under my bed pillows, the terpenes from those are strong, and love that.

As Liber... said no one has ever died from intoxication or overdose so maybe I should go to 2 rice grains a day. I still choke when swallowing often enough and swallowing the oil before coconut oil melts a little is tricky. The oil taste stays on my tongue for a long freaking time, I suspect choking will take me out one day.

so far all good. I am old hippie but days of giggles and getting high have not happened in 40 years. Marijuana has just made me feel NORMAL for so long not sure I should hope for the laughing part again.