re: Dementia at 54 years old

My uncle got Alzheimers around 63. We had to put him in a home. He died at 69.

Not too long before he got it, he had open heart surgery. I later spoke with a neurologist (while he was living) and told him about my uncle. He asked me if he had any sort of surgery. When I told him YES, he said that MAY have led to the early Alzheimers. He said that when they do open heart surgery, they need to cut off the blood flow to the brain. As a result, some of these patients wind up with dementia or Alzheimers.

I had NO IDEA this was the case and asked why it isn't more generally known. He said that because the open heart surgery is necessary, there's really no choice to make.


I had never really put the two together (surgery and Alzheimers) but when I thought back, he was fine when he had the surgery. It was only a couple of months after the surgery that he started to "forget" things. At the time he was a big wig at a major bank but they started to notice his mental decline almost before anyone else. He was forced to retire and we found a really nice care facility for him.