Posted on 12/09/2021 10:29:48 AM PST by Red Badger
In my dad’s later stages he couldn’t read his name.
I am still two hours from procedure to eye patch.
Do I feel 15% less demented yet per single eye effect?
Maybe. The yellow content has dropped substantially.
Maybe the straining gets blood flow to the brain?...................
No! Two eyes equal 60% less chance. ;-)
Correlation is not causation.
This is a nice factoid, but it is essentially meaningless until some causative link between getting cataract surgery and a lower risk of Alzheimer’s is proven. What mechanism is involved? - answering that question is the key here.
I had cataract surgery last year but now I’m suffering with rather large floaters which sometimes seem worse than the cataracts were. I might need surgery for the floaters. If anyone has experience in this I’d appreciate some input.
I have read separately that some post cataract surgery patients remark on everything looking blueish for a week or two.
....without even an attempt to isolate cause and effect. How many dementia patients are going to go in for cataract surgery? Duh.
I’ll bet the incidence of cataracts, as opposed to cataract surgery, is WAY higher among dementia patients.
Just make sure you find a surgeon with an impeccable, lengthy record and no corneas damaged. It happened early on, not sure about now.
I think that what may be at work is not the cataract surgey, but the fact that people who develop cataracts are more active outdoors. So it is the activities leading to the development of the cataract that needs surgery that is the main factor.
” How many dementia patients are going to go in for cataract surgery? “
Lots of mild dementia patients do.
Sunlight exposure can cause cataracts so they would also have a buildup of Vitamin D....................
Maybe cataract surgery stimulates the use of more Viagara.
Apparently, before my Dad turned 76, his cataracts basically blinded him. At that time mid 1970’ cataracts were a heavy duty surgery and patients had to be immobile for days post surgery. He was a regular patient at his local VA hospital, and he said no way.
He and my Mother did’t tell us about this. They bought a big screen tv and put his Lazy Boy close to the set. He rediscovered the radio. My Mother was a retired reading teacher and read to him. He love westerns and the Old Man and the Sea. She read the local paper’s comics and shared the crossword puzzle with. I lived 1800 miles away and didn’t know what was happening as no one told me. Later our mother said that sometimes she read the same chapter or whatever several times. She didn’t realize what was happening to him mentally. He died in that chair listening to my Mother read to him.
Later a decade plus, my mother decided to go into a senior citizen’s home. I went back and spent a week with her sorting out what to give away, what to throw away and what to keep. I noticed that she didn’t want to drive. She had a new little Olds that she loved and she had me drive.
When, she sat in front of the big TV and in Dad’s chair, it dawned on me that she probably had cataracts. At first she denied it and then admitted it. She didn’t want a long postop, and I told her that the new procedures didn’t require that.
Shortly after we got her moved into supposedly and temporarily a nice condo. She consented to surgery for one eye. It was successful, and she drove afterwards. Then, she had the second surgery and was basically 20/20 for the rest of her life.
She did move into that retirement home after a few years and drove her little car safely for about a decade. About once every two weeks, she and a car load of friends drove/rode to a great cafeteria. They bought home enough left overs to have shared lunches/brunches for a few days.
I turned 58 and developed cataracts quickly, I thought. I had the adapting lens inserted into my dominant eye and my wife drove me home. Later I was out in our front yard and noticed that the neighbor across the street had what looked like new street number on a new mail box.
My wife informed me that the box and number were over 6 months old. My vision had really deteriorated. The next day I drove to the Ophthalmologist’s office for the followup care. I couldn’t believe how clear everything was. A few weeks later, I had the second operation. My vision was the best I ever had and was 20/10.
I would have been depressed or worse, if I hadn’t had my cataracts removed and replaced with the adaptable ones.
nagant: How many dementia patients are going to go in for cataract surgery?
steve86: Lots of mild dementia patients do.
Sure they would. But a large portion of more severe dementia patients, the ones requiring help, would by no means seek surgery for their cataracts. And that would explain the link which this study draws between cataract surgery and dementia. The people showing up for cataract surgery are not people who couldn’t recognize their cataracts, much less seek treatment for them.
Cataract surgery is NOT a marker of cataracts among cognitively impaired people.
Apples keep elephants out of trees. Have you seen any elephants in apple trees?
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