Ronald Reagan served as President of the United States from 1981 to 1989. He passed away in 2004 from Alzheimer’s Disease, perhaps the most famous victim of this terrible affliction. Most Americans are unaware that in 1989 (just months after he completed his second term as President) Reagan underwent neurosurgery to remove blood build-up between his brain and skull following a fall from a horse in Mexico. Below is a link to an article on his surgery:
There is significant discussion in the field of medicine that a brain injury can increase the likelihood of developing Alzheimer’s Disease or cause the disease to occur earlier in an individual’s lifetime. For example, recent research found that patients with Alzheimer’s who had suffered a traumatic brain injury earlier in life developed the disease 2.5 years earlier than those who had not suffered a brain injury.
http://www.utsouthwestern.edu/newsroom/articles/year-2018/tbi-alzheimers.html
It is impossible to generalize from large-scale studies to a particular individual such as Reagan but it is worthwhile to acknowledge the possibility that his traumatic brain injury influenced the course of his Alzheimer’s.
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