Are You Dumber After Open Heart Surgery ?

  Are you dumber after heart surgery than before you went under the knife? Some patients who have undergone heart surgeries that require the heart to be stopped and life sustained by a cardio-pulmonary bypass machine report experiencing varying degrees of cognitive decline after surgery.

The condition has been nicknamed "pump head".

Now don't get me wrong, you don't go in as Albert Einstein and come out as Bo Bo the Chimp. It is more subtle and in a way, more insidious.

You see no one mentions this as a possible side effect. So when you start to notice changes in your mental capabilities it is quite disturbing. There is a simmering, low level of anxiety as it starts to dawn on you that there is something wrong with your brain. You have difficulty concentrating or following the thread of a conversation. You can't remember some one's name or an important date. It is a terrible, depressing feeling to realize that you are just not as smart as you used to be.

 So there you sit in the first weeks following your surgery, battered in body and mind, a prime candidate for the crushing depression that often haunts the survivors of open heart surgery.

There is some good news. The impact on your mental capacity while real is relatively short term with noticeable improvements three months out, six out and so on.

Here is what is thought to happen. The combination of prolonged anesthesia and the heart lung machine induce a certain amount of mental confusion and memory loss that is temporary and will diminish over time.

The physical challenge to the body during the process of restoring the body to normal temperature from the cool state it is in while on the pump may deprive the brain of oxygen for a short time. So it is a double whammy. The body and brain are put through an amazing ordeal. It is one of the casual miracles we take for granted in modern society that we come back at all.

If you are presently recovering from open heart surgery and have these symptoms:

• difficulty concentrating
• noticeable changes in mental capabilities
• increased depression

Talk to your doctor. Knowledge is power and just knowing that with a little time things will get better is very reassuring.

You are What You Eat After Heart Surgery

Like the rest of you recovering from Heart Surgery, I have been careful about what I've been eating. It requires forming new habits and overcoming a lifetime's bad habits.

Well it is not easy as I'm sure you know. In the first place it is hard to get accurate information about what is good, what seems to be good but isn't, and what really is bad.



Here is a case in point. Recently a study was published  by researchers at Harvard University that found it’s eating processed meat not regular old fashioned red meat that increases the risk for developing or worsening heart disease.

Like you, I have been told to minimize fatty red meat in my diet as well as deli meats, canned meats and more recognizably processed meats like bacon or pepperoni.

This research concludes that eating unprocessed meat does not "significantly" increase the chance of developing Heart Disease. It was eating processed meat, meat that has been cured or preserved by smoking, salting or whatever, that was increasing the risk of developing not only Heart Disease but Diabetes too.

So here is the quote from the report that caught my attention:

“To lower risk of heart attacks and diabetes, people should avoid eating too much processed meats — for example, hot dogs, bacon, sausage or processed deli meats,” said lead researcher Renata Micha, a research fellow at the Harvard School of Public Health. “Based on our findings, eating up to one serving per week would be associated with relatively small risk.”

Presumably more than one serving a week would increase the risk significantly. I thought I was doing well by having a sandwich from the local deli at lunch instead of the restaurant's special of the day. I'm not so sure now.

Heart Disease No Longer Just for the Old

There has been a lot of heart health related news over the last little while, former Presidents having blocked arteries cleared, former Vice-Presidents having heart attacks and the sudden passing of an Olympian's Mother due to a Heart Attack.

Sad and sobering news. There have been a couple of major reports on the state of health of North Americans recently as well. We are facing a crisis.

Recent statistics tell us that one out of every five of us has high blood pressure severe enough to require medication. Another study reveals that people in their twenties and thirties are living with high cholesterol, too much weight and on and on.

The most provocative thought from all of this news is that we could find ourselves sitting beside our children in emergency rooms both being treated for the same heart related illnesses.

Heart disease is no longer reserved for the old.

I can't help but think that we have to address some of the issues with our food supply. It doesn't matter how many Olympic athletes are sponsored by a fast food restaurant chain, if the food has too much salt and any trans fats at all, it is really just a slow poison.