Alex Trebek has been given the all clear by doctors after he underwent testing for early onset Alzheimer’s.
In an interview with Vulture on Monday, the longtime Jeopardy host, 78, revealed that he recently underwent testing for early onset Alzheimer’s after he noticed that that he couldn’t recall facts with his usual speed.
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“I love doing crossword puzzles, and recently I’d be looking at a clue, it’d be 23 across, and I’d be trying to fit the answer into 26 across. I was always off,” he told the outlet. “Because of that I went to be tested for early Alzheimer’s.”
The results from Trebek’s first test were not promising.
“The first time they tested me they said, ‘It doesn’t look good,’” he said. “Then we did more testing and they said, ‘You’re okay. No need to worry.’ “
The Jeopardy icon went on to state that he wasn’t too concerned, as the memory lapses weren’t entirely unexpected given his age.
“It’s natural. I’m 78. It’s not like this happened at 50,” he said. “When it’s clear that it’s time for me to go, I’ll go.”
Trebek, who has been hosting Jeopardy since 1984, recently sparked concern over his health after he underwent surgery in January to remove blood clots on his brain triggered by a fall in October 2017.
“Some of you may have heard that during the holiday break I had a slight medical problem,” Trebek explained in a video posted by the official Jeopardy Twitter account at the time “A subdural hematoma, blood clots on the brain caused by a fall I endured about two months ago.”
In a previous interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Trebek spoke about his health issues, including a previous heart attack, and elaborated on how it affected him.
“I was counting up my various surgeries the other day and I think it’s close to 20 now — different parts of my body — and people often ask, they say, ‘You appear to be in good shape, do you work out?’ I say, ‘No.’ ‘Do you diet?’ ‘No.’ ‘Do you eat well?’ ‘Well, sort of,’ but my breakfast of champions for years was a Snickers and a Diet Pepsi, and this past year I ran into a nutritionist who said, ‘Oh, Alex that’s terrible! You’ve got to be eating better than that at the start of the day.’ So I changed,” he stated.
His medical emergency caused the long-running game show to go on hiatus while Trebek recovered and also prompted speculation that he would retire. He later claimed in an interview that the odds of him retiring after 2020 were “50-50 and a little less.”
On Nov. 1, however, Sony Pictures Television announced that Trebek had extended his contract through the 2021-2022 season.
