Lewy Body Dementia – Third Most Common Form of Dementia

Health Wellness

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I’ve written many posts on Alzheimer’s, the most common form of dementia, with vascular disease being the second leading cause of dementia, but do you know what the third most common form of dementia is?

Have you ever heard of Lewy Body Dementia (LBD)?

The National Institute on Aging says that about 1 million people in the United States have Lewy Body Dementia and unfortunately, like Alzheimer’s, LBD is generally fatal.

LBD is usually diagnosed in people 50 years of age or older, but has been found in some younger folks. On average, the disease lasts about 5-7 years before death, however, is has progressed in as little as 2 years and taken as long as 20 years.

Lewy Body Dementia is caused when amounts of a protein called alpha-synuclein buildup in the brain. The deposits of this protein are referred to as Lewy bodies, named after Dr. Friedrich Lewy, a German neurologist who made the discovery in 1912. The more the protein accumulates, it affects the ability to speak, move along with mood and behavior.

Alpha-synuclein is found in everyone’s brains and it plays important roles in our brains, especially in the synapses (gaps) between the neurons that make up our brains. However, for reasons yet unknown, this protein can begin to accumulate not at the synapses but inside the neurons, forming the Lewy bodies. The more these Lewy bodies form in number of size, they begin to interfere with the ability of the neuron to function. Eventually, the neurons cease to work and the person dies.

Lewy bodies affect several different brain regions in LBD:

  • The cerebral cortex, which controls many functions, including information processing, perception, thought, and language
  • The limbic cortex, which plays a major role in emotions and behavior
  • The hippocampus, which is essential to forming new memories
  • The midbrain, including the substantia nigra, which is involved in movement
  • The brain stem, which is important in regulating sleep and maintaining alertness
  • Brain regions important in recognizing smells (olfactory pathways)

Diagnosing LBD is difficult because it shares many of the same symptoms of other conditions including Parkinson’s disease dementia. In fact, some sources say that there are two types of LBD – dementia with Lewy bodies and Parkinson’s disease dementia. Early on, the symptoms for both are fairly close.

Since there is no way to prevent or cure LBD, the only recommendations for someone with it is form a good support team to help them through it. Sometimes various forms of therapy can help one deal with or cope longer with LBD. Those therapies include: physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, music or expressive arts therapy and mental health counselors.

Some doctors may prescribe medications to help, and in some cases, they do help for a time, but eventually, they don’t help.

It’s very important for anyone with LBD to make their final wishes known while they can and before the disease becomes to debilitating. Make sure those final wishes are written down and that the support group and family know what those wishes are.

 

Dementia Lewy Bodies

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