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What is Lewy Body Dementia?
SYMPTOMS DIAGNOSIS TREATMENT MEDICATIONS TRANSITIONS
or hover over the “WHAT IS LBD” tab on the home page for important information on these topics .
In 2015, Lewy Body Dementia–a disease that long stood in the shadows of Alzheimer’s Disease–found itself in the national spotlight when actor Robin Williams was reported to have had the disease.
Descriptions of the nature of Lewy Body Dementia are as numerous as the disease is complicated–for both the individual who has been diagnosed with the disease and those who are involved in caregiving. LBD is a degenerative neurological disease with a variety of symptoms that become present over time. Some symptoms overlap with those of Parkinson’s Disease. Both diseases evolve from the aggregation of misshapen deposits of alpha-synuclein within the tissue of the brain.
Reports vary based upon sampling technique and location, but it is believed that 1.4 million people in the United States, who are mostly 50 years or older, have Lewy Body Dementia.
We believe that this statistic is understated as the cluster of symptoms that define LBD often take years to evolve. As a result, many individuals are often incorrectly diagnosed unless they continue to be re-evaluated and/or their diagnosticians are familiar with this disease.
Per the Mayo Clinic, Lewy Body Dementia–the second most common type of progressive dementia after Alzheimer’s disease–causes a progressive decline in mental abilities. It may also cause visual hallucinations, which generally take the form of objects, people or animals that aren’t there. Another indicator of LBD may be significant fluctuations in alertness and attention, which may include daytime drowsiness or periods of staring into space. And, like Parkinson’s disease, LBD can result in rigid muscles, slowed movement and tremors. In LBD, protein deposits, called Lewy bodies, develop in nerve cells in regions of the brain involved in thinking, memory and movement (motor control). The cause of Lewy body dementia isn’t known, but the disorder may be related to Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. Lewy bodies contain a protein associated with Parkinson’s disease.
http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/lewy-body-dementia/basics/symptoms/con-20025038
What are Lewy Bodies?
Lewy bodies were first described in the early 1900s by Friederich H. Lewy while researching Parkinson’s disease. However, the first case of LBD was not described until 1961, with the first set of clinical criteria put forth in 1996. One reason LBD research has lagged behind that focusing on Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s for decades is due to an earlier notion that it was a rare disease. It wasn’t until the development of a staining technique in the late 1990s that researchers learned how much more common LBD is than previously thought. – per James E. Galvin, M.D., M.P.H. and Meera Balasubramaniam, M.D – http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3999867
In addition to the synopsis above, please CLICK on these important topics:
SYMPTOMS DIAGNOSIS TREATMENT MEDICATIONS TRANSITIONS
or hover over the “WHAT IS LBD” tab on the home page for important information on these topics .