What is Lewy Body Dementia?

As we reach the end of our series talking with healthcare professionals regarding dementia, we stumble across an interesting area of dementia, Lewy Body dementia. One of our favorite celebrities Robin Williams, an American comedian, had this disease and his death has help shed much needed light on the topic.

Mike McIntyre :

Lets take a call now from Milton in Springfield. Hello Milton.

Milton :

Good Morning. I have a question for any of your guests. My mother passed away in 2006 of dementia and along the way she was diagnosed with Lewy Body dementia, which I had never heard of. One of the ladies on The Golden Girls, the TV show, passed away about 2 years ago and on the television they said that she passed away of Lewy Body dementia so the only thing I know about it is that Lewy was working in Germany at the same time as Mr. Alzheimer and he noticed a difference of the dementia. If any of your guests could shed some light on this I would be appreciative.

Mike McIntyre :

lets focus that one right to Dr. James levrenz.

Dr. Levrenz :

Yes, Lewy Body dementia is one of the types of dementia and with links both to Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. It is a disorder that has some unusual characteristics. People have motor symptoms like Parkinson’s disease where they slow down and they are stooped. They can also have some unusual psychiatric symptoms such as visual hallucinations. It is a distinct form. There is a group, The Lewy Body Dementia Association – LBDA – that has a website and a lot of information about Lewy Body dementia and is one of the subtypes of dementia that is often misdiagnosed early on.

Mike McIntyre :

Thank you so much for the call Milton.

As we continue to learn more about dementia and Alzheimer’s disease it is important that we unite the world to share information and keep the forward momentum going. Please feel free to comment your thoughts and opinions and share this article with people that might find it interesting. In addition grab your free baseline score by taking the free MemTrax memory test and if you feel compelled to contribute to our efforts, sign up your own account to monitor your scores over time.

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