Lewy Body Dementia

Bringing you useful tips from area resources, this is The Morning Connection.

HOST: Good morning, I’m Katie Kunkel. Lewy body dementia is the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease. Here to tell us more about Lewy body dementia is Nicole Weber, Executive Director of Azura Memory Care. Good morning, Nicole.

NICOLE WEBER: Good morning.

HOST: So, what exactly is Lewy body dementia, and how does someone know if they have it?

NICOLE WEBER: Lewy body dementia can be difficult to diagnose. Generally, how that’s done is by looking at some very unique characteristics that generally encompass this disease.

It can present very similarly to Parkinson’s disease and oftentimes does go hand in hand with that disease as well.

A couple of the more common characteristics that you see are effects on body mechanics, so muscle rigidity, a shuffled gait, maybe tremors, and an increased fall risk for these folks because their balance is affected.

Hallucinations are also another common characteristic and are generally one of the first symptoms that people do see when they’re seeing the onset of these symptoms.

HOST: Interesting. And so, how does Lewy body dementia differ from Alzheimer’s disease?

NICOLE WEBER: So, Alzheimer’s disease is a very slow and gradual cognitive decline. Lewy body can fluctuate a lot. You can have moments of confusion, and then you can have moments of lucidity, and that can even differ throughout the course of the day, which can be very frustrating for somebody.

HOST: All right. Well, very interesting information. Thank you for joining me this morning, Nicole.

NICOLE WEBER: Thank you.

HOST: And to learn more, search for The Morning Connection on Facebook.