Top Videos

Lewy Body Dementia Facts

Symptoms -

  • Mental Issues: Those suffering from LBD often have difficulty in staying alert or attentive to what is going around.
  • Hallucinations: For the LBD patients, they have common occurrence of hallucinations and this occurs mostly during the early stages of this infection. The individual may start to see various shapes, people or even animals which were not present there. It is also possible to have hallucinations related to sound or auditory, smell or olfactory or touch related.
  • Having trouble with movements: Very much similar to the Parkinson’s disease patient, an individual suffering from LDB would also experience difficulty in moving around.  Few of such trouble movements would include slowness in movement, muscles turn out to be rigid, there are cases of tremor in the individual, or shuffling while walking may also occur.
  • Having trouble in sleeping: Such individuals tend to fall asleep very much easily mostly during the day time but at night they have a disturbed and restless sleep. Due to the rapid eye movement or REM which is a type of sleep related disorder it can lead to physically making an individual act out of their dream while they are asleep.
  • Loss of memory: Occurrence of LBD in a patient would lead to loss of memory. But this loss of memory is mostly less severe as compared to that found in the ones suffering from the Alzheimer’s disease. The individual may experience certain cognitive issues which are very much similar to those of Alzheimer’s disease which can include lack of attention, feelings of confusion, loss of memory and visual or spatial problems.

Few of the other symptoms would include lack of regulation of the body functions. The blood pressure, sweating, digestive process and sweating are all known to be regulated by a certain part of the nervous system which is also most often associated by the Lewy body dementia. This in turn can result in cases of dizziness, issues with the bowel including constipation. The individual may experience lack of motivation or apathy. There can also be cases of depression wherein at certain instances the individual would be staring at a certain space for a long time or during the days they can go in for long naps.

Causes –

One of the main cause of LBD is the excessive build-up of certain abnormal proteins which are known to be lewy bodies which are basically present inside the cells of the brain. This protein is also known to be associated with the Parkinson’s disease. Those individuals who have Lewy bodies present in their brain most often have the plaques as well as the tangles associated with the Alzheimer’s disease.

Treatment –

  • Use of anti-psychotic medications: But while taking this medicine the individual should be very much careful since the use of these drugs can have an adverse side effect hence it should be taken as mentioned by the doctor.
  • Cholinesterase inhibitors: These are basically used for treating certain types of symptoms that are mostly associated with the LBD.
  • Use of antidepressants: The antidepressants are known to be used for helping to cure the depression issue. This is seen as a common occurrence in LBD.
  • Clonazepam: The doctor may also recommend to go in for clonazepam for treating the sleep issues occurring to certain individuals caused due to LBD.

Apart from the above mentioned medications option, an individual can also go in for certain changes in their lifestyle or home remedies. The symptoms as well as the progression of the disease are often varied for each individual suffering from this condition. Hence there are certain things which can be incorporated in daily use for ensuring to lead a normal life without much of complications:

  • Maintain proper eye contact and always speak clearly and slowly. Go in for simple words and do not rush for any response. At a time just present one idea or instruction. Make use of gestures as well as cues which can also include pointing out at objects.
  • There are a lot of benefits related to exercising since it helps in improving the physical function as well as reduce any kind of depressive symptoms. Exercise is also known to slow down the cognitive decline in those individuals who are suffering from dementia.