What is Lewy body dementia? Sir Patrick Stewart's secret health battle explained

What is Lewy body dementia? Sir Patrick Stewart's secret health battle explained The actor's spokesperson said: "He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter, and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all." Legend of stage and screen Sir Patrick Stewart has died aged 86. Born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, in 1940, his career spanned more than six decades, and he became a household name after taking the role of Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987. A highly acclaimed stage actor, he was also known by film fans as Professor Charles Xavier in the X-Men films, a role he will reprise for the final time in Avengers: Doomsday, which releases in December. He died on Wednesday, and the news was announced on Thursday with a statement on his social media page, saying it had come after a “brief and poignant journey with Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia”. His spokesperson said: "He has been held in the warm embrace of family and friends, surrounded by live music, prayer, tears, laughter, and the kind of profound emotion that only he could inspire after a lifetime of devotion to us all." Sir Patrick had not publicly revealed his health battle, and his death came as a shock to his legions of fans worldwide. What is Lewy Body Dementia? While dementia is widely understood, Lewy body dementia is a lesser-known form of the condition. Dementia expert Joanna LaFleur explained the condition in a video on YouTube. "Lewy body dementia looks very different from the Alzheimer's-type dementia, which we are mostly talking about when we use the word dementia today," she said. "Lewy body dementia, later in the illness, has some memory issues, but the first signs you're going to see is REM sleep disorder." REM, or Rapid Eye Movement, sleep is the period of sleep in which our bodies shut down out muscle control, and we are likely to experience vivid dreams. Joanna continued: "When we get into REM sleep our bodies freeze and we don't act out our dreams. But people with Lewy body dementia, their bodies do not freeze, and so they then act out their dreams and there'll be a very very high fall risk because they will climb out of bed. "They also have a lot of hallucinations and delusions, and they can go in and out of them pretty quickly. They can at one point be lucid, and the next moment asking 'what are the children doing in the corner?'" She explained that Lewy Body dementia is often misdiagnosed as bipolar disorder or another mental health problem as it does not initially affect the memory. "They also have movement problems that look similar to Parkinson's, where they can struggle with losing their ability to walk, with having tremors, and having a lot of stiffness," she said. What causes Lewy body dementia? The NHS says the condition is usually caused by clumps of protein - called Lewy bodies, forming inside brain cells. These deposits are also found in people with Parkinson's disease, and build up in areas of the brain responsible for functions such as thinking, visual perception and muscle movement. "It's not clear why the deposits develop and how exactly they damage the brain," the NHS says. "It's thought that part of the problem is the proteins affecting the brain's normal functions by interfering with signals sent between brain cells. Dementia with Lewy bodies usually occurs in people with no family history of the condition, although there have been very rare cases that seem to run in families." The NHS added there is no single test for the condition, and a diagnosis may confirm an assessment of symptoms and mental abilities, blood tests, and brain scans. There is no cure, but some treatments can help control some of the symptoms, such as medication, physical and psychological therapy, and activities for dementia such as memory cafes. Ensure our latest headlines always appear at the top of your Google Search by making us a Preferred Source. Click here to activate or add us as Preferred Source in your Google search settings