"Men are more likely than women to be affected by Dementia with Lewy Bodies. The age of onset usually is between 50 and 70, but people as young as 20 and as old as 90 have developed the disease." Mayo Clinic literature
I continue to be amazed that so few people understand what Lewy Bodies Dementia -- or Dementia with Lewy Bodies, is like. Even professionals will say to me, well, he probably has short-term memory problems, doesn't he? No. Not really. Neither short or long-term memory difficulties are particularly typical of DLB (Dementia with Lewy Bodies). What is typical incudes: problems with comprehension, motor movement, judgment, impulse control, significant variations in lucidity, visual hallucinations, delusions, difficulty expressing oneself and understanding language, inability to solve problems, loss of insight. People who do not understand the characteristics of DLB can be misled into thinking there is not a significant problem with cognition because the person with DLB remembers who they are. There is much more to effective cognition than remembering who a person is. We who are caregivers for someone with DLB seem to need to continue to educate others, and to help others not minimize the challenges faced by the person with DLB.
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