Bruce Willis’s Dementia Diagnosis: Uncovering Strange Warning Signs

After Hollywood actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with incurable dementia, MailOnline shares some of the strange early symptoms that can occur.

The Die Hard star, 67, suffers from frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which can affect behavior and speech. It is one of the least common forms of dementia, accounting for only 2% of diagnoses. Alzheimer’s disease is the most common type of dementia.

donate money

Giving money to strangers could be an early sign of Alzheimer’s.

This is evidenced by studies conducted by the University of Southern California and Bar-Ilan University in Israel, which link financial donations to the early stages of the disease.

The theoretical study was tested on 67 adults over 70 years of age.

Participants were paired up with people they had never met before and were given $10 (£8) to share between themselves and each other.

The participants underwent neurological tests to assess their cognitive status and potential risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Results published in the journal of Alzheimer’s showed that those who were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s were also more likely to give away money to a person they had not met before.

“Money problems are thought to be one of the early signs of Alzheimer’s disease, and this finding supports that idea,” said Dr. Duke Khan, a professor of neuropsychology at the University of Southern California who led the study.

Changes in sense of humor

Starting to watch a classic slapstick comedy could be another sign of Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers at University College London have found that people who contract the disease are more likely to enjoy watching slapstick, absurd or satirical comedies than other people of the same age.

The questionnaire was distributed to friends and relatives of 48 people with Alzheimer’s disease and FTD.

They were asked about their loved ones’ preferences for different genres of comedy and whether their tastes have changed over the past 15 years.

The researchers asked if they were fans of slapstick or satirical comedy.

Relatives and friends were also asked if they had noticed any inappropriate humor in recent years.

According to a study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, people with the disease begin to prefer farcical jokes nine years before typical symptoms of dementia begin to appear.

It also found that people with FTD were more likely to find tragic events funny or laugh at things that others don’t find funny, such as a badly parked car.

The researchers say these changes in humor may be caused by brain contraction in the frontal lobes.

Difficult to get dressed

Making fashion disasters, trying to pack the right clothes, and wearing things that don’t match the weather can be another sign of Alzheimer’s.

The study, published in the Journal of the Sociology of Health and Disease, involved 32 people in three nursing homes and 15 people in ordinary homes in Kent.

The researchers interviewed 28 nursing home employees and 29 family members and relatives to find out how people with dementia should dress.

Caregivers said that people with more severe dementia found it difficult to dress because they needed encouragement and help managing their hands.

Many of the symptoms of Alzheimer’s can be caused by the change in clothes they wear, from muscle stiffness and erratic hand movements that make it physically difficult to wear clothes.

Driving changes

The memory theft condition can make an Alzheimer’s patient bad at driving.

The condition affects motor skills, memory, and thought processes, making them slow and unresponsive to stopping cars, which eventually leads patients to give up their car keys.

Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis studied the driving habits of 139 people for a year to see how Alzheimer’s disease changes their driving habits.

Half of the participants were diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, while the other half were not.

A study published in Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy in 2021 found that people with the disease are more likely to drive slowly and change direction abruptly.

The team used the results to create a model that predicts whether people will develop Alzheimer’s based on their driving skills.

The model correctly guessed whether someone had the disease nine out of 10 times.

Not thinking about what they say (no filter)

Just like swearing, the brains of Alzheimer’s patients change and they begin to lose control over their words and actions.

According to experts, being naked in public, being rude and talking to strangers are all signs of illness. The prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobes of the brain is the part that controls filtering. But when you have Alzheimer’s, this part of the brain shrinks.

The Alzheimer’s Society stated: “These situations can be very confusing, upsetting, traumatic or frustrating for the person with dementia as well as for their loved ones. A person with dementia may not understand why their behavior is considered inappropriate.”

Source: Daily Mail

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