alzheimers news-what is aphasia like bruce willis has

ALZHEIMERS NEWS-WHAT IS APHASIA LIKE BRUCE WILLIS HAS

bruce willis the actor has aphasia
aphasia is the loss of the ability to understand or express speech
not a good thing to have if you are an actor
so you either cant understand whats been said or you cant express what you want to say or you cant do either

aphasia can be caused by a stroke the most common cause a head injury a brain tumor or my guess what he has is some form of dementia

speech therapy is the main treatment but it may not be successful in some cases
its more successful in patients with strokes or head injuries

if its dementia its usually alzheimers disease or frontotemporal dementia
a person with alzheimers can get primary aphasia as its main feature
this occurs when the alzheimers attacks the language part of the brain
neither of these are good to have

one version of frontotemporal dementia is called primary progressive aphasia
this is likely what he has
in frontotemporal dementia the frontal area and the temporal area of the brain are affected
frontotemporal dementia or ftd is not a good one to have
the course of the disease is usually short and difficult for the family and patient
they are usually younger while alzheimers patients are usually older 

here is a good review of aphasia from the national institute of health

my guess he didnt have a stroke or head injury or brain tumor
he probably has either alzheimers disease with aphasia as its main symptom or frontotemporal dementia
if its either of those he will deteriorate over the next few years

here is a link from the alzheimers association about frontotemporal dementia

there like with alzheimers is no treatment for ftd
it is a fatal disease


today my younger brother would have turned 71
he died after about a 7 year struggle with alzheimers disease
he was a son a brother a dad a husband a grandfather an uncle a friend a fireman a deputy sheriff
he is greatly missed today by those who knew him
i think of him almost every day


today in about 3 hours i will do an interview with bloomberg news about my involvement with the aduhelm clinical trials and my thoughts about the approval or what i call the not really approval of aduhelm by the fda and cms

my interview with the financial times should be published next week

there may be a series of interviews with news outlets with the director of the ucla alzheimers research director and myself

i will post links to the interviews as they are published


next week i have an mri of the brain and an interview with the research neurologist to rule out any microbleeds in the brain
i am having no symptoms 

my next infusion is in two weeks 
then in one month i have a tau protein pet scan to see how my tau tangles are doing in my brain
aduhelm or aducanumab may remove some of them

then the following week after that i do my 6 month day long visit testing my memory multiple ways and having lots of blood drawn
i can usually score one of my memory tests called the moca as im taking it since ive taken a lot of them and have actually administered them to folks

a busy next few weeks in my alzheimers world

the organicgreen doctor