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It is the cruel disease that steals the memory and ruins the lives of millions of people around the world.
However, charities say not enough is being done to teach society about the possible warning signs of dementia.
With legendary Hollywood actor Bruce Willis becoming the latest to be diagnosed with the incurable disorder, MailOnline has now shared some of the first strange symptoms that can occur.
The 67-year-old Die Hard icon has frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which causes behavioral and language problems.
It is one of the least common forms of dementia, accounting for only two percent of diagnoses. Alzheimer’s disease is the most widespread type of dementia, accounting for three out of four cases.
Bruce Willis received a devastating second diagnosis less than a year after it emerged he had an intractable brain disorder (pictured in 2019 at the 2021 European premiere of Glass)
Mood swings and increased swearing are signs of Alzheimer’s disease and frontotemporal dementia (FTD), a type of dementia that causes problems with behavior and language. Poor parking and sloppy dressing are also signs of memory theft disease, experts say. Graphic Shows: Six Signs of Alzheimer’s Disease
giving money
Giving cash to strangers could be an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
That’s according to research from USC and Bar-Ilan University in Israel, which linked financial altruism to the early stages of the disease.
The study tested the theory on 67 adults in their 70s.
Participants were paired up with people they had never met and given $10 (£8) to distribute between themselves and the others.
Neurological tests were administered to the participants to judge their cognitive status and their potential risk of developing Alzheimer’s.
The results, published in he Journal of Alzheimer’s diseasesuggested that those who were at higher risk of developing Alzheimer’s were also more willing to give money to the person they had never met.
Dr. Duke Han, a USC professor of neuropsychology who led the research, said: “Problems managing money are thought to be one of the earliest signs of Alzheimer’s disease, and this finding supports that notion.”
mood swings
Starting to watch sitcom classics like Airplane and Mr Bean could be another sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers at University College London found that people with the disease were more likely to enjoy watching silly or satirical comedy compared to other people of the same age.
A questionnaire was given to friends and family of 48 people with Alzheimer’s and FTD.
They were asked about their loved one’s preferences for different types of comedy and if their taste had changed in the last 15 years.
The researchers asked them if they were fans of slapstick comedy like Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean, satirical comedy like South Park, or wacky comedy like The Mighty Boosh.
Family and friends were also asked if they had noticed any inappropriate humor in recent years.
According to the study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2015, people with the disease start to prefer practical jokes nine years before the typical symptoms of dementia begin to show.
It also found that people with FTD were more likely to find tragic events funny, or laugh at things that others might not find funny, such as a parked car or a barking dog.
These mood swings could be caused by shrinking of the brain in the frontal lobe, the researchers say.
dress scruffy
Making fashion messes, struggling to put together clothes to match, and wearing things that aren’t appropriate for the weather could be another sign of Alzheimer’s disease.
Researchers from the Universities of Kent and York described how people with dementia were less likely to be able to dress themselves when left to their own devices.
The study, published in Sociology of Health and Illness in 2018, it focused on 32 people in three residences and 15 non-Kent regular residences.
The researchers interviewed staff at 28 nursing homes, 29 family caregivers, and relatives to find out how people with dementia should be dressed.
Melissa, a family carer who was quoted in the study, said: ‘I’ve never seen my dad scruffy. Never. Until that day I came home and he was sitting there with his clothes in a mess, which really hurt because I’m not used to that at all.
Caregivers also said it was difficult to dress people with more advanced dementia because they needed encouragement and help guiding their arms.
The scruffiness and changes in the clothing they wear can be caused by various Alzheimer’s symptoms, from muscle stiffness and jerky arm movements that make it physically more difficult to get dressed to simply forgetting that the clothes belong to them. .
Bruce Willis’s family said the star’s condition had “progressed”. FTD affects the lobes of the brain behind the forehead, which deal with behavior, problem solving, planning, and emotions (pictured with LR’s wife Emma Heming, ex-wife Demi Moore, and Scout daughters, Tallulah , Mabel, Evelyn and Rumer)
bad parking
Memory steal condition can make Alzheimer’s patient bad at driving.
The condition affects motor skills, memory and thought processes, making their reaction times slow and poor parking, leading patients to hand over 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 changes the way they drive.
Half of the participants were diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s, while the other half were not.
The study, published in Alzheimer’s Research and Therapy in 2021, it suggested that people with the disease were more likely to drive slowly and make sudden changes of direction.
The team used the findings to build a model that predicted whether people had Alzheimer’s based on their driving skills.
The model correctly guessed whether someone had the disease in nine out of 10 cases.
swearing
Not having a filter and swearing in inappropriate situations could be another warning sign.
The filter that people often use to avoid using inappropriate language in front of children, for example, weakens with the disease, causing people with FTD to blurt out more profanity.
People with FTD are more likely to use the word ‘f**k’ when asked to name words beginning with ‘f’, researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles found.
The study, published in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology in 2010, he asked 70 patients to name as many words as they could think of that begin with the letters ‘f’, ‘a’ and ‘s’ in one minute.
They also found that six of the 32 dementia patients cursed when asked to list the words for ‘f’, and more said the ‘s**t’ word for ‘s’.
have no filter
Much like swearing, as the brains of Alzheimer’s patients change, they begin to lose the filter.
How they act and what they say can degenerate in many cases.
Stripping in public, being rude and talking to strangers are signs of the disease, experts say.
The frontal prefrontal cortex in the frontal lobes of the brain is the part that controls the filter. But when you develop Alzheimer’s disease, this part of the brain shrinks.
The Alzheimer’s Society said: “These situations can be very confusing, distressing, shocking or frustrating for someone with dementia, as well as their loved ones.”
‘The person with dementia may not understand why their behavior is considered inappropriate. It is highly unlikely that they are being inappropriate on purpose.