"It takes the stigma away": Suffolk charity on Bruce Willis dementia diagnosis
The announcement of Bruce Willis's dementia diagnosis is opening up conversations around the topic.
The chief executive of Headway Suffolk says they are seeing younger people being diagnosed with dementia.
The announcement of Hollywood star Bruce Willis's dementia diagnosis is opening up conversations around the topic.
Bruce, who is famed for roles in Die Hard, The Sixth Sense, and Pulp Fiction to name a few, took a step away from acting last year after being diagnosed with Aphasia, a condition which causes difficulty with speech and language.
He's now been given the additional diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia, a rare type of the disease
Helen Fairweather from neurological charity Headway Suffolk said:
"Dementia is an umbrella term. There are lots of different sorts of dementia, including Alzheimer's, and it affects mainly memory.
"But with that, it's the memory of how to do everyday tasks as well as people's names and faces, but also the brain forgets how the body should function.
"So gradually the brain shuts down. And without the body shuts down and unfortunately, people die.
"That could take 8 to 10 years, but eventually that will unfortunately be the outcome."
Helen told us they are seeing younger people getting diagnosed with dementia and that people with bad sleeping patterns are at a higher risk of dementia
"It can be anybody and we are finding it's actually people getting younger and younger. We have seen people in their mid to late 50s.
"We tend to think that it's an older person's disease and that is true the longer we live, obviously the older the brain is more likely it is to be diseased, but it can also hit younger people.
"And of course with people starting their families later, it can be that we've seen people with dementia have got young children and that is so heartbreaking, for everybody concerned."
".... We do find it does affect lots of people, but it can be businessmen and people who have been high Flyers that are getting dementia and some of that I think is due to lack of sleep and stress and worry.
"Sleep is so important because it's when we are asleep, especially in that deep sleep that the brain cleanses itself and gets rid of plaques and tangles.
"So if you're spending half the night awake worrying about whatever your business or your family life, then you are more prone to get dementia than somebody who goes to bed and gets a good night's sleep.
"It very much affects friends and family, but I think dementia actually affects friends and family more than the person with the disease."
Helen explained that often people with the neurological condition don't realise there is anything wrong with them and 'lack the insight into what's going on.'
Helen is encouraging families to reach out for help sooner rather than later.
"We need to see them (dementia patients) early because we want to try and steal, teach them strategies of what to do when they lose function.
"So it could be they're going to lose the ability to speak. So we want to teach them other ways of trying to communicate. And obviously, if you can't remember, you can't learn. So it's so important. We see them as soon as possible to put their strategy in place.
"And if we can keep them physically and cognitively, mentally active, then it will slow the brain, the disease of the brain down.
"And physical exercise is so important because the brain news is 20% of our oxygen.
"Oxygen is carried in the blood. We need to get as much blood and oxygen up to the brain as possible ade to stop disease and to slow anything down.
"So a good walk going to the gym and someone still able to do that. Armchair exercises are really important as well as doing the things we think the brain needs to do. So reading, writing, Sudoku, crosswords, that sort of thing.
"All very good for the brain. So we need to keep that going for as long as possible."
Helen believes people like Bruce Willis being open about his diagnosis is a good thing and will encourage more people to talk about the condition
"I think the more people in the public domain who come out and say this happened to my family, it takes the stigma away and people realise that it can happen to anybody.
"And we need to understand that because if there's a sticker that people aren't going to come forward for help so very much and my heart goes out to the family because they've got a difficult time ahead, especially when they're public.
"(Also) Mental health and all the things we don't like to talk about. We actually do need to talk about them because if we talk about them, people become more aware and we can put pressure on the government and scientists to do more research.
"And we need that research to find that cure and find out exactly what's happening to the brain and why it dies, especially if it starts dying in people in their 50s and 60s.
"We need to know what's causing that to prevent it. So more publicity would get out in the public domain, the better."