Lewy body disease is a serious brain illness that’s second only to Alzheimer’s disease in how common it is. It’s a major cause of dementia, which is when people have trouble with memory and thinking.
Researchers from Lund University in Sweden have just made a big discovery about this disease.
They’ve found a way to tell if someone has Lewy body disease before they even start to show signs of the illness. They published their findings in a prestigious science journal, Nature Medicine.
Lewy Body Disease: The Hidden Enemy
Lewy body disease might be a term you’ve not heard before, but you’ve probably heard of the conditions it can cause: Parkinson’s disease and Lewy body dementia.
This disease is named after strange clumps that form in the brain, called Lewy bodies. These clumps are made of a protein called alpha-synuclein that has gone wrong and folded up in a way it shouldn’t.
When a person has Lewy body disease, they can have problems moving or thinking clearly. Depending on what symptoms are more noticeable, doctors will diagnose them with either Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia.
Until now, the only sure way to know if someone had Lewy bodies in their brain was to examine the brain after the person had passed away.
But the Swedish research team has found a way to detect these problematic proteins while the person is still alive, using a test on the fluid that surrounds the brain and spinal cord.
A Groundbreaking Discovery
The researchers carried out their new test on over 1,100 people, none of whom had any noticeable problems with thinking or moving.
The results were surprising: nearly 10% of the people tested had signs of Lewy bodies in their brain. This means that the disease can be detected before symptoms start to show.
Over time, the people with Lewy bodies in their brains did start to show symptoms. They had a decline in their mental abilities, and some developed Parkinson’s disease or Lewy body dementia.
A Sniff Test for Lewy Body Disease?
Interestingly, the researchers also found a strong link between Lewy body disease and a loss of the sense of smell. Even before other symptoms had started, people with Lewy bodies in their brains had problems smelling things properly.
This connection was so strong that the researchers suggest people over the age of 60 might want to take a smell test. If they do poorly on it, they could then take the spinal fluid test to check for Lewy body disease.
Hope for the Future
This discovery is really important because right now, scientists are trying to develop drugs that can slow down or even stop Lewy body disease.
If they succeed, it would be best to start the treatment as early as possible. This new test could make that possible.
The researchers also found that some people with Lewy body disease also had build-ups of two other proteins that are linked to Alzheimer’s disease.
These people’s illness progressed faster, which could help doctors predict how a patient’s disease might develop.
The researchers are hopeful about what their findings might mean for the future. Just as scientists have developed a blood test for Alzheimer’s disease, they believe it could be possible to do the same for Lewy body disease.
Although this is more challenging, as the brain proteins they’re looking for are much less concentrated in the blood, they are optimistic about the possibilities.
If you care about dementia, please read studies about walking patterns may help identify specific types of dementia, and common high blood pressure drugs may help lower your dementia risk.
For more information about brain health, please see recent studies about this tooth disease linked to dementia, and results showing this MIND diet may protect your cognitive function, prevent dementia.
The study was published in Nature Medicine.
Follow us on Twitter for more articles about this topic.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
