His mother and grandfather had the condition as well.
Mark Westwood / Getty Images
David Cassidy, star of the hit 1970s musical-sitcom The Partridge Family,
revealed sad news on Monday: He’s battling
dementia. The singer/actor disclosed that he has the disease, which causes a person
to lose their memory, after reportedly struggling through a performance
in Agoura Hills, California, on February 18. Video footage from the concert
posted on
YouTube shows Cassidy, 66, appearing to forget the words to The Partridge Family
theme song "C’mon Get Happy"—a song he’s sung
countless times over several decades.
Cassidy tells
People that he saw his mother “disappear” into the mental illness
until she died at age 89, and his grandfather battled dementia as well.
“I was in denial,” he says of his diagnosis, “but a
part of me always knew this was coming.”
It was especially difficult to see his mom struggle. “In the end,
the only way I knew she recognized me is with one single tear that would
drop from her eye every time I walked into the room.… I feared
I would end up that way,” he says.
Now, the singer says he’s going to stop touring as a musician to
concentrate on his
health. “I want to focus on what I am, who I am, and how I’ve been
without any distractions,” he says. “I want to love. I want
to enjoy life.”
“Dementia” is an umbrella term used to describe a group of
symptoms affecting memory, thinking, and social abilities severely enough
to interfere with daily functioning, according to the
Mayo Clinic. Although dementia typically involves memory loss, having memory loss
alone doesn’t mean someone has dementia, the organization says.
Alzheimer’s disease is the most common cause of progressive dementia (meaning, dementia that
gets worse over time), but there are other forms, including Lewy Body
Dementia, the disease Robin Williams suffered from before his death.
Dementia is typically a disease associated with aging—the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that anywhere from 6 to 10 percent of people aged 65 and older
suffer from the condition, and the prevalence increases with age.
Along with memory loss, major symptoms include difficulty communicating
or finding words, difficulty with problem-solving, planning, and organizing,
confusion, and disorientation, per the Mayo Clinic. The disease can also
change a person’s personality, because
depression, anxiety, paranoia, and hallucinations can be symptoms, Mayo reports.
“Classically, people with dementia are unable to have insight that
they’re forgetting things,” Marc Leavey, M.D., an internist
at Baltimore's Mercy Medical Center, tells SELF. Typically, they don’t
agree that they’re struggling until they’re presented with
evidence from a loved one or they experience something extreme, like getting
lost while going somewhere, forgetting their child’s name, or leaving
a burner on in their house, he says.
There may be more subtle declines in cognitive function that can go unnoticed
in people with dementia, like having trouble coordinating and planning
complex daily activities, licensed clinical neuropsychologist Hector M.
González, Ph.D., an associate professor of epidemiology and biostatistics
at Michigan State University, tells SELF. "Unless a person has had
a major event, like a
stroke, subtle cognitive declines are generally gradual and can go unnoticed
by family members," he says.
As Cassidy suggested, family history matters when it comes to dementia,
Leavey says—people with relatives who have suffered from dementia
are at a greater risk of developing it as well. While 66 is a young age
for a person to exhibit symptoms of dementia, it can and does happen,
especially with a family history of dementia,
Vernon Williams, M.D., a neurologist and director of the Kerlan-Jobe Center for Sports
Neurology and Pain Medicine at Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic in Los Angeles,
tells SELF.
If dementia runs in your family, Williams says there are
genetic tests that can help gauge your risk of developing it, and it’s worth discussing
with your doctor whether they’re right for you. However, he says,
the tests aren’t 100 percent accurate. “Some people with genes
associated with dementia will never develop it,” he says.
Dementia isn’t just caused by genetics, though. Williams says it
can also be caused by
vascular diseases like blood clotting disorders, uncontrolled diabetes, and alcohol or substance
abuse, among other things.
Research is still ongoing as to what people can do to lower their risk
of dementia. One 2014 study published in the
Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society found that people who regularly did crossword puzzles had a delayed onset
of memory decline as compared to those who didn’t do crossword puzzles.
To that end, Leavey says it “doesn’t hurt” to do things
to stimulate your brain, noting that reading a book, doing Sudoku puzzles,
and learning a new language are all good ways to do just that. “We
encourage our patients to do these things,” he says.
Physical activity can also help lower your risk. “The brain loves
exercise,” Williams says. “To the extent that individuals can remain
active, that seems to have a significant positive effect on a person’s
risk of dementia and delaying onset of dementia.”
While dementia is frightening, Leavey says most people shouldn’t
stress about developing it if they don’t have a family history of
the disease. If you do, he recommends talking to a doctor to get neuropsychological
measurements to establish where you are,
mental health-wise, and talk about potential treatment options. González says
he's "very hopeful" that with more research, scientists
can help lower dementia risks and find new ways to prevent the disease
from impacting others.
Article Link:
http://www.self.com/story/david-cassidy-dementia