DEAR DR. GOTT: I have been waiting for a column about Alzheimer’s or a form of dementia like it. My brother has a dementia called Lewy body. I have never heard of this before and hope you can shed some light on this horrible disease. He was highly intelligent, and it always amazed me how much his brain stored because no matter how much I try to remember something, it just doesn’t stay.

It’s really hard to watch someone go from remembering everything to having to write it down so he doesn’t forget, doing unexplainable things and having mood swings. When you look at his face, you can see the blankness. When he tries to say something, he doesn’t know how to get it out. He forgets to swallow. Sometimes he knows me, and other times he forgets my name but remembers that we were connected. He now calls me by my first and middle name when he used to use my first name or call me “Sis.” [Read more...]