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When hosting a dinner party, nobody wants to deal with an awkward guest. Experts are now suggesting that unusual table manners might be more than just a quirky personality trait—they could actually be an early indication of dementia.
Frontotemporal dementia, recently brought to public attention by Bruce Willis’s diagnosis, occurs due to a slow deterioration of brain areas responsible for personality and language skills.
This condition affects brain regions in ways that can lead to various symptoms such as impulsive behaviors, a lack of empathy, and dysphasia, which is the struggle to find the correct words in conversation.
However, specialists now highlight a lesser-known symptom: “obsessive and repetitive behaviors” that may influence eating patterns and diets. This can lead to peculiar habits, such as eating only a single type of food, consuming non-food objects, or even taking food from others’ plates.
Neuroscientist Dr. Marilena Aiello, who studies this condition, has previously noted: “These behaviors are challenging in social settings and also pose health risks as they often lead to weight gain.”
“[But], some people lose weight because they eat a narrow range of foods in an obsessive way.”
While experts are still unraveling why this form of dementia has such a significant impact on eating habits, some researchers theorize it might be linked to changes in the body’s hunger and fullness cues, according to The Daily Mail.
It is currently unknown whether Bruce Willis himself has been affected by changes to his eating behaviours as a result of the condition, but his wife did recently open up about the challenges he has faced with communication.
Speaking to ABC News earlier this month, Emma Heming Willis revealed the subtle symptom that had developed in the early stage of the disease.
She said: “For someone who is really talkative, very engaged, he was just a little more quiet, and when the family would get together he would kind of just melt a little bit.”
Shortly after, Willis began losing words and saw the return of a childhood stutter that hadn’t been seen for several decades.
“[He] felt very removed, a little cold, not like Bruce, who is very warm and affectionate to going the complete opposite of that was alarming and scary,” she added.
In most cases of frontotemporal dementia, a condition which affects around 1 in 20 of the 944,000 people in the UK who have dementia, the first signs of the disease are marked behaviour changes.
This sets it apart from other adjacent conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease which initially tends to manifest as memory loss or confusion with time or place.
As frontotemporal dementia progresses, it slowly begins to affect more and more parts of the brain, meaning patients with the condition can sometimes mirror the symptoms of late-stage Alzheimer’s sufferers.
Other notable symptoms of the condition include difficulty eating or swallowing, trouble walking and being vulnerable to infections.
While the condition does have a longstanding and detrimental impact on a sufferer’s life, it is not normally fatal on its own, however it can make the body more susceptible to infections and other complications. These include conditions such as difficulty swallowing which can impact on eating, drinking and maintaining adequate nutrition.
Heartbreakingly, there is also currently no cure for the disease either, but some drugs and therapies are available which may help to slow the progression of symptoms. These include antidepressants (SSRIs) and antipsychotics for severe behaviours, along with non-drug therapies such as physical, occupational, and speech therapy to improve daily function and communication.
It is also currently unknown what causes the disease, although research has suggested it may be due to a build-up of protein clumps in the brain, or that it could be caused by damage to the blood vessels in the brain, limited the amount of nutrients and oxygen brain cells receive.
