Lewy Body Dementia: Motor Symptoms or Parkinsonisms

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:00]Lewy body dementia.

[00:00:01]What sets it apart from other types of dementias? Movement symptoms or is what we refer to them as Parkinsonism's.

[00:00:10]If you don't know me, I'm Ray. I share real life dementia support and education from somebody who's lived it. Number one, bradykinesia. So, what is bradykinesia?

[00:00:21]That is a slowed movement. So, quite often you will see the gait become slower. They walk slower. They may shuffle when they are moving.

[00:00:33]We noticed this with my mom as her Lewy body dementia progressed, her steps became small. She shuffled her feet and she moved very, very slowly. Number two, rigidity. So, the muscles become super rigid. It makes it hard. It makes it hard to move an arm. It makes it hard to move a legs. It makes it very difficult sometimes to put clothing on somebody who is very rigid, but it also makes it hard for them to have fluid movement.

[00:01:05]Number three is a masked face. So, there is a lack or reduced facial expression.

[00:01:12]Another thing we noticed my mom when we would talk to her look at at her is that there wasn't any expression anymore.

[00:01:19]There it was just kind of a blank look.

[00:01:21]No smile.

[00:01:23]Um eyes didn't blink as much. Number four is balance issues. So, you will start noticing more frequent falls. We did notice this early on before we knew my mom had Lewy body dementia. She was younger in her late 50s, early 60s and she was very physically fit, took care of herself. She exercised daily, religiously and she started having unexplained falls, unexplained balance issues. And number five, the voice became very, what I call small, but the voice became very soft and weak. So, they went She went from talking very normally, loudly, like anybody would do to it was almost like a whisper and you couldn't really hear what they were saying.

[00:02:07]So, the voice will get quieter, softer, hard to hear. They actually do physical therapy. Many physical therapists have taken courses called the big and loud where they teach people who have Parkinson's, but it could also be for Lewy body dementia, how to project your voice so that people can hear you. I hope this helps someone.

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