The news of action star Bruce Willis being moved out of his house due to his frontotemporal dementia has cast a new light on the illness and how it affects eating habits.
The 70-year-old’s wife, Emma Hemming, only recently announced that she had decided to move him to a second family home, as the current one, which he shared with her and his two prepubescent daughters, was not conducive to their upbringing and his mental state at the same time.
Highlights
- Bruce Willis, 70, has been moved out of his family home due to his worsening frontotemporal dementia.
- The illness often affects memory, speech, and behavior—but it also significantly alters eating habits.
- One documented case involved a woman who consumed only bananas and milk, while another tried to eat a marble.
Emma has met the ensuing social media backlash with an awareness campaign.
One patient lived off bananas and milk and would consume nothing else
Image credits: Andy Dean/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
Frontotemporal dementia is characterized by the degeneration and shrinking of the front and sides of the brain, which then results in behavioral and personality changes—and, like in Willis’s case, it affects memory, one’s ability to think, and speak.
Eating is another aspect of the patient’s life affected by the illness. One example is the so-called Banana Lady, examined by the International School of Advanced Studies in 2006.
Frontotemporal dementia is “second only to Alzheimer’s”
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Image credits: Pixel-Shot/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
At some point in her life, this woman became fixated on bananas and drank liters of milk daily.
“After [she passed away], brain analysis confirmed her doctors’ diagnosis: the woman was suffering from frontotemporal dementia, a common type of dementia second only to Alzheimer’s,” Science Daily reported.
Sometimes patients become fixated on non-food items
Image credits: Dave J Hogan/Getty Images
The study noted that the woman consumed nothing else, a behavior that researcher Marilena Aiello noted may cause individuals to “lose weight because they eat a narrow range of foods in an obsessive way.”
Livewell, an organization specializing in Alzheimer’s and dementia care, points out that weight loss among patients can stem from a broad array of problems, including their inability to feed themselves and communicate their hunger, and in severe cases, they may not even realize that they are hungry.
“The truth is, a big change in appetite is often a natural part of the disease,” it states on its website.
Image credits: emmahemingwillis
Further complicating already difficult situations is the habit extending to obsessions with eating non-food items.
One woman caught her husband trying to eat a marble
Dr. Elaine Eshbaugh, a gerontology and family studies professor at the University of Northern Iowa, recalls a friend’s loved one trying to eat a marble.
This signaled the need for “intense supervision” and resulted in the patient being moved into memory care.
Image credits: goodmorningamerica
“Individuals living with dementia have been known to drink cleaning solution and eat Tide Pods,” the expert wrote on her website, When Dementia Knocks.
“Obviously, people who are prone to eating non-food items need intense supervision and a carefully controlled environment for their safety.”
In some cases, patients overeat, and this is due to the brain losing function in the section that controls appetite
Image credits: demimoore
On the flip side, the brain disease is also noted to have the opposite effect. Frontotemporal dementia patients have been known to steal food off other people’s plates.
“These behaviors are problematic, of course, socially, but also with regard to patients' health as they tend to gain weight,” Science Daily reported Aiello saying
Image credits: Gecko Studio/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
In other cases, the patient may forget they have eaten, be worried about the next mealtime, or even mistake thirst for hunger.
This happens when the hypothalamus is damaged
This disorder, however, may be directly connected to frontotemporal dementia, as it affects the hypothalamus, which controls appetite, among other things.
Image credits: stokkete/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
“It may involve an alteration of the autonomic nervous system, characterized by an altered assessment of the body’s signals, such as hunger, satiety, and appetite,” Aiello said.
“Damage to the hypothalamus can cause a loss of inhibitory signals, causing behaviors such as overeating.”
While no mention has been made of Willis’ eating habits, he has lost his ability to communicate
Image credits: olly/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
Speaking to Diane Sawyer in an August 27 interview, Emma indicated that her husband had lost his memory and ability to speak.
“Bruce is in really great health overall, you know. It's just his brain that is failing him,” she told the interviewer.
Image credits: Yakobchuk Olena/Adobe Stock (Not the actual photo)
“The language is going, and, you know, we've learned to adapt,” she noted, before saying: “And we have a way of communicating with him, which is just a different, a different way.”
Emma did not talk about the actor’s eating habits, although it was mentioned that he would be cared for by a 24-hour team at his separate lodgings.
Many caregivers bear witness to the change in eating habits
