Bruce Willis is Diagnosed with Dementia. Did COVID Impact Willis's Degenerative Condition?
"For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia"
Yesterday Bruce Willis’s family put out a statement on his condition. “Since we announced Bruce’s diagnosis of aphasia in the spring of 2022, Bruce’s condition has progressed, and we now have a more specific diagnosis: frontotemporal dementia (known as FTD). Unfortunately, challenges with communication are just one symptom of the disease Bruce faces. While this is painful, it is a relief to finally have a clear diagnosis.”
“FTD is a cruel disease that many of us have never heard of and can strike anyone. For people under 60, FTD is the most common form of dementia, and because getting the diagnosis can take years, FTD is likely much more prevalent than we know. Today there are no treatments for the disease, a reality that we hope can change in the years ahead. As Bruce’s condition advances, we hope that any media attention can be focused on shining a light on this disease that needs far more awareness and research.”
“Bruce always believed in using his voice in the world to help others and to raise awareness about important issues both publicly and privately. We know in our hearts that – if he could today -- he would want to respond by bringing global attention and connectedness with those who are also dealing with this debilitating disease and how it impacts so many individuals and their families.”
FTD is the most common form of dementia effecting those under 60, yet it is widely misunderstood and too often misdiagnosed, says a statement on the AFTD (The Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration) website that posted the family’s statement.
In April of 2020, Bruce Willis was riding out a COVID quarantine with Demi Moore, his ex-wife, and their children, Rumer, 31, Scout, 28, and Tallulah, 26. Demi Moore posted photos on Instagram.
In September 2020, a movie Bruce Willis was filming called, Midnight in the Switchgrass, a crime thriller film directed by Randall Emmett, was forced to shut down production after a COVID outbreak among the crew. There is a lot of evidence that COVID could have played a part in making an existing degenerative condition much worse.
A study published on Sept 6th, 2021, “SARS-CoV-2 invades cognitive centers of the brain and induces Alzheimer’s-like neuropathology”, describes how COVID infects mature neurons and exacerbates AD neuropathy.
“SARS-CoV-2 infects mature neurons derived from inducible pluripotent stem cells from healthy and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) individuals through its receptor ACE2 and facilitator neuropilin-1. SARS-CoV-2 triggers AD-like gene programs in healthy neurons and exacerbates AD neuropathology. An AD infectious etiology gene signature is identified through SARS-CoV-2 infection and silencing the top three downregulated genes in human primary neurons recapitulates the neurodegenerative phenotypes of SARS-CoV-2. Thus, our data suggest that SARS-CoV-2 invades the brain and activates an AD-like program.”
A study published in December 2022 shows that not only does COVID invade the brain, but it can persist in the brain, the central nervous system (CNS), and throughout the body. (Detailed in Fig. 1 below)
Other studies have “previously reported SARS-CoV-2 RNA within the heart, lymph node, small intestine and adrenal gland. This study replicated those findings and conclusively demonstrated that SARS-CoV-2 is capable of infecting and replicating within these and many other tissues, including the brain.” The infected people studied were unvaccinated, but vaccinated or not, COVID can persist throughout the body including the brain.
Even more concerning, on January 17, 2023, a study was published explaining that COVID causes the depletion of cortical grey matter (CGM). This study looked at people between 20 and 60 years old who had mild initial symptoms that were followed by at least 8 weeks of neurological symptoms. They complained of decreased cognitive ability, including poor memory or concentration, mental confusion, fatigue, headaches, or trouble finding words. Some people reported new anxiety or depression, difficulty sleeping, dizziness or vertigo.
The patients “underwent Brain MRI with NeuroQuant® 3D VBM analysis and were found to have a statistically significant deficiency of CGM volume as a possible contributing factor to their neurological decline. It has long been recognized that large cortical lesions or injuries damage cognitive and other brain functions roughly in proportion to the extent of amount of tissue lost. CGM is responsible for a wide range of behaviors including memory, cognition, language, perception, volitional movement, and emotions.”
The study’s conclusion leaves us with a clear warning. “This study contributes to understanding effects of COVID-19 infection on patient’s neurocognitive and neurological function, with potential for producing serious long term personal and economic consequences, and ongoing challenges to public health systems.”
COVID’s potential impact is huge because this virus infects neurons and actually changes the structure of the brain, however it should be noted that other types of infections are also increasing the odds of dementia. People with a viral or bacterial infection severe enough to require hospitalization are at almost twice the risk of developing dementia years, and even decades, down the road, according to a new study published Jan. 9, 2023.
Rates of dementia were significantly higher among those hospitalized with respiratory, urinary tract, skin, blood and circulatory system, or hospital acquired infections. Dr. James M. Noble said, “This study lends support to the role of chronic and systemic inflammation that leads to the expression of Alzheimer's and other cognitive problems.”
“The findings are highly supportive of the idea that inflammation is a driver of dementia,” he added. “We need to do a better job of identifying the warning signs of severe infection and treat [them] immediately.” James M. Noble, MD, FAAN, associate professor of neurology at Columbia University Medical Center and the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain
With COVID, someone who is predisposed to having dementia, that may not have symptoms for another 20 to 30 years, could find themselves dealing with an early onset of symptoms, stealing decades from their life and all the quality time that could have otherwise happened in their families' lives.
Bruce Willis was apparently struggling with his condition when filming, Midnight in the Switchgrass, which was diagnosed as aphasia at the time. He had to be coached through the scenes. He was being read his lines through an earpiece, and a stunt coordinator also tried to guide him. The director, Emmett, reportedly called his then-fiancée, reality star Lala Kent, and cried: "It’s just so sad. Bruce can’t remember any of his lines. He doesn’t know where he is."
We couldn’t find any conclusive evidence showing Bruce Willis tested positive for COVID, but the odds are very high because, let’s face it, almost everyone has been infected at least once already, and we know that people around him were testing positive. Whether COVID caused his condition or exasperated an existing one prior to COVID isn’t clear, but we can see that COVID can make things much worse.
It is increasingly clear that infections that bypass antibodies, infiltrating the body and infecting various cell types, are damaging in the short and long term. Infections that persist, like Ebstein-Barr virus (EBV), varicella virus, human papillomavirus (HPV), HIV, and COVID, increase the risks even more, leading to autoimmune disorders, cardiovascular dysfunction, and cancers. COVID tops the list, as the worst, because it can infect and persist throughout the body, and importantly, in the brain, causing measurable damage.
Clean Air for Kids
We must take steps to protect ourselves and, more importantly, our children. We have the technology, but we need to put the investment into protecting our children and our collective future. We must hold leaders accountable and push them to allocate the resources necessary for schools to upgrade or install new HVAC systems that are capable of filtering out 99% of pathogens while maintaining an air exchange rate high enough to pull new virus-laden aerosolized respiratory droplets away from everyone else in the space. That means maintaining a CO2 level at or below 600 ppm.
Remember that the infections that children get today may follow them for the rest of their lives, affecting their quality of life and potentially ending their lives years or decades earlier than otherwise would have happened. Investments we make today can help protect the health of today’s children and the next generation of children as well. Considering how contagious COVID is and the fact that all of us can be repeatedly infected multiple times a year, we must move fast. Time is of the essence.
Advocate for the Changes Necessary.
1. On your own, by writing, calling, or emailing your representatives, and by voting.
2. Work as coordinated teams to become more effective at driving the message.
3. Help provide resources that will enable this mission to grow and be the most efficient it can be.
Together Against COVID Transmission
To find out more on helping take actions, visit: tActNow.info/clean-air-for-kids
