What is frontotemporal dementia and how does it affect people?
Bruce Willis has been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia, one of the rarer types of dementia.
His family said difficulties with communication are “just one of the challenges” the 67-year-old actor faces.
So what is frontotemporal dementia and what are people diagnosed with it likely to experience?
Frontotemporal dementia and its symptoms
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is thought to account for less than one in 20 of all dementia cases.
It is named for the parts of the brain it affects: the frontal and temporal lobes. It is sometimes called Pick’s disease or frontal lobe dementia.
There are different types of frontotemporal dementia. Behaviour variant FTD is the most common and mainly causes changes in someone’s personality and behaviour.
People with behavioural variant FTD may lose motivation; struggle to focus on tasks, make plans and decisions; lose their inhibitions; show repetitive behaviours and become less considerate of others.
The other main type of FTD is primary progressive aphasia (PPA) which has two sub-types: semantic variant PPA and non-fluent variant PPA.
Semantic variant PPA causes a person to forget the meaning of words.
The person is likely to lose their vocabulary over time and forget what familiar objects are used for.
Non-fluent variant PPA causes a person to have problems with speaking.
Over time, the person will find it more difficult to get their words out and may start to put words in the wrong order, miss out words and say the opposite of what they mean.
Last year, the Die Hard star retired from acting after being diagnosed with aphasia.
Bruce Willis in 1999
How is it different to other types of dementia?
The first noticeable symptoms of FTD are different to other types of dementia.
While people with Alzheimer’s disease often have early problems with day-to-day memory, many people in the early stages of FTD can still remember recent events.
By contrast, the early symptoms of FTD are changes to personality and behaviour and/or difficulties with language.
Who does it affect?
FTD typically affects people between the ages of 45 and 64 but can affect people younger or older than this.
How is it treated?
There’s currently no cure for frontotemporal dementia or any treatment that will slow it down, according to the NHS.
However, treatments such as medicines, therapies and memory activities can help control some of the symptoms.
There’s also a glimmer of hope for people with FTD thanks to researchers at Durham University working on developing treatments.
Professor Andy Whiting said they had conducted some “promising” research that “directly addresses the reasons why there is nerve cell loss”.
He said he was “hopeful” the current lack of treatment could change over the next few years.
Brain scans from a study targeting the earliest brain changes in dementia. Pic: Matt York/AP
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What is the outlook for people with FTD?
As FTD progresses, the differences between behavioural variant FTD and primary progressive aphasia become less obvious.
People who started with language difficulties often develop changes in their behaviour and vice versa.
People may eventually lose all speech.
The later stages of all types of FTD bring a greater range of symptoms, which are similar to the later stages of other types of dementia.
The person may become forgetful, have delusions or hallucinations, get agitated easily and no longer recognise family and friends. They may require full-time care.
How quickly FTD progresses and the person’s life expectancy will depend on the individual.
The average survival time after symptoms start is 8 to 10 years, according to the NHS.
How is FTD caused?
FTD is caused by damage to cells in areas of the brain called the frontal and temporal lobes.
There is a build up of proteins which clump together and damage the brain cells, eventually causing them to die.
It’s not fully understood why this happens, but there’s often a genetic link according to the NHS.
Around 1 in 8 people who get frontotemporal dementia will have relatives who also experienced the condition.
The launch of a huge, partially reusable rocket, built by Jeff Bezos’s company, has been called off this morning after hours of delays.
The 98-metre rocket, called New Glenn, is around as tall as Big Ben. It was set to carry up to 45 tonnes of tech to low Earth orbit.
However, the team at Blue Origin, Amazon founder Mr Bezos’s space technology company, confirmed this morning that the launch was called off.
The decision came following a series of delays due to unspecified issues.
As it happened: See our coverage from the launch
New Glenn on the launch pad at Florida’s Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in December. Pic: Blue Origin
The team said they would work out a new date for lift-off, adding: “We can’t wait to get right back here for our next launch attempt.”
The team said earlier this morning that they were “working through anomalies”.
Speaking in an interview before the launch, Mr Bezos said “the thing we’re most nervous about is the booster landing”.
“Clearly on a first flight you could have an anomaly at any mission phase, so anything could happen,” he said.
New Glenn’s builders hope it will challenge SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which has become the go-to workhorse to get heavy cargo into space.
However, it has taken Blue Origin years to get to this point.
They started developing the orbital rocket almost a decade ago, but setbacks and delays pushed back its maiden voyage.
Ahead of the launch, SpaceX founder and X owner Elon Musk, shared his support, writing “good luck” in a response to a post by Blue Origin on his platform.
Reusable first stage
The rocket – named New Glenn in honour of NASA astronaut John Glenn, has two stages, one of which is reusable.
The first, reusable stage will use seven engines to blast the rocket off the launch pad into higher, thinner air and then drop back to Earth to land on a sea platform called Jacklyn.
New Glenn’s enormous first stage is transported from its factory. Pic: Blue Origin
That first stage is built to fly at least 25 times, making it more cost-effective and sustainable than building new rockets for every flight.
The second, disposable stage is where cargo and items needed for missions will be stored.
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The two restartable engines on board will kick in once the first stage has used up all its fuel.
They’ll take the rest of the spacecraft out to orbit.
New Glenn could be a gamechanger
The New Glenn rocket is one to watch in the world of space.
Partially reusable and capable of lifting heavy payloads into Earth orbit or even the Moon or Mars, it promises to be a serious rival to Elon Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9.
With his first big rocket only scheduled for launch now, you’d be forgiven for thinking Amazon boss Jeff Bezos was a latecomer to the billionaire boys club sending shiny machines into space.
In fact, Bezos founded his space venture Blue Origin 25 years ago, before Elon Musk created SpaceX and Richard Branson launched Virgin Galactic.
His rocket business kept a low profile until 2015 when it launched its sub-orbital space tourism vehicle New Shepherd 100km above the Earth.
While New Shephard can be dismissed as a billionaire’s plaything for millionaire passengers, New Glenn could be a game changer.
It’s a key tool to deliver Bezos’s Project Kuiper satellite broadband network – a direct challenge to Musk’s Starlink system.
Blue Origin is also working on a lunar lander and, its thought, crew capsules so it can offer its services ferrying astronauts to the International Space Station or be part of NASA’s plans to return humans to the Moon.
New Glenn is set to carry Blue Ring, an experimental “space tug” and satellite support platform, but for Jeff Bezos, there’s a lot more riding on this rocket than that.
Cargo
Rockets like this are designed to take things into orbit or out to space, so they need to be able to carry cargo.
When Mr Musk launched SpaceX’s first Falcon Heavy rocket in 2018, he popped his old red Tesla Roadster on board.
Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster was launched into space during a Falcon test flight in 2018. Pic: SpaceX
The Blue Ring Pathfinder heading into New Glenn’s huge cargo area. Pic: Blue Origin
Mr Bezos hasn’t done anything as showy as that. Instead, he loaded a prototype cargo carrier onto New Glenn, called the Blue Ring Pathfinder.
In the future, the Pathfinder will be able to carry 3,000kg of scientific gear into space and deliver it to different locations in orbit.
During this test flight, the team back on the ground will make sure they can establish communications with the Pathfinder once it is in orbit.
The Duchess of Sussex has delayed the release of her new Netflix series due to the devastation caused by the wildfires in LA, the streaming platform has announced.
Meghan’s eight-part series, With Love, will premiere on 4 March instead of 15 January.
“I’m thankful to my partners at Netflix for supporting me in delaying the launch, as we focus on the needs of those impacted by the wildfires in my home state of California,” Meghan said in a statement to Tudum, the official companion site to Netflix.
Harry and Meghan comforted volunteers and handed out food to evacuees during a visit to Pasadena on Friday, where they met with the city’s mayor Victor Gordo and emergency workers tackling the Eaton Fire.
Prince Harry and Meghan were seen comforting residents on Friday
Footage showed the duchess, wearing a blue “LA” baseball cap, and the prince hugging and consoling people who had fled to the Pasadena Convention Center.
They were also seen speaking Doug Goodwin, whose home was destroyed in the wildfires, and also to Jose Andres, founder of World Central Kitchen (WCK) which has been helping feed the public and emergency crews.
Prince Harry and Meghan spoke to Doug Goodwin (centre right), whose home was destroyed and Pasadena mayor Victor Gordo (right) in Altadena, California. Pic: AP
A description of the Netflix series on Tudum’s website said: “Produced by Meghan, ‘With Love, Meghan’ blends practical how-to’s and candid conversation with friends, new and old.
“Meghan shares personal tips and tricks, embracing playfulness over perfection, and highlights how easy it can be to create beauty, even in the unexpected.
“She and her guests roll up their sleeves in the kitchen, the garden, and beyond, and invite you to do the same.”
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The royals live in Montecito, near Santa Barbara, around 90 miles from Los Angeles.
They are understood to have donated supplies, including clothing and children’s items, to people affected by the disaster.
They released a statement on Thursday urging people to help those affected by the wildfires and to open their homes to those evacuated.
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