Aphasia symptoms

Bruce Willis announced that he was retiring from acting after being diagnosed with the condition. Here's what we know about it.

“The healthier you can keep your brain overall, the less a chance of these or other issues of the brain developing,” Dr. Hussain said. The condition can come on suddenly, particularly in the wake of a stroke, but some people with aphasia develop it gradually. There is no guaranteed technique to prevent aphasia, but you can take simple steps to boost your brain health in general, Dr. Hussain said. While aphasia occurs mostly in patients over the age of 65, it can develop at any age. “Everyone can have periods where they’re busy or distracted or forgetting a word,” Dr. Hussain said. But if your inability to communicate holds you back from day-to-day activities, keeps growing more severe or, crucially, if friends and family point out a pattern that you are not aware of, seek medical attention, he said. Those with expressive aphasia may struggle to speak in complete sentences or find the words they are looking for. Strokes resulting in brain damage are the number-one cause, said Dr. Shazam Hussain, director of the Cerebrovascular Center at Cleveland Clinic in Ohio. But it can also be caused by degenerative conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Aphasia can be devastating for patients, disrupting their ability to take part in everyday life. All cases of aphasia stem from neurological changes in the brain. There are several types of aphasia, all of which have an outsize impact on patients. His ex-wife, Demi Moore, shared the news in an Instagram post, saying the disease was “impacting his cognitive abilities.”