My BIL has had Lewy Body for about 9 years. I see it every week.
First Biden is not in the early stages of anything. He’s at least middle to entering late stage something. If it was Lewy Body he would walk slumped to one side. At this point he wouldn’t remember most people though he might pretend to. He wouldn’t be able to give even a crappy speech. Reading would be very difficult. The short term memory starts to go. You forget how to tie your shoes or button your shirt.
There is only one drug for Lewy Body. They wait til you’re getting somewhat pronounced to start you on it and it only works for one year. When it stops working you go downhill pretty fast. The only other drug they put you on is an antidepressant to keep you in a good mood so you don’t get violent.
Joe Biden is not presenting with Lewy Body symptoms. Maybe its not Parkinson’s either. It may be just senile dementia coupled with some other physical deterioration.
more like vascular dementia, need to adjust meds
He is acting just like my mother, and my mother in law with vascular dementia. It is your “run of the mill” dementia that sneaks up on you.
Both of them could carry on a basic conversation. But they would have no idea who they were talking to. And/or, they would forget you saw them yesterday. To the unaware, they would appear like charming old women. But you wouldn’t have them managing there finances, nor would you want them on the roads.
And, and this one is important, they could give a rote “speech” without missing a word. And by speech, I mean a story, a deflection, or the effort to avoid discussing their disabling issues.
I had another aunt who was also suffering from dementia. Her thing was she could reason ways to “break out” of the nursing home and try to execute the plan.
Dementia does not mean “dottering old fool” until way into the process. This process can go on for years. Both my mom and mother in law had declines over 7-10 years.