For decades the plaques and Lewy bodies were viewed merely as by-products of brain disease.

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When researchers then looked inside Lewy bodies, the mysterious globs in the brains of Parkinson's patients, they found abundant synuclein.

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The researchers had said that even the four Alzheimer's cases might turn out to be Lewy body dementia as the disease progressed.

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Parkinson's disease is characterized by clumps of abnormal brain proteins called Lewy bodies of which a-synuclein (a-syn) protein is the principal component.

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Effects of the traditional Chinese herbal medicine Yi-Gan San for cholinesterase inhibitor-resistant visual hallucinations and neuropsychiatric symptoms in patients with dementia with Lewy bodies.

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Dr Susanne Sorensen, head of research at the Alzheimer's Society, said that the findings were particularly interesting in relation to Lewy body dementia, which accounts for only 4% of dementia cases.

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After 90 days, a-syn proteins resembling Lewy bodies were widely distributed throughout the central nervous system of the first group, suggesting a-syn from diseased tissues had a highly potent seeding effect, researchers said.

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Even more intriguingly, nerve cells in the colons of Parkinson's sufferers who are constipated contain structural abnormalities known as Lewy bodies, which are a hallmark of the affected brain tissue in people with Parkinson's.

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In general, cholinesterase inhibitors have shown some benefit for patients with vascular dementia, those with mixed Alzheimer's and vascular dementia, patients with the disease known as "dementia with Lewy bodies, " and dementia from Parkinson's disease.

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