Veteran actor, Olu Jacobs has been battling dementia with Lewy bodies, a condition distinct from Alzheimer’s disease, according to his wife, Joke Silva.
In a recent interview, she shed light on his health journey, emphasizing the importance of proper diagnosis and treatment.
Joke Silva revealed that initially, understanding and managing Olu Jacobs ‘ condition was challenging, but with the help of a geriatrist, they found the right approach.
She stressed that using Alzheimer’s medication for dementia with Lewy bodies can have adverse effects.
Despite his health struggles, Jacobs remains physically strong and healthy, but his vision is impaired, leading to difficulties navigating unfamiliar spaces.
His wife shared valuable tips on how to engage with him, encouraging empathetic responses to guide him back to reality.
In her words:
“He has dementia with Lewy body which is totally different from Alzheimer’s. The treatment for Alzheimer’s and Dementia with Lewy body are contra-indicative. If you use the medication for Alzheimer’s for somebody with dementia with Lewis body, they go ballistic.
So we discovered that because we got a geriatrist. I always like to say this. That once you get past that age of about 60-something, the kind of doctors that should be treating you when you’re in your 70s, 80s, are called geriatrists.
They deal with geriatrics, so their treatment is different. In the early years, it was difficult because we didn’t understand what we were dealing with. But once we understood, he got better. Physically, health-wise, Olu is absolutely fine. He is healthy. He is strong. He arm wrestles with his boys and they pay attention when they’re arm wrestling with him because it’s very possible that this man of 80-something can win. He’s very strong, he’s healthy.
But once in a while, of course, he’ll have some health issues and we’ll go to the hospital and sort it out. He also has issues with his eyes, so his vision is pretty impaired. We got some people to work with him on that so he can manipulate the house easier. But when he’s in a strange place, you find that he shuffles. So when people see him outside, they say he’s shuffling. It’s simply because he cannot see or navigate that place properly. But apart from that, he’s fine. But in also relating with him, when you’re having conversations with him, meet him where he is.
So if you’re talking now and he’s saying ‘I’m supposed to be on set now’, you don’t say ‘oh, there’s no set’, you say ‘oh yes, in a couple of minutes, you will be on set.’ Or he will say ‘You said you’re going to Ibadan’ when you never mentioned Ibadan. Your response to that is ‘Probably in the next hour, I’ll be on my way to Ibadan.’
You will find that after a while, by himself he will get himself and know where he made a mistake. Also, for most people who are in that situation, their fat-making mechanism doesn’t work very well. He eats well, but it just burns. That’s why he looks so frail.”
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