Lewy Body Dementia is the 2 nd Most Prevalent Dementia

The Sea Glass Epidemic is a fictionalized account of a year in the life of someone with Lewy body dementia: a life fraught with delusions and hallucinations made even more disturbing by the backdrop of a bizarre world undergoing a pandemic.

Written by Jodi Lyons, an award-winning author on eldercare issues and brain health (Brain Health As You Age, Rowman &; Littlefield), this book, while fiction, is based on expertise, practical experience, and research. This book is a fictional account of Beth, a fifty-something woman in the prime of her life, living with undiagnosed Lewy body dementia and trying to make sense of her world.

The prologue introduces the main character, Beth, a middle-aged Jewish woman professional living and working in Washington, D.C. who ponders whether the Bermuda Triangle may have engulfed Washington, D.C. and hopes for some excitement in her life as she packs for yet another business trip. The reader is introduced to the possibility that Beth may be a canary in a coal mine, sensing something before other people do, or that she is hallucinating, delusional, experiencing visual misinterpretation, or dreaming.

The visual misinterpretation of the pile of laundry on her chair appearing to be a bear is the first clue to the reader that something is wrong with Beth.

Protein deposits, called Lewy bodies, develop in nerve cells in the brain regions involved in thinking, memory, and movement (motor control). Lewy body dementia causes a progressive decline in mental abilities. People with Lewy body dementia may experience visual hallucinations and changes in alertness and attention. Other effects include Parkinson’s disease-like signs and symptoms such as rigid muscles, slow movement, and tremors. In this book, the Lewy body protein deposits are represented by sea glass. The main character’s symptoms increase as the amount of sea glass increases. Lewy body proteins somewhat resemble the shape of a thumbprint cookie or sea glass on a microscopic level.

Learn more about this devastating illness by experiencing it with Beth.

Here’s what others are saying:

"At night, I can't tell whether I am awake and hallucinating - or asleep and dreaming." Such are the reports of individuals with Lewy body dementia. In this insightful work, Jodi Lyons, Senior Sherpa and eldercare guru, provides a fascinating glimpse into this mysterious progressive neurodegenerative disorder - the second most common dementia diagnosis in the US (after Alzheimer's disease). Adding insult to injury, the long-suffering protagonist collides with the unfathomable, bizarre maze of modern American healthcare - and a world turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

-- R. Scott Turner, PhD, MD, FANA, FAAN Professor of Neurology and Director of the Memory Disorders Program, Georgetown University

Book on Amazon