Many moons ago, while conservative pundits were blaming Sleepy Joe’s odd behavior on his brain aneurysm surgeries, I said, “No.” All we can clearly see is a narcissistic sociopath with a mixed pattern dementia in the early stages. Prefrontal dementia seemed to explain his hair sniffing and bursts of anger. Since I have not examined the Occupant of 1600 and am a real doctor, not one who plays a doctor on TV, I declined to go further. Calls for more videos fell on deaf ears.
As time passed, I commented that Joe clearly had an “organic brain syndrome.” This means that most of what we see comes from biological changes in the brain, not psychiatric illness. Meanwhile, Joe avoided prolonged exposure to cameras and microphones, so we didn’t have much to go on.
YouTube screen grab.
Then, a column on the “The Free Press” website posted a note from an academic neurologist who felt that his survival required that he remain anonymous. We know how accurate anonymous sources can be (sarcasm alert), so I was rather cautious until I compared this neurologist’s comments with my education and training, mixed with a liberal dose of Joe’s performance at the debate.
Dear Ms. Yoffe,
I read your piece in The Free Press [link here] on President Biden’s obvious neurologic illness.
Neurologists frequently make diagnoses by observation. In fact, most movement disorder diagnoses are made by direct observation or description by patients and families. Mr. Biden has Parkinsonism, an umbrella term that refers to neurologic conditions that cause slowed movements, rigidity, and tremors. By observation, he has a masked face, reduced blinking, stiff and slow gait, hunched posture, low volume voice, imbalance, freezing, mild cognitive disturbance, and difficulty turning. I have seen one video of tremor. All these diagnose Parkinsonism. He would need further investigation by experts to determine which specific disease within the broad term he has, such as idiopathic Parkinson’s disease or another specific disease.
While there is no cure for the many conditions comprising Parkinsonism, there are effective treatments for many of the symptoms. By failing to get a diagnosis, the president is denying himself such treatments, and so worsens his own situation.
The long history in the U.S. of so many “covering” for the president going back to Woodrow Wilson should now be broken. (Emphasis added. Translation: Invoke the 25th Amendment.)
Note the word “obvious” in the first sentence. When I watched the debate, Biden’s “plastic” face jumped out at me. I knew that was part of the Parkinson’s complex. But which one of the ten or so diagnoses fit? I had been looking for a tremor without success. But this expert has seen it. He’s also seen and outlined all the stuff we saw at the debate, pronouncing it to be, without doubt, Parkinsonism.
Soon after reading this, I had lunch with a neuropathologist friend. I mentioned this report, and, without hesitation, he refined the diagnosis. “There’s no doubt he has Lewy Body Dementia.” No doubt. From someone who hasn’t come within a thousand miles of the Occupant.
The only absolute test for PD and its variants comes with a post-mortem examination of the sufferer’s brain. I know that inquiring minds might think that’s a good idea for us to do yesterday, but it will have to wait until after Joe assumes room temperature on his own.
Before a post-mortem, the only way to diagnose every PD variant comes from observation. There are no diagnostic tests. CT and MRI don’t help.
The problem is that a small area of the brain called the “substantia nigra” (black substance) stops making dopamine that it normally sends to various parts of the brain to help them function. Since this is inside the blood-brain barrier, blood tests don’t help. And since the shape and size of the substantia nigra doesn’t change with the disease, imaging doesn’t help, either.
This means that Joe’s performance on TV is exactly the same performance a doctor would see up close. He’s got PD, and he’s got it bad.
PD is a waxing and waning disease. Today can be awful, and tomorrow better. Treatment can make the awful somewhat better but doesn’t change the disease. It just changes how it looks. And it doesn’t change the fact that there is, at present, no treatment that will reverse the disease. Joe’s over the hill and gaining speed.
Unfortunately, that means that the US doesn’t have a president. You heard that right. Even though Joe occupies the presidential residence, he lacks the mental capacity to be president. His Lewy Body Dementia variant of PD gives him visual hallucinations. We saw them demonstrated when he walked away from the assembled heads of state toward an unknown and invisible person at the G7 meeting. There are several other public events that are best explained by Joe responding to a visual hallucination.
LBD has some recall problems, such as when Joe claimed to have spoken with long-dead French President Mitterand. And while we can’t distinguish between Biden’s fabulist tendencies and bad memory, it’s clear from Robert Hur’s report that Joe can’t remember some important things.
Unfortunately, this train doesn’t stop here. PD variants demonstrate an inability to return to a train of thought when distracted. This was front and center when Joe stumbled at the debate and then finished with an incoherent rambling word salad. It even shows up when he’s reading a teleprompter.
Worst of all, PD sufferers have extreme difficulty reasoning from A to B. And don’t push them toward C. I’ve watched this decline with a good friend, and now he must have full-time care where he’s not allowed to make decisions. This is Joe’s near future.
Biden is publicly demonstrating a severe impairment from an irreversible disease. Meds may make him look better in the moment, but they don’t change the facts. He’s not running the executive branch because he’s incapable of running it. Whether a single person or a cabal is the “man behind the curtain” does not matter. Joe’s the perfect hand puppet for them because he doesn’t even know he’s being used. Jill leads him by the hand, and he signs whatever is put in front of him.
I don’t know which statute unlawful puppeteering violates, but America cannot allow it to continue.
Ted Noel MD is a retired physician who podcasts and posts on social media as DoctorTed and @vidzette. He is a great-grandfather, pilot, golfer, and “Papa fix” who is conversant in many scientific, legal, and political disciplines. His greatest skill is critical thinking.
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