OBJECTIVE: 
 
 To determine whether dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) progresses more rapidly than Alzheimer disease (AD). 
 
 METHODS: 
 
 We compared 315 participants (63 with DLB and 252 with AD) enrolled in a prospective longitudinal study of memory and aging with annual clinical and cognitive assessments and followed until death. The main outcome measure was dementia progression to institutionalization and death. Neuropathologic examinations were performed on all participants in this study. Subject classification (DLB vs AD) was based on neuropathology. 
 
 RESULTS: 
 
 Patients with DLB had an increased risk of mortality vs patients with AD (hazard ratio [HR] 1.88, 95% CI: 1.4 to 2.5). The median survival time for DLB was 78.0 years and for AD was 84.6 years (chi(2) = 19.9, p < 0.001) with significant modification effects due to gender (HR 1.51, 95% CI: 1.0 to 2.3) and the presence of at least 1 APOE epsilon4 allele (HR 1.50, 95% CI: 1.0 to 2.2). Survival after dementia onset was also different between DLB and AD (7.3 vs 8.5 years; chi(2) = 5.4, p < 0.02). DLB cases had similar risks of institutionalization and survival in long-term care facilities to AD cases. Self-reports of depression and the presence of extrapyramidal signs were important covariates. The rate of cognitive decline as measured by psychometric performance and clinical staging methods did not differ between DLB and AD. 
 
 CONCLUSIONS: 
 
 Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) increases the risk of mortality compared with Alzheimer disease (AD), but the two groups did not differ in rate of cognitive decline. The greater risk for noncognitive disease progression for DLB compared with AD suggests clinically meaningful differences for the two disorders. 

 Ted Turner has revealed his Lewy Body dementia diagnosis. 
 
 The 79-year-old media mogul, who founded CNN in 1980, opened up about his illness for the first time during an interview with CBS Sunday Morning in a clip that was released on Friday. 
 
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 “It’s a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer’s. It’s similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer’s is fatal,” Turner said of LBD, which is caused by abnormal protein deposits that build up over time and disrupt normal brain function. 
 
 “Thank goodness I don’t have that. But, I also have got, let’s — the one that’s — I can’t remember the name of it,” he said, pausing momentarily before adding, “Dementia. I can’t remember what my disease is.” 
 
 Turner, who filmed the interview at his 113,000-acre ranch near Bozeman, Montana, also described his symptoms of feeling “tired [and] exhausted. That’s the main symptoms, and forgetfulness.” 
 
 LBD is the same disease Robin Williams was suffering from before he died of suicide in August 2014 at age 63, according to his widow Susan Williams. 
 
 RELATED: Robin Williams and the Brain Disorder That Drove Him to Suicide: What Is Lewy Body Dementia? 
 
 Ted Turner and Jane Fonda Paras Griffin/WireImage 
 
 “Lewy Body dementia is the second most common neurodegenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s,” Dr. Alex Pantelyat, Director of Atypical Parkinsonism Center and Assistant Professor of Neurology at Johns Hopkins previously told PEOPLE in November 2015. “It is an incredibly devastating disease. It affects your core, it affects who you are as a person. In the case of DLB and some of these other related disorders it tends to a great extent affect the frontal lobe, which is really what makes us human. It’s really unbelievably devastating.” 
 
 Turner was most recently featured in his ex-wife Jane Fonda‘s HBO documentary Jane Fonda In Five Acts, which premiered on Sept. 24. 
 
 After 10 years of marriage, Turner and Fonda divorced in 2001. 
 
 “[Ted] was sexy. He was brilliant. He had two million acres by the time I left. It would have been easy to stay,” she told PEOPLE editor-in-chief Jess Cagle, in the most recent episode of the Jess Cagle Interview. 
 
 “But there was this angel on my shoulder. …It was hard to even hear her voice, saying, ‘If you stay, you will die without ever becoming who you can be. You will not really be authentic,’ ” she said. 
 
 Turner’s full interview will air on CBS Sunday Morning at 9 a.m. on Sunday. 

 CNN founder Ted Turner says he is battling Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder which affects memory and other cognitive functions. He opened up about his health struggle in an interview with Ted Koppel set to air on "CBS Sunday Morning" on September 30. 
 
 "It's a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer's. It's similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer's is fatal," Turner told Koppel at his 113,000-acre ranch near Bozeman, Montana. "Thank goodness I don't have that. But, I also have got, let's – the one that's – I can't remember the name of it." 
 
 After a pause, Turner said, "Dementia. I can't remember what my disease is." 
 
 Asked what his symptoms are, Turner replied, "Tired. Exhausted. That's the main symptoms, and, forgetfulness." 
 
 Ted Turner talks about his battle with dementia with Ted Koppel. CBS News 
 
 Turner was known for going through euphoric highs and dark lows, which were initially diagnosed as symptoms of manic depression. But Turner said that was a misdiagnosis. 
 
 The creator of CNN and the Turner Broadcasting System also said he doesn't watch the news much anymore, though he still watches CNN occasionally. 
 
 "I think they're stickin' with politics a little too much," he said. "They'd do better to have – a more balanced agenda. But that's, you know, just one person's opinion." 
 
 Turner also revealed that he once thought about running for president. 
 
 "Well, the closest I came to running for office was when I was married to Jane Fonda. And when I discussed it with her – she was married to one politician," Turner tells Koppel. "And she said, you know, 'If you run for, for office, you run alone.'" 
 
 Koppel's full interview with Ted Turner will air September 30 on CBS Sunday Morning at 9:00 a.m. ET. 

 Originally posted Friday, September 28, 2018 by RODNEY HO/rho@ajc.com on his AJC Radio & TV Talk blog 
 
 Media mogul Ted Turner has revealed he has Lewy body dementia, a progressive brain disorder comparable to Alzheimer’s. 
 
 The 79-year-old largely retired businessman spoke with former “Nightline” host Ted Koppel for an interview with “CBS Sunday Morning” that’s set to air in full on Sunday Sept. 30. The network revealed his diagnosis Friday. 
 
 “It’s a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer’s. It’s similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer’s is fatal,” Turner told Koppel from his 113,000-acre ranch near Bozeman, Mont. “Thank goodness I don’t have that. But, I also have got, let’s — the one that’s — I can’t remember the name of it.” 
 
 He eventually said, “Dementia. I can’t remember what my disease is.” 
 
 Turner then described some of the negative effects: “Tired. Exhausted. That’s the main symptoms, and forgetfulness.” 
 
 Lewy body dementia is a serious disease and it can pose problems with memory, moving, sleep, as well as other physical and cognitive functions symptoms, according to the Atlanta-based Lewy Body Dementia Association. Those with Lewy body dementia are prone to hallucinations and have issues with balance that can lead to falls. It is often misdiagnosed because there is no specific test for it. 
 
 [UPDATE: After this story posted, I received several comments from people who have had parents, spouses and other family members who suffer from Lewy body dementia. They felt Turner was downplaying its potential severity, saying it is by no means milder than Alzheimer’s and in many cases could be worse. A 2006 medical study showed the average life expectancy for someone diagnosed with Lewy body dementia is actually worse than that with Alzheimer’s.] 
 
 Phillip Evans, vice president and chief communications officer of Turner Enterprises and a longtime Turner confidante, declined to comment. 
 
 In the 1970s, Turner became Atlanta’s colorful maverick who amassed nicknames such as “Captain Outrageous” and “Mouth of the South.” In 1976, he turned TBS into the first national satellite-operated “superstation.” That same year, he purchased the Atlanta Braves, then won the America’s Cup yacht race the following year. But his biggest contribution to the city came in 1980, when he launched the very first 24-hour news station. 
 
 Facing down skeptics, he built what was originally derided as “Chicken Noodle News” into a hugely profitable news operation with bureaus all over the world. 
 
 He sold Turner Broadcasting to Time Warner in 1996 and was fired from the company in 2000, soon after the merger with AOL that cost him $8 billion of his then-$10 billion fortune. 
 
 Nonetheless, he focused on philanthropy, donating $1 billion to the United Nations. He also used his riches to scoop up real estate. For a time, he was among the top private landowners in the United States, with more than 2 million acres. An active environmentalist, he owns the largest bison herd in the world and sells bison burgers at his Ted’s Montana Grill chain. 
 
 His name still graces Midtown’s Turner Broadcasting operations, and Turner Classic Movies still plays old Rita Hayworth and Clark Gable flicks. However, Turner Field is now Georgia State Stadium. 
 
 Unlike some of his peers, such as Rupert Murdoch and John Malone, Turner is no longer active in the media world and has kept himself largely out of the public eye for the past 15 years, doing interviews sparingly and occasionally accepting a lifetime achievement award. 
 
 In the pre-taped interview with Koppel, Turner lightly criticized the network he founded, saying CNN relies too much on politics. 
 
 “They’d do better to have a more balanced agenda,” he said. “But that’s, you know, just one person’s opinion.” 
 
 He also said he considered running for president while married to actress Jane Fonda in 1999, but she talked him out of it. 
 
 Though Turner spends much of his time on his ranch in Montana, he still keeps a penthouse in downtown Atlanta, from which he can see CNN headquarters. He joined Fonda to celebrate her 80th birthday in December at The Whitley in Buckhead, along with actresses Rosanna Arquette and Catherine Keener, playwright Eve Ensler, and Spanx founder and fellow billionaire Sarah Blakely. 
 
 Forbes now ranks Turner as the 1,084th richest person, with an estimated $2.2 billion in net worth. 
 
 Bill Tush, a journalist and host who worked with Turner for more than 25 years and still lives in Atlanta, said he last saw Turner in 2015, when the city of Atlanta changed the name of part of Spring Street to Ted Turner Drive. 
 
 “He was joking with me, wondering what he was supposed to do with a street named after him,” Tush said. “I said, ‘I guess you have to clean it!’ He laughed.” 
 
 Tush said there are plans for an 80th birthday party in Atlanta for Turner in November. 
 
 Over the years, Turner has been unusually frank about his medical issues. In 2012, he told the Hollywood Reporter that he saw a psychiatrist monthly, but added, “I’m not in therapy. It’s just somebody to talk to.” He publicly acknowledged taking lithium for a few years, but now believes he was misdiagnosed as manic depressive. Rather, he said, he has a mild-to-moderate case of anxiety. “But I don’t suffer from depression. The word doesn’t exist for me.” 
 
 He also told the Hollywood Reporter that he has an irregular heartbeat and sleep apnea — and that he wears hearing aids. 
 
 Lewy body dementia affects about 1.4 million Americans, according to the Lewy Body Dementia Association. In comparison, about 5.7 million have Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. The late Georgia governor and senator Zell Miller, who died in March at age 86, was diagnosed in 2016 with Lewy body dementia. Comic Robin Williams, who took his life in 2014, was diagnosed with it as well. 
 
 RELATED: Turner celebrated his ex-wife Jane Fonda’s 80th birthday in Atlanta last year
– The billionaire founder of CNN says he's been diagnosed with a progressive brain disorder called Lewy body dementia, People reports. In an interview with CBS Sunday Morning, 79-year-old Ted Turner calls it "a mild case of what people have as Alzheimer's. It's similar to that. But not nearly as bad. Alzheimer's is fatal. Thank goodness I don't have that." The media mogul made the admission at his 113,000-acre ranch close to Bozeman, Montana. "But, I also have got, let's—the one that's—I can't remember the name of it," he tells Ted Koppel. Thinking for a second, Turner says, "Dementia. I can't remember what my disease is." "Tired. Exhausted," Turner says of his symptoms. "That's the main symptoms, and, forgetfulness." But the Atlanta Journal Constitution says Turner may be "downplaying" the disease, which is known to affect sleep, moving, and other cognitive and physical functions; hallucinations and fall-inducing balance problems are also possible. In fact, a 2006 study found that Lewy body dementia can shorten life expectancy more than Alzheimer's. But Turner is still a man with an opinion: "I think they're stickin' with politics a little too much," he says of CNN. "They'd do better to have—a more balanced agenda." He also reveals that he once nearly ran for president, until ex-wife Jane Fonda dissuaded him. See a clip of the interview at CBS News.