Billy Joel’s Diagnosis Of A Brain Disorder: Canceled All Upcoming Concerts
We’re going to turn now to some breaking news about music icon Billy Joel. According to a statement just shared to his social media accounts, the performer has been diagnosed with a brain disorder, forcing him to cancel all upcoming concerts through next year. Medical analyst Dr. Van Gupta is standing by, but let’s begin with correspondent Prima Scheer.
What does this statement from Billy Joel and his team say specifically? And what are we learning about this new diagnosis? Hey Edison. Yeah. So we know now just about an hour ago, his team put out a statement that said that he has been diagnosed with normal pressure hydrocephalus, and I know that Dr. Gupta is going to go into more detail about what exactly that means.
It also went on to say that basically during his performances, it was exacerbating a lot of the conditions that he was having with his hearing, his vision and his balance. So that’s what made it necessary for him to cancel his upcoming performances. Now this medical diagnosis didn’t necessarily come out of nowhere.
The 76. -ear-ol Grammy winner has been having medical issues since February when actually at our performance at mohegan’s Sun in Connecticut, he actually fell over after trying to spin his microphone in the air and kind of throw it at the audience.
He fell over onto his side, which caused obviously a lot of talk about his health and concerns about his medical condition. He was able to get up. During that concert and finish his performance. But after that he actually decided to cancel the rest of his performances in June and in about mid-march his team released a statement that he was undergoing physical therapy and that he was going to be able to get back to performing by his July 5th concert.
And now of course, we’re hearing that with this new diagnosis and more specifics about that medical condition that unfortunately he’s just not going to be able to perform for the rest of the year Ellison. And obviously his health is most important. But did his team give any indication on the timeline how long he will be receiving treatment, possibly if or when he does plan to go back on tour. It sounds like the concerts for the rest of this year.
He had about 15 or 16 scheduled across the country, in New Orleans. Toronto. Santa Clara. Salt Lake City. Washington. DC, and even as far away as Liverpool. All of those concerts have been canceled through the month of October, so it sounds like for now he, of course, is prioritizing his health. You can see there another part of his statement saying that he sincerely apologizes for disappointing his audience, and his team also said that anyone who is looking for a refund, they obviously will be automatically refunded.
This is a man, of course. Ellison, as you know, who has had such a long, illustrious musical career. So I’m sure taking a break right now is probably very difficult for him. Ye Edison seems like it is the right call for him and his family. Pri Reuther, thank you, medical analyst Dr. Vi Gu, to help us understand what is this specific brain disorder?
The Performer Has Been Diagnosed With A Brain Disorder
They say Billy Joel is diagnosed with. Is it rare? Well Ellison in normal pressure Hydroceallis. It is not very common, but about 60 as we age, and so in our 70 S what we’re noticing is about. Maybe a percent of the population has this diagnosis. Whether they’re diagnosed or not really depends on symptoms.
Up our 80 S maybe about five percent of the population, so it definitely increases in prevalence as we age. What it is is the buildup of fluid in our brains and yours. Our brain actually is filled with pockets of fluid. It’s called cerebrospinal fluid for those that might know familiar with it or have had its spinal taps in the past. But our brain is surrounded by our skull and so there is a fixed amount of space so you can’t have a ton of fluid in there.
Otherwise it starts to really impinge and put pressure on our brain tissue and that’s what’s happening here. This is treatable especially if it’s diagnosed early. It’s treatable and outcomes can be excellent and it appears that’s what happened in the case of Billy Joel is that he had these symptoms back and his prior concert. Mohican Son.
Things escalated and he was able to be diagnosed. But early treatment here is critical and before we let you go because you said that it is treatable if diagnosed early, remind us of the symptoms people should be aware of in the event they experience something similar. You know as we age, cognition issues if you’re feeling confused, memory loss, that’s important to keep in mind.
If your gait is unstable and that’s a new diagnosis, or if that’s something that you’re noticing, that’s something to be visualant about and talk to your doctor about, you’re having urinary incontinence. These are the typical symptoms here, cognitive change, gate instability, urinary incontinence.
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