What is Epilepsy?

The brain disorder caused by frequent seizures, unusual behavior, and sometimes awareness loss is called epilepsy. It can affect anyone including both males and females but most common in infant children or old age persons.

 The doctor might diagnose epilepsy if the patient has two or more seizure attacks. Not all seizures result in epilepsy. It may link to brain injury. However, sometimes the causes are unknown. It affects nearly 50 million people all around the world.

Seizures are of two types:

• Generalized: It affects your whole brain
• Focal: It affects a specific part of the brain

 

• Mild seizures are difficult to recognize. It lasts for a few seconds and you remain awake during it.
• Powerful seizures cause contraction. It lasts for a few minutes. And after it, you might not even remember your seizure attack.

What are the Symptoms of Epilepsy?

• The patient might feel Tingling in the limbs
• Staring at something continuously
• The patient's body becomes unresponsive
• The patient might do repetitive movements
• Tiredness
• Cab be felt a change in the sense of touch, hear, smell, sight, and even touch.

 

What is the Generalization of Seizures?

It affects the whole brain. Its type is as follows:

• Absence seizures: during it, the patient may have a loss of awareness or staring something continuously,
• Tonic seizures: The patient has sudden stiffness in the muscles of the legs, arms, or trunk
• Atonic seizures: It is the loss of muscle control also known as drop seizures
• Clonic seizures: It is the repeated twitchy muscle movements
• Myoclonic seizures: It causes twitching of arms or legs
• Tonic-clonic seizures: during it, the patient might experience stiffening or shaking in his body, uncontrollable bladder or bowel
• Tongue biting

First aid treatment to be given during seizures:

• If you are with someone who got a mild seizure attack;
• Be with the patient until its seizure ends
• Take them to a safe place after the seizure attack
• Be calm and also try to keep the patient calm
• Go for medical support
• If you are with someone who got tonic-clonic seizure attack
• Take the patient to the ground
• Help them breathe comfortably
• Take dangerous things away
• Put a pillow or something soft under his/her head
• Loosen his/her clothes
• Never do the following when someone got a seizure attack
• Never try to stop his movements
• Don’t put anything in his/her mouth
• Never give them mouth to mouth
• Never give a person food or water

 

What are the causes of epilepsy?

There are some causes of it mentioned here.

• Brain injury
• Illness or fever
• Less supply of oxygen to the brain
• Brain tumor
• Some drugs
• Genetic or family history of seizure attacks

What helps in Epilepsy seizures?

• Illness
• Patient has Stress
• Flashing lights
• Consumption of alcohol
• Low blood sugar level 
• less sleep

 

What are the treatments for epilepsy?

There are the following treatments which can be useful for it.

• It is commonly treated with brain surgeries
• Eating a special diet called the ketogenic diet
• Using AEDs
• A process of putting a small electronic device inside the patient body to control seizure attacks.