Mystery Of Epilepsy Essay, Research Paper

EPILEPSY: A DISORDER IN WHICH NERVE CELLS OF THEBRAIN FROM TIME TO TIME RELEASE ABNORMAL ELECTRICALIMPULSES. Epilepsy can happen to anyone of any age. The largest(47%) percent of people, developing epilepsy for the first time, being children frombirth to nine years of age.The next largest age group would be ten year olds to ninteen year olds at30%. The least amount of first time seizures comes from the forty plus agegroup. (According to EFA publications) Over 2.5 million people suffer from epilepsy. The internationalleague against epilepsy describes a seizure as an alternative termfor epileptic attack . Seizures vary in there length and severity.A tonic-clonic seizure can last for one to seven minutes. Absenceseizures usually last for a few seconds. However, complex partialseizure may last for thirty seconds or two to three minutes. Status Epileptius , is when seizures last for many hours. This can lead to medical problems. This type of seizure is vary rare. There are many types of seizures: 1. GRAND MAL OR TONIC CLONIC SEIZURE are one of the worst and most severe seizures. Some know that they are going to have a seizure, they will experience some type of warning. They may feel like something in their stomach is rising or falling. They will become unconsciousness and stop breathing. The person may shake violently. It may last for a couple of minutes then the person will recover consciousness. This usually leaves the person exhausted, and disoriented. Sometimes, people who are not familiar with seizures will call for medical emergency help. 2. MYOCLONIC SEIZURES: with this seizure, a person may experience shaking of the limbs and depending on how bad the seizure is, may become unconcious. This also leaves a person feeling disoriented and exhausted. 3. TONIC SEIZURES: often occur in children who have had some type of brain damage. These seizures are characterized by stiffening of the body, or the arching of the back. The person may or may or may not lose conciousness. The cause of all seizures is unclear, but doctorshave come up with some reasons why they may occur. Commonforms of generalized epilepsy, absence attacks, and tonic-clonic seizures aresometimes caused because of an inherited instability. This is where theinherited instability in functioning of neurones is responsible for thesedisorders. It is still not understood just how this genetic defect works,it could be the abnormality is in the structure of the neurone s outer membrance, which could cause electrical instability. Any type of injury related to your brain could cause youto have an epilectic seizure. These could include lack of oxygenduring delivery of a baby, injury to the head at any age, injury to the brain caused by stroke. Metabolic disturbance may cause seizures which are generalized,through distributing the regular functioning of neurones. The causecould be when the blood sugar is very low, or when the liver orkidney malfunction. People that are alcoholic or drug abusers may have a seizure while under the influence of these substances. They mayalso experience a seizure when the withdraw some of these substances, like barbiturates or sedatives or some other medications,especially if they have been taken for a long time. Brain tumors can be a cause of seizures also, but these arevery rare. Most epileptic patients have been tested for brain tumors,just to be sure so they can be ruled out. The most common treatment for epilepsy is some for ofmedication. Most doctors recommend medication for most peoplesuffering from seizure disorder. Some patients are forced to usemedication because their seizures are either so severe or too often.If the seizures are really severe an you have alot of them, you can get brain damage. If they originate in a certain part of the brain,it could also cause brain damage. While some people have beenable to control their seizures with medication, others have had tohave surgery to correct the problem. Doctors for the mostpart do not recommend or advise nutrition as a way of helping patients. However, there are many people who have tried different types ofhomeopathic remedies and vitamins and found they worked wonderfully.Many have used these in place of medications. Neologists that are honest will tell you that they really can t answer the cause or cure of

epilepsy. It would seem that they would be more open to the successesof people who chose an alternate route than medication. However,it would seem that there is a pretty closed mind when it come to usinganything other than prescribed medicines. There are things you should do if you are with someone when they are having a tonic-clinic seizure: 1. Do not panic. Let the seizure happen. There is no way you can stop a seizure after it starts. 2. Get the person on the floor and put something soft under their head. If they have clothing around their neck that could cause them to choke remove it. 3. Do not try to open their mouth and put something between their teeth. This could damage their jaw or teeth. 4. When the person has stopped shaking roll them over to their side. This enables the fluids to drain away allowing them to pass through. Do not panic is the person stops breathing for a brief while. 5. When the seizure has subsided let the person rest for as long as they need to. Some people are exhausted after a seizure. 6. You should call for medical assistance if the seizure lasts longer than five minutes, or repeats itself before recovery fully from the first seizure. If someone is having a partial complex seizure you should: 1. Do not leave the person alone, and do not try to stop the seizure. 2. Try and keep the person away from danger. 3. This type of seizure may spread to other parts of the brain and convulsions may follow. 4. Be sure that the person has recovered completely before leaving them alone. Ask them questions about themselves to be sure they recovered completely. If it appears that they are not recovering be sure to contact medical assistance immediately. MY STORY… When I was six years old I had my first seizure. It wasvery scary to me, because I had no idea what was happeningto me, or why. I think the type of seizure I had was Metabolicdisturbance. I believe it was related to low blood sugar. Theseizure affected my jaw. When I saw the neurologist, he had no idea what mightbe causing my seizures. So, they did some tests, EEG, whichtests the brain waves to see if they are normal, mine were not.I also had an MRI, you go into a tube like machine that makesalot of noise. This test was to be sure there were no tumors.There were none to be found. I went to many different specialists to see what they recommended in the way of treatment. Most wanted to put me on medication. My parents prayed alot about this and attended informational meetings. They decided not to go the medicationroute if they didn t have to. So, while we were awaiting test results,we studied up on epilepsy and all the information we could findabout treating it with vitamins and diet. By the time the test resultscame in, we had formed a treatment plan with diet and vitamins. Itseemed to be working as the seizures were getting farther and fartherapart. So, with much prayer, we decided to pursue this route. The doctorwas not happy with our decision. We found that when I didn t eat sugar that my seizures werefarther apart. We also found that pasta for dinner was predictable for a seizure. We learned that pasta turns to sugar quickly and lowersyour blood sugar. If I ate a whole grain toast or nine grain cereal beforebedtime, usually I did not experience a seizure. We learned that thewhole grain breaks down slower so I was OK with my blood sugarin the early mornings, which is when I usually had my seizures.I would usually have them around 5am, and they would last anywherefrom several seconds to minutes. They would always wake me upand I was always awake during the seizure. If it was a bad seizure,I wouldn t be able to move afterwards for a while. After everyseizure my speech would be slurred for a little while. My dad wouldmake me squeeze his hand to see if it had affected my strength.I continued to carefully monitor my diet, no sugar of any kind, lotsof health foods and a regiment of vitamins. At first I took a fizzyvitamin drink. Later just vitamins, which included a daily, the bcomplex, magnesium along with calcium and zinc, manganese andothers. I had seizures for around three years, they continually gotfarther and farther apart. When I hadn t had one for aroundnine months to a year, I had another EEG. This time it cameback normal. We are thankful for God s direction and sustainingpower. He helped us day by day as we looked to him fordirection.