Epilepsy

    Epilepsy is a brain disorder which effects the brain in many areas and different ways. Usually consisting of series of seizures, within the first few moments of the attack, you will lose consciousness and control of you. Twitching, falling to the floor, moving without control, drooling, and even loss of bladder control are symptoms that occur during tonic-clonic seizures, but there are many other different types of seizures which have shared and different symptoms. This disease was believed to be first described by the Babylonians some 3000 years ago, and the word epilepsy is the Greek word meaning- attack.

    Deep inside your brain are ganglia, which are clusters of interconnecting neurons and other neural cells.  When these begin to malfunction, seizures are sparked. Through the signaling, your average neuron will send 8 impulses per second, but a patient of seizure will have his/her neurons signaling 500x’s per second. And this occurs 100x’s a day for most epileptic patients. 

    Epilepsy, thankfully, is not contagious, nor caused by brain retardation. And again thankfully, most seizures do not damage the brain of those with epilepsy, and any changes to the brain caused by this disease are subtle. But there is no permanent cure for epilepsy at the moment. Many epileptics are normal people in terms of intellectuality. And 1 in 100 people will have epilepsy in their life time (2 million people in the USA). 20% of people who have epilepsy are immune to medication and suffer more than the rest 80% whose symptoms are controlled to some extent by modern medication.  Epilepsy, in most cases, is chronic; nevertheless, there is a high chance for children who spontaneously develop epilepsy, to get rid of it by the time they graduate into adulthood.

    The reason people get epilepsy are many- abnormal brain development or neural paths, to some brain diseases which cause neural cells to malfunction. Other reasons include an excessively large production of neurotransmitters, consequently, increasing neural activity to a point to where a seizure may start. And the same increase in activity of the brain occurs, in some cases, while trying to patch itself from a trauma, or a stroke. And in other cases, glia (glial cells), which affect neural processing while layering myelin (this substance speeds signaling), have known to cause epilepsy. Layering too much myelin can cause seizures. 

    Although half the occurrences of epilepsy have no known cause, researchers are looking into many different reasons trying to find solutions. Traumas, infection, and other threats to the brain.