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.
