Epilepsy effects nearly 3 million Americans, but who is really at risk?
Robert S. Fishers Epilepsy can develop in any person at any age. Almost 1% of people will develop epilepsy during their lifetime. That is 60 million people worldwide. In other words, out of the 60,000 persons’ stadium about 500 will have epilepsy. New cases of epilepsy are most common among children especially during their first year. The rate of new cases gradually declines until about age 10 and then becomes stable. After age 60, the rate starts to increase again
Many famous people in history had may have had epilepsy including world leaders, like Julius Caesar, writers like Luis Carroll, who wrote Alice in Wonderland, artist like Vincent Van Gogh and athletes like Chanda Gunn, goaltender for the US Olympics Hockey team.
The causes of epilepsy can be divided into two groups; brain injuries and chemical imbalances in the brain. Anything that injures that brain can lead to seizures. But in over half the cases, new cause can be identified.
The type of injury that can lead to a seizure is age dependent. Seizures in children often are cause by birth traumas, infections such as meningitis, congenital abnormalities, or high fevers. Seizures in the middle years commonly are cause by head injuries, infections, alcohol, and stimulant drugs or medications side effects. In the elderly, brain tumors and strokes cause a higher proportion of seizures.
Not all seizures result from a structural problem in the brain. Chemical imbalances also can cause seizures. Common chemical imbalances that can produce seizures include drugs like alcohol, cocaine and others. Low blood sugar, low oxygen, low blood sodium or low blood calcium. Kidney failure or liver failure can also produce seizures.
Doctors will evaluate you for these imbalances by taking a careful history and doing blood test. Although these disorders and injuries can explain many cases of epilepsy, often the cause of epilepsy remains idiopathic, which is the medical term for unknown?
About half the time, no cause for seizure can be identified. Fortunately, we do not need to know the cause to treat the seizures. Scientist increasingly recognized that importance of genetic factors in the origin of epilepsy.
Genetics or heredity are most relevant to generalize seizures including absence, generalize tonic-clonic and myoclonic seizures. Defects in genes do not lead directly to epilepsy, but they can alter the excitability of the brain in a way that predisposes to seizures,
Typically, epilepsy develops because of multiple gene abnormalities, origin abnormality in concert with the environmental trigger.
Parents with epilepsy wonder whether their children will have epilepsy. In most cases, they would not but they do have a higher risk than others. If the mother has a generalize type of epilepsy, the child’s chance of having epilepsy maybe as high as 5% to 20%. But if their parent has epilepsy due to a brain injury, the child’s chance of having epilepsy is only about 5%.
If you were someone close field, suffering from seizures please see a physician.
The movie in this series can be viewed in any order. If you wish to watch these clips in their original sequence, the next video “How is epilepsy diagnose”?
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