Epilepsy - The Cause and Effect
Epilepsy and the Common Misconceptions
According to ehealthMD.com epilepsy is a disorder that results from the cohort of electrical signals inside the brain, causing persistent seizures. Epilepsy is a neurological condition, which affects the nervous system. Epilepsy is also known as a seizure disorder. It is usually diagnosed after a person has had at least two seizures that were not caused by some known medical condition like alcohol withdrawal or extremely low blood sugar. Sometimes, according to the International League Against Epilepsy, epilepsy can be diagnosed after one seizure.
A seizure is a sudden flow of electrical activity in the brain that usually affects how a person feels or acts for a short time says Steven C. Schachter, M.D. Seizures are not a disease in themselves. Instead, they are a symptom of many diverse disorders that can affect the brain. Some seizures can hardly be detected, while others are totally deterring.
There are several diverse types of seizures and syndromes. Each epilepsy syndrome has a specific set of indicators and many of them are very rare. These syndromes are frequently named for their symptoms or for the part of the brain where they derive from.
Several of these epileptic syndromes begin in childhood or even in infancy. Others begin in adulthood and even in old age.
Some of the most universal types of epilepsy are:
- Frontal lobe epilepsy
- Occipital lobe epilepsy
- Parietal lobe epilepsy
- Absence epilepsy
- Temporal lobe epilepsy
There are so many types of seizures; it gets hard even for those whom specialize in Epilepsy to categorize them. They come in many structures and require a Diagnosis to determine what kind of Epileptic seizure a person has. Typically, they classify seizures into two categories, primary generalized seizures and partial seizures. The difference between these types is in how they begin:
Primary generalized seizures start with an extensive electrical discharge that occupies both sides of the brain at once. Hereditary features are essential in several of these seizures.
Partial seizures start with an electrical discharge in one restricted area of the brain. Some are linked to head injury, brain infection, stroke, or tumor, but in most cases the cause is unknown.
An Alternative: the Ketogenic Diet and How It Helps Epilepsy
On epilepsy.org.uk the ketogenic diet is a high fat, ample protein, very low carbohydrate diet which is cautiously and independently calculated for each person. Calories are controlled and depend on the age and activity of the person.
The diet was intended to imitate several of the metabolic assets of starvation. During starvation, the body first uses its accumulation of glucose and glycogen, and then initiates the burning of stored body fat. When there is not sufficient glucose available, the fats cannot be completely burned and ketone bodies (acetoacetate and beta hydroxy butyrate) are left as the residue of incompletely burned fat. The ketogenic diet provides exogenous fats (fat from outside the body) for the body to burn, but limits the available carbohydrate so that ketone bodies build up. It is the high level of these ketones which appear to stifle seizures.
Sources
- epilepsy.org.uk
- ehealthMD.com
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