Preventions of Epilepsy

There is no specific way to prevent all seizures. However, the following tips may help control some of them:

• Always family members should observe and record any seizure information to make sure the person gets proper treatment.

• Get plenty of quality sleep, reduce stress, exercise, and eat a healthy diet. Poor health habits can make you more likely to have more seizures.

You might help lower your risk of seizures if you:

• Use helmets to prevent head injury. This will lessen the likelihood of a brain injury that leads to seizures.

• Avoid illegal street drugs.

You should not drive if you have uncontrolled seizures. Every U.S. state has a different law detailing which people with a history of seizures are allowed to drive. If you have uncontrolled seizures, you should avoid activities where loss of awareness would cause great danger, such as climbing to high places, biking, and swimming alone.

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Considerations and Common causes of Epilepsy

Considerations

It may be hard to tell if someone is having a seizure. Some seizures only cause a person to have staring spells, which may go unnoticed. Specific symptoms of a seizure depend on what part of the brain is involved. They occur suddenly and may include:

• Change in alertness; the person cannot remember a period of time

• Mood changes, such as unexplainable fear, panic, joy, or laughter

• Change in sensation of the skin, usually spreading over the arm, leg, or trunk

• Vision changes, including seeing flashing lights

• Rarely, hallucinations (seeing things that aren't there)

• Falling, loss of muscle control, occurs very suddenly

• Muscle twitching that may spread up or down an arm or leg

• Muscle tension or tightening that causes twisting of the body, head, arms, or legs

• Shaking of the entire body

• Tasting a bitter or metallic flavor

Symptoms may stop after a few minutes, or continue for 15 minutes. They rarely continue longer.

Common Causes

Causes of seizures can include:

• Abnormal levels of sodium or glucose in the blood

• Brain injury (such as stroke or a head injury)

• Brain injury that occurs to the baby during labor or childbirth

• Brain problems that occur before birth (congenital brain defects)

• Brain tumor or bleeding in the brain

• Dementia, such as Alzheimer's disease

• High fever

• Illnesses that cause the brain to deteriorate

• Infections that affect the brain, such as meningitis, encephalitis, neurosyphilis, or AIDS

• Kidney or liver failure

• Phenylketonuria (PKU), which can cause seizures in infants

• Use of illegal street drugs, such as cocaine or amphetamines

• Withdrawal from alcohol after drinking a lot on most days

• Withdrawal from certain drugs, including some painkillers and sleeping pills

Sometimes no cause can be identified. This is called idiopathic seizures. They usually are seen in children and young adults but can occur at any age. There may be a family history of epilepsy or seizures.

If seizures repeatedly continue after the underlying problem is treated, the condition is called EPILEPSY.

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Know about Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person has repeated seizures (convulsions) over time. Seizures are episodes of disturbed brain activity that cause changes in attention or behavior.

A seizure is the physical findings or changes in behavior that occur after an episode of abnormal electrical activity in the brain.
Generalized tonic - clonic seizur :A generalized tonic-clonic seizure is a seizure involving the entire body. It is also called a grand mal seizure. The terms "seizure," convulsion," or "epilepsy" are most often associated with generalized tonic-clonic seizures

Causes, incidence, and risk factors

Generalized tonic-clonic seizures may occur in people of any age. They may occur once (single episode), or as part of a repeated, chronic condition (epilepsy).

Symptoms

Many patients with generalized tonic-clonic seizures have vision, taste, smell, or sensory changes, hallucinations, or dizziness before the seizure. This is called an aura.

The seizures usually involve muscle rigidity, followed by violent muscle contractions, and loss of alertness (consciousness).Other symptoms that occur during the seizure may include:

• Biting the cheek or tongue

• Clenched teeth or jaw

• Loss of urine or stool control (incontinence)

• Stopped breathing or difficulty breathing

• Blue skin color

After the seizure, the person may have:

• Normal breathing

• Sleepiness that lasts for 1 hour or longer

• Loss of memory (amnesia) regarding events surrounding the seizure episode

• Headache, drowisiness and confusion
  

• Weakness of one side of the body for a few minutes to a few hours following seizure (called Todd's paralysis)

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