What is Epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that affects almost everyone, from young children to adults aged 65 years and up. This means that this disorder of the body’s nervous system is recurrent and long lasting. The term epilepsy is derived from the ancient Greek word epilepsia meaning “to hold or to seize”.
What is Epilepsy :: The Disorder Explained
The disorder is characterized by periodic unprovoked seizures caused by misfires in the brain’s electric signals which disrupt its function. Our brain is similar to an electrical system powered by around 80 pulses of energy every second. The pulses go back forth in between our nerve cells which produces our feelings, recollections and judgment. The said seizures are short-lived and are symptoms of what could have been too much, unusual neuronal movement of the brain that could also occur at the same time.
Almost 50 million people around the world are affected by epilepsy. About 2.5 million of them are Americans and an estimate of more than 180,000 individuals is diagnosed with it every year. It is also said to believe that 90% of those people are from the developing countries of the world.
According to various medical journals, epilepsy is classified into five ways. The first one would be the initial cause or its etiology. Second, are the evident symptoms of the seizures known as semiology. Third, is the portion of the brain where the seizures are instigated. Fourth, is epilepsy being part of an isolated, particular medical condition and lastly, through the event that activates the seizure.
A seizure in epilepsy happens when the energy impulses of almost 500 per second come rather than just the normal 80 per second. The short electrical surge in the brain can occur in just a certain portion of it or worse the entire brain. While this abnormality in the electrical activity of the brain is what causes the seizures, its manifestation varies. There is the typical type wherein the person having an epileptic seizure has an irrepressible jerking of his body, others may suddenly lose consciousness. And most of these cases, the persons who had seizure don’t remember that it happened to them or what occurred prior to their attack.
A seizure can also be linked to epilepsy when a person has the tendency to have it repeatedly. Its frequency and severity can also differ and doesn’t have a regular time when it could take place. In other cases, a person with epilepsy can only have a few seizures in his lifetime while some can have numerous seizure attacks in just one day.
More often than not, epilepsy is actually controllable; however, medicines cannot really cure it. This is said so because around 30% of people who gets the best medication possible still doesn’t have any control over their seizures. Surgeries are also considered most of the time especially in the more severe cases.
When trying to figure out what is epilepsy, it should be kept in mind that epilepsy is not just a single disorder. Instead it should be taken in the context that it is a disorder with an enormous conflicting symptom that involves intermittent irregularity in the brain’s electrical activity.
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Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that affects almost everyone, from young children to adults aged 65 years and up. This means that this disorder of the body’s nervous system is recurrent and long lasting. The term epilepsy is derived from the ancient Greek word epilepsia meaning “to hold or to seize”.
The disorder is characterized by periodic unprovoked seizures caused by misfires in the brain’s electric signals which disrupt its function. Our brain is similar to an electrical system powered by around 80 pulses of energy every second. The pulses go back forth in between our nerve cells which produces our feelings, recollections and judgment. The said seizures are short-lived and are symptoms of what could have been too much, unusual neuronal movement of the brain that could also occur at the same time.
Almost 50 million people around the world are affected by epilepsy. About 2.5 million of them are Americans and an estimate of more than 180,000 individuals is diagnosed with it every year. It is also said to believe that 90% of those people are from the developing countries of the world.
According to various medical journals, epilepsy is classified into five ways. The first one would be the initial cause or its etiology. Second, are the evident symptoms of the seizures known as semiology. Third, is the portion of the brain where the seizures are instigated. Fourth, is epilepsy being part of an isolated, particular medical condition and lastly, through the event that activates the seizure.
A seizure in epilepsy happens when the energy impulses of almost 500 per second come rather than just the normal 80 per second. The short electrical surge in the brain can occur in just a certain portion of it or worse the entire brain. While this abnormality in the electrical activity of the brain is what causes the seizures, its manifestation varies. There is the typical type wherein the person having an epileptic seizure has an irrepressible jerking of his body, others may suddenly lose consciousness. And most of these cases, the persons who had seizure don’t remember that it happened to them or what occurred prior to their attack.
A seizure can also be linked to epilepsy when a person has the tendency to have it repeatedly. Its frequency and severity can also differ and doesn’t have a regular time when it could take place. In other cases, a person with epilepsy can only have a few seizures in his lifetime while some can have numerous seizure attacks in just one day.
More often than not, epilepsy is actually controllable; however, medicines cannot really cure it. This is said so because around 30% of people who gets the best medication possible still doesn’t have any control over their seizures. Surgeries are also considered most of the time especially in the more severe cases.
It should be kept in mind that epilepsy is not just a single disorder. Instead it should be taken in the context that it is a disorder with an enormous conflicting symptom that involves intermittent irregularity in the brain’s electrical activity.