Throughout the world there are around 50 million people living with epilepsy, and 3 million of them live in the United States, which to society is an alarming statistic (BroadcastMed). Epilepsy is a neurological disorder where the nerve cell activity in the brain is disturbed, causing seizures. To most people a seizure is when a person’s muscles contract and they fall to the ground, their muscles spasming, making their whole body shake. In reality, studies have shown that there are many different types of seizures. Doctors have classified seizures into two different groups; generalized and focal. A focal seizure is caused when there is abnormal activity in just one area of your brain. A person can have a focal seizure without loss of consciousness
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When a person is seizing a lot of motion is happening in the body. A seizure happens when there is a problem with the neural connections that the human brain makes, and if the problem is big enough the patient can suffer brain damage. A prolonged seizure can cause serious complications in the patient. A seizure lasting more than five minutes could result in serious changes in gene expression, the patients brain changing how it makes connections, and even the death of brain cells, resulting in serious mental defects (Mayo Clinic). When a person has epilepsy, they are always at risk of having a seizure. Doctors and scientists have worked together to try and create technology to detect seizures, but none of their inventions have worked yet. People with epilepsy can’t safely do a lot of things that everybody does, like swimming or driving. Mayo Clinic stated, “If you have epilepsy, you’re 15 to 19 more times likely to drown while swimming or bathing.” Even if they have special precautions, swimming isn’t safe for people who have been diagnosed with epilepsy, and even more dangerous is driving. If the patient seizes while they’re driving they can lose control of their car and injure themselves or other people on the road (Mayo Clinic). Another potentially dangerous situation for a person with epilepsy is pregnancy. If a woman gets pregnant and they have epilepsy, she can be putting her life, and a child’s, in danger. Antiepileptic drugs, also known as AEDs, can be used to stop seizures and prevent neural connections from causing a seizure. But if a woman gets pregnant and still takes an AED, the child can be born with a birth defect, and the mother having epilepsy increases the chances in her child developing it (Mayo Clinic). Out of all of the physical complications that can happen because of epilepsy, the most dangerous one is the least common. When a person with
When a person is seizing a lot of motion is happening in the body. A seizure happens when there is a problem with the neural connections that the human brain makes, and if the problem is big enough the patient can suffer brain damage. A prolonged seizure can cause serious complications in the patient. A seizure lasting more than five minutes could result in serious changes in gene expression, the patients brain changing how it makes connections, and even the death of brain cells, resulting in serious mental defects (Mayo Clinic). When a person has epilepsy, they are always at risk of having a seizure. Doctors and scientists have worked together to try and create technology to detect seizures, but none of their inventions have worked yet. People with epilepsy can’t safely do a lot of things that everybody does, like swimming or driving. Mayo Clinic stated, “If you have epilepsy, you’re 15 to 19 more times likely to drown while swimming or bathing.” Even if they have special precautions, swimming isn’t safe for people who have been diagnosed with epilepsy, and even more dangerous is driving. If the patient seizes while they’re driving they can lose control of their car and injure themselves or other people on the road (Mayo Clinic). Another potentially dangerous situation for a person with epilepsy is pregnancy. If a woman gets pregnant and they have epilepsy, she can be putting her life, and a child’s, in danger. Antiepileptic drugs, also known as AEDs, can be used to stop seizures and prevent neural connections from causing a seizure. But if a woman gets pregnant and still takes an AED, the child can be born with a birth defect, and the mother having epilepsy increases the chances in her child developing it (Mayo Clinic). Out of all of the physical complications that can happen because of epilepsy, the most dangerous one is the least common. When a person with