Epilepsy
Have you ever seen someone have a seizure attack and wonder what was going on and why? Than this information should help you understand.
What is epilepsy? Epilepsy is a sudden surge of electrical activity in the brain that usually affects how a person feels of acts for a short time. Seizures are not a disease in themselves. Instead, they are a symptom of many different disorders that can affect the brain. Some seizures can hardly be noticed, but others are totally disabling.
What causes epilepsy? Any person's brain has the capacity to produce a seizure under certain conditions, but most are not likely to do this spontaneously. The reasons why some people develop epilepsy are not straightforward and there are many possible causes. Each individual has a seizure threshold or level of resistance to seizures. This threshold varies from person to person and is probably part of their genetic make-up. A person with a low seizure threshold might develop epilepsy spontaneously without other factors being involved. Having a low threshold and a condition such as cerebral palsy may also be the cause of epilepsy. Some people develop epilepsy following an infection that affects the brain, such as meningitis or encephalitis. Usually there is a fine balance in the brain between factors that begin electrical activity and factors that restrict it, and there are systems that limit its spread. During a seizure, these limits break down, and an abnormal electrical discharge can occur and spread to groups of neighboring cells at once.
This linkage of electrical discharge creates a storm of electrical activity in the brain. There are different reasons why epilepsy begins in different people of different ages. All ages have one thing in common: the largest group is those for whom we don't know the cause. Overall, the cause is unknown for about two-t
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