Around 65 billion people have epilepsy all over the world. There are almost 150,000 new cases of epilepsy that are diagnosed every year in the USA. The risk of developing epilepsy for people before the age of 20 is 1% i.e. 1 in every 100 people. Anyone can get affected with epilepsy. It affects the many parts of a person’s life.
A larger part of the population gets affected with epilepsy, a disease that has no cure, but with different strategies and medications, it can be controlled. But before we get into its treatment and symptoms, let’s find out what this disease is?
What is epilepsy?
Epilepsy is a chronic disease (long-term disease). It is a disorder during which neuron activity within the brain is disturbed, causing seizures. It is a neurological disorder that affects the central nervous system that causes unprovoked, recurrent seizures that can range from mild to severe. Seizures are a sudden rush of electrical activity within the brain. Epilepsy can occur because of a genetic disorder or an acquired brain injury.
People affected with epilepsy sometimes may find it difficult to perform the simplest activities of their day-to-day life like crossing a road, as a seizure can occur at any time. A person affected with epilepsy has to depend on other people for their work. A seizure that lasts more than 5 minutes can even become the reason for a patient's death. That’s why it is important to take good medications and visit a good neurologist if you see any symptoms of this disease. Although the symptoms of epilepsy are subjective in nature i.e. they vary from person to person, few things might help you in recognizing this condition and getting timely medical attention.
The most important symptom of epilepsy is seizures. And the rest of the symptoms depend on the type of seizure a person has or is infected with.
In partial seizures, the person doesn’t lose consciousness but he/she may feel dizziness, altered sense of taste, hearing smell, and twitching of limbs.
In complex seizures the person loses consciousness, becomes unresponsive, and performs repetitive movements.
In General Seizures the entire brain of the person is involved. There are various types of general seizures like absence seizures, tonic seizures, clonic seizures, etc. In these kinds of seizures, a person may experience shaking, stiffening of the body, biting of the tongue, repeated muscle movements of arms, face, and neck.
These symptoms will help in the early diagnosis of the diseases. A person affected with epilepsy doesn’t remember having any seizures, they might feel ill for a few hours, but they will not remember that something like that happened to them. Family members and friends of these people must take extra care of them. Since there is no cure available for this long-term disorder, there are various treatment methods and medications that are used to control the frequency and intensity of this disease. If diagnosed in the early stage, a significant improvement can be made in the patient. Dr. Shailesh Jain has a very long experience of treating patients with epilepsy and he has a good track record of that. He has done various successful surgeries on epilepsy patients and most of them are living their normal life today. Dr. Shailesh jain is considered to be the best doctor for epilepsy in Shalimar Bagh.
Causes of Epilepsy:
For more than 60% of the people, the cause of their epilepsy hasn’t been determined. No one thing can cause seizures, different people can get seizures due to different reasons. A variety of things can cause seizures like:
A very serious illness or very high temperature
Lack of sleep
Traumatic brain injury or brain tumor
AIDS and meningitis
Lack of oxygen to the brain
Brain malfunction
The chances of developing epilepsy are more in children from the age group 2 to 5 years and older adults.
Treatment:
Dr. Shailesh jain is the best doctor for epilepsy in Shalimar Bagh says the treatment of epilepsy depends on the symptoms of the person and how he/she is responding to the treatment. Most of the patients are treated with medications initially to control seizures. As the cure for this disease is still not found, other treatments help the patient’s in getting their epilepsy in control. In some patients, brain surgery is also performed to remove the part of the brain that causes seizure in them.
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