{"id":1429,"date":"2020-04-15T09:52:58","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T09:52:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.blog.kayawell.com\/?p=1429"},"modified":"2020-04-18T04:53:02","modified_gmt":"2020-04-18T04:53:02","slug":"epilepsy-symptoms-causes-risk-factor-and-prevention","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/epilepsy-symptoms-causes-risk-factor-and-prevention","title":{"rendered":"Epilepsy: Symptoms, Causes, Risk Factor and Prevention"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>What is epilepsy?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Epilepsy is a brain disorder. People who have epilepsy have\nunnormal electrical activity in the brain which causes seizures. Seizures are\nof many forms. A seizure can in some case jerking, uncontrolled movements, and\nconsciousness loss. In other cases, seizures cause only a period of confusion,\na staring spell, or muscle spasms. Epilepsy is also known as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153seizure\ndisorder.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Epilepsy is neither a mental illness nor a symptom of poor\nintelligence. It is not infectious, either. Seizures usually do not cause brain\ndamage. A person with epilepsy is no different from anyone else in between seizures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Symptoms<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Recurrent seizures are the main symptom of epilepsy. However,\nif a person has one or more of the following symptoms, they should seek medical\nattention, as epilepsy may indicate:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>A\nconvulsion without fever<\/li><li>Brief\nblackouts or impaired memory<\/li><li>Occasional\nfainting spells, during which they lose bowel or bladder control, often\nfollowed by extreme exhaustion<\/li><li>Temporary\nunresponsiveness to orders or questions<\/li><li>Sudden\nstiffness for no apparent purpose<\/li><li>Sudden\ndropping for no apparent purpose<\/li><li>Sudden\nbouts of blinking without apparent stimuli<\/li><li>Sudden\nbouts of chewing without any specific cause<\/li><li>Temporarily\nseeming dazed and unable to communicate<\/li><li>Repeated\nmotions that appear involuntary<\/li><li>Fearfulness\nfor no apparent purpose<\/li><li>Panic\nor anger<\/li><li>Strange\nchanges in senses, like smell, touch, and sound<\/li><li>Jerking\narms, legs, or body, that appear as a cluster of rapid jerking movements in\nkids<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>When any of these signs arise regularly, it is important to\nseek treatment with a doctor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The following conditions can cause similar symptoms to those\nabove, and some people might confuse them for those of epilepsy:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>High\nfever with epilepsy-like symptoms<\/li><li>Faint<\/li><li>Narcolepsy,\nor recurrent daytime sleep disturbances<\/li><li>Cataplexy,\nor periods of severe muscle weakness<\/li><li>Sleep\ndiscomfort<\/li><li>Nightmares<\/li><li>Panic\nattacks<\/li><li>Fugue\nstate, a rare psychiatric condition in which a person forgets their identity\ninformation<\/li><li>Psychogenic\nseizures, or seizures with a psychological or psychiatric cause<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When to see a doctor<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If any of the following happens seek urgent medical help urs:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The\nseizure lasts longer than five minutes.<\/li><li>After\nthe seizure stops breathing or consciousness doesn&#8217;t return.<\/li><li>A\nsecond seizure soon follows.<\/li><li>Have\na high fever.<\/li><li>Suffers\nexhaustion.<\/li><li>You\nare pregnant.<\/li><li>Got\ndiabetes.<\/li><li>Have\nbeen injured yourself during the seizure.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>If you experience a seizure for the first time, seek medical\nadvice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Causes<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Doctors don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t always know what causes epilepsy. Some factors\nthat can raise the risk of epilepsy include the following:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Genetics<\/strong>: People that have an epileptic\nparent are at elevated risk of developing epilepsy.<\/li><li><strong>Head trauma<\/strong>: severe head injuries, often years\nafter the injury, can cause epilepsy.<\/li><li>Infection:\nInfections such as meningitis, encephalitis, and AIDS may increase epileptic\nrisk.<\/li><li><strong>Medical conditions<\/strong>: Some medical conditions may\nincrease epileptic risk. Can include Alzheimer\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s disease, stroke, brain\ntumours, and problems with blood vessels in the brain.<\/li><li><strong>Problems during pregnancy<\/strong>, birth, or early development: In\ncertain cases, infections during pregnancy, problems during birth, problems\nwith the brain that are present at birth, or injury to an infant\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brain can\ncause epilepsy.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Risk factors<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some factors can increase your epileptic risk:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>Age:<\/strong> Epilepsy development is most common\nin children and older adults, but it may occur at any age.<\/li><li><strong>Family history:<\/strong> If you have epilepsy family history,\nyou may be at elevated risk of developing a seizure disorder.<\/li><li><strong>Head injuries:<\/strong> Some forms of epilepsy include head\ntrauma. By wearing a seat belt while riding in a car and by wearing a helmet\nwhile bicycling, skiing, riding a motorcycle or engaging in other activities\nwith a high risk of head injury you may reduce risk.<\/li><li><strong>Stroke and other vascular diseases: <\/strong>Stroke and other blood vessel\ndiseases can cause brain damage which can trigger epilepsy. You may take a\nnumber of steps to reduce your risk of these diseases, including reducing the\nalcohol consumption and avoiding cigarettes, maintaining a balanced diet, and\ndaily workout.<\/li><li><strong>Dementia:<\/strong> Dementia may increase the risk of\ndeveloping epilepsy in older.<\/li><li><strong>Brain infections:<\/strong> Infections such as meningitis, which\ncauses inflammation in your brain or spinal cord, may increase the risk.<\/li><li><strong>Seizures in childhood:<\/strong> High fevers in babies may often be\nrelated to seizures. Kids who have seizures because of high fevers generally\nwon&#8217;t develop epilepsy. The risk of epilepsy rises when a child has a long\nseizure, another nervous system condition or epilepsy family history.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Complications<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Complications may include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Difficulty\nlearning<\/li><li>Breathing\nin food or saliva into the lungs during a seizure, which can cause aspiration\npneumonia<\/li><li>Injury\nfrom falls, bumps, self-inflicted bites, driving or operating machinery during\na seizure<\/li><li>Permanent\nbrain damage <\/li><li>Side\neffects of medicines<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>When to Contact a\nMedical Professional<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Call your local emergency number if:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>This\nis the first time a person has a seizure<\/li><li>A\nseizure occurs in someone who is not wearing a medical ID bracelet<\/li><li>In\nthe case of someone who has had seizures before, call 911 for any of these\nemergency situations:<\/li><li>This\nis a longer seizure than the person usually has or an unusual number of\nseizures for the person<\/li><li>Multiple\nrepeated seizures over a few minutes<\/li><li>Repeated\nseizures in which consciousness or normal behaviour is not regained between\nthem <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>If any new symptoms\noccur call your doctor:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Hair\nloss<\/li><li>Nausea\nor vomiting<\/li><li>Rash<\/li><li>Medicines\nside effects, such as drowsiness, restlessness, confusion, sedation<\/li><li>Tremors\nor irregular movements, or issue with coordination<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Prevention<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There is no known approach to preventing epilepsy. Good diet\nand sleep, and staying away from alcohol and illegal drugs can reduce the\nlikelihood of triggering seizures in people with epilepsy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reduce the threat of head injury through wearing a helmet\nduring risky activities. This can lessen the likelihood of a brain injury that\nleads to seizures and epilepsy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is epilepsy? Epilepsy is a brain disorder. People who have epilepsy have unnormal electrical activity in the brain which causes seizures. Seizures are of many forms. A seizure can in some case jerking, uncontrolled movements, and consciousness loss. In other cases, seizures cause only a period of confusion, a staring spell, or muscle spasms. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1429","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-healthcare"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1429"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1429\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1429"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1429"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kayawell.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1429"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}