Epilepsy is a disorder that causes repeated seizures chronically. A seizure happens all of a sudden because of an acute increase in electrical activity within the brain. Seizures are categorised into Generalised and Focal seizures; the former affect the entire brain while the latter affect only a part of the brain.
Sometimes seizures are so mild, people won’t even recognise they had one as it would last for just a few seconds, and a lack of awareness can compound the problem if left untreated. Recognising the symptoms of a seizure can also help you get early epilepsy treatment in Delhi or wherever you are, reducing the chances of further full blown seizures. Heavier seizures cause spasms and uncontrollable muscle movement, lasting anywhere between some seconds to many minutes and some people either get confused or lose consciousness altogether, they may also have no memory of it ever happening.
If you have seizure, it doesn’t mean you have to go seeking the best epilepsy treatment hospital in India or go on Google to look up the best doctor for epilepsy in Delhi-NCR. There can be many reasons behind a seizure, which include trauma to the head, very high fever, low blood sugar, or even alcohol withdrawal.
Epilepsy is a fairly common disorder, affecting almost 70 million people around the world. Epilepsy can affect anybody but is found more commonly among young children and older adults, slightly more in males compared to females.
There’s no cure for epilepsy, and even the best hospital for epilepsy treatment in Delhi will tell you the same. However, you can successfully manage this condition through medication and other means.
The symptoms of epilepsy
As stated, seizures are the most common symptom of epilepsy, they are actually precursors to a person developing epilepsy later on. The symptoms of epilepsy vary from person to person and depend to the type of seizure they have.
In focal (partial) seizures
A simple partial seizure will not involve any loss of consciousness but there may be changes to sense of smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch along with some tingling and twitching in the limbs. On the other hand, complex partial seizures do involves the loss of awareness or consciousness, as well as blank staring, being unresponsive and performing repeated movements.
Generalised seizures affect the entire brain. There are six types of generalised seizures:
What can trigger an epileptic seizure?
Some commonly reported triggers are high fever, lack of sleep, severe illness, bright flashy lights, alcohol, caffeine, narcotics, stress, medicines, overrating, some food ingredients, missing meals, and even patterns. The best epilepsy doctors in Delhi make it a point to help their patients first understand their triggers and how to overcome them.
Most epilepsy doctors in Delhi will ask you to keep a seizure journal for noting down when your seizures occur, what were you doing before they took place, anything unusual or surprising around you, stress signals, were you eating something that may have caused it, did you miss meals, how much did you sleep and so on.
Causes
More than half the people in this world who have epilepsy do not know why they have epilepsy, the cause just can’t be determined.
Some possible causes include a traumatic brain injury, scarring on the brain after a brain injury, stroke, vascular diseases, high fever or severe illness, lack of oxygen to the brain, a tumor in the brain, dementia, Alzheimer’s, injury to head before birth, brain malformation, AIDS, meningitis, genetic disorders, and neurological disease.
Genetics play a negligible role in some types of epilepsy and can also make some people more prone to seizures from environmental triggers.
Diagnosis
A neurological examination to test motor abilities and mental functioning, cancelling other conditions that cause seizures, a complete blood count and chemistry of the blood will be needed. An EEG is the most common way of diagnosing epilepsy, a CT scan, MRI or PET can also work.
Treating epilepsy
Most will be able to manage epilepsy and treatment is based on the severity of symptoms, overall health, and response to therapy. Some treatment options include: