There are a huge number of diseases in the world, some of them have been known to medicine for many centuries, such as a mild illness or, as doctors call it, epilepsy. This disease has long been of interest to scientists, they are working on a cure for it, but so far their efforts have not been crowned with success. But what is this disease, who is at risk?
Epilepsy: what is this disease
Epilepsy is called a seizure disease. It is a chronic form of the disease that manifests itself in the form of seizures and seizures, recurring regularly and accompanied by loss of consciousness and personality changes. This pathology is an occasion to give a person a disability.
This disease has been known for a long time, in many medical treatises among Egyptian priests, Tibetan medicine men, Arab healers, records could be found that they had long been monitoring the condition of patients with symptoms of epilepsy, but they could not cure such patients. According to statistics, 5 people are sick per 1000 people.
Causes of the disease
Epileptic disease is a very controversial pathology, especially if you look at what causes it. It is impossible to say exactly whether the disease is inherited, but in almost half of the patients, after interrogations, relatives with such symptoms of the disease were found in the genus.
Other reasons can provoke the onset of pathology:
- traumatic brain injury;
- pathologies caused by parasites and viruses, including meningitis;
- disruptions in the blood circulation of the brain, and, as a result, oxygen starvation;
- brain tumors.
Alas, it is still impossible to specify precisely the causes of convulsions in this or that patient. Each person who has such a diagnosis (epileptic disease), the symptoms manifest themselves in different ways. In one patient, the attack can be very pronounced and he needs help, while in others he can go unnoticed. But how to recognize an attack, what signs and symptoms should make it necessary to provide first aid?
Signs of Epilepsy
Seizures can be identified by several types:
- Partial or focal seizures. They appear in the form of failures in the sensory and motor functions, and this confirms that the focus of the pathology is in the brain. The attack most often begins with twitching of one of the parts of the body: the legs, arms, or corner of the mouth, and in just a few seconds this condition can spread throughout the body, and the person loses consciousness.
- Complex partial seizures. They also begin suddenly, but patients lose consciousness and contact with the outside world, do not control themselves and come to their senses for a very long time, without even realizing immediately what happened to them. They may have hallucinations, anxiety, they can fantasize of what is actually not. But not all patients have very pronounced symptoms, the attack can be mild, and you can notice it by slurred speech or improper swallowing.
- Tonic-clonic seizures. They are very strong, affecting the cerebral cortex. The epileptic disease in the form of such an attack begins with the fact that a person seems to freeze with his mouth open, his eyes and standing like an idol. Next, a sharp contraction of the breathing muscles begins, the jaws contract sharply, and the tongue bites, the patient does not control urination. This is how tonic seizures appear, they last only 20 seconds, and then they are replaced by clonic ones, and seizures begin throughout the body. But they last only a couple of minutes, and then the patient falls into a dream and, waking up, does not remember anything, only sometimes a bitten tongue can say that there was an attack.
- Absence is a small seizure that lasts only a few seconds, it is not immediately possible to determine it, since the patient can notice twitching of only certain parts of the body.
Attacks occur in every patient, but what exactly they will be, it will not be possible to predict in advance.
Who could be at risk for epilepsy
It is impossible to say that epilepsy occurs in people who lead the wrong lifestyle or do not monitor their health. This disease is often found in someone whom you can’t even think of, for example, Hillary Clinton's epileptic disease was struck. Her attacks were of various forms. Many doctors were looking for a medicine that would help her get rid of the pathology, but they only managed to slightly reduce the number of seizures and their intensity.
The risk group includes people with different standards of living and any age:
- patients in whom the brain is affected by various infections or vascular pathologies;
- people with abnormal brain development;
- if the family had patients with this diagnosis;
- patients whose activity is associated with frequent brain injuries;
- patients after 60 years, as they have weakened immunity and have problems with the vessels of the brain;
- children under 12 years old, because they often fall, injuring the head, are susceptible to infectious diseases such as measles or chickenpox.
Epilepsy in children
Very often, children after infectious diseases or serious injuries scare parents with their attacks. If they were single, then this is not a diagnosis, but when 3-4 seizures with a certain frequency were noticed, then in this case you need to sound the alarm and urgently consult a doctor to confirm the diagnosis (epileptic disease) or refute it.
Pediatric epilepsy is very different from adult.
In newborns, tonic seizures occur due to the preferential functioning of certain parts of the brain. But do not immediately sound the alarm, because they can very easily be confused with motor activity.
Attacks in children under 5 years of age are manifested in the form of involuntary presses of hands to the chest, a sharp straightening of the legs and tilting the body forward. It has been noticed that attacks more often occur in the morning after waking up and last only a couple of seconds. By 6 years, seizures may stop or develop into a more serious form.
At 7-15 years old, most often children develop clonic attacks. They lose consciousness, they are tormented by nightmares, frequent headaches, short-term loss of speech. But you should not make a diagnosis yourself, you must definitely undergo an examination and determine exactly whether the child has a mild illness or another disease.
Diagnosis of epilepsy
The patient is diagnosed only if 3-4 seizures have been noticed, in addition, it is necessary to precisely exclude the presence of other pathologies that can cause this condition.
Most often, teenagers and the elderly are susceptible to epilepsy. Middle-aged people are smaller, but they also have seizures. If you look carefully, then they most often lead to strokes or head injuries.
To make an accurate diagnosis, it is recommended to undergo a full examination:
- laboratory research;
- MRI of the brain;
- CT scan of the brain;
- ECHO and other types of diagnostics that the doctor will prescribe.
Only after passing all the studies, the doctor can make an accurate diagnosis and prescribe drugs that will help relieve seizures and make them less frequent.
Epilepsy treatment
The start of treatment for a patient with a diagnosis of "disease of the disease" begins with the use of medications. The treatment is long, the first course can drag on for two years, and after that you will need to take medicine regularly. Most often, complex treatment consists of taking such drugs:
- Anticonvulsants - Depacon, Depaken or Depacot.
- Barbiturates - "Phenobarbital", "Primidon", these drugs are recommended for patients with tonic-clonic seizures, but these are most often used for children - "Ethosuximide", "Metsuximide".
- Clonazepam is recommended for myoclonic and atonic seizures.
- "Lamotrigine", "Gabapentin" - recommended for children aged 2 years and older and in adults as an addition to the main therapy for partial seizures.
- “Pregabalin” is an additional treatment for the onset of partial seizures in adults with epilepsy.
- "Zonisamide" is recommended as part of complex therapy for adults with partial seizures.
Basically, all patients tolerate treatment well and can take the same drugs for about 5-10 years. But you can combine therapy with traditional medicine recipes.
Epilepsy: treatment with alternative methods
There are many popular recipes that are effective for patients who are diagnosed with the disease "epilepticus." Treatment with folk remedies should be long, only in this case you can notice serious changes. There are many complex recipes for decoctions, where there are several types of herbs, and there are simple, but no less effective. So, it is recommended to use such formulations daily, and seizures will become rare and non-intense:
- Before each meal you need to drink 1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed onion juice.
- Three times a day you need to drink tincture of valerian, for children the number of drops corresponds to age, and for an adult 30-40 drops.
- Every morning, on an empty stomach, you need to eat the kernel of apricot kernel, their number should correspond to the age of the patient. The course of admission is three months, after - a month break, and repeat the course.
But besides treatment with folk methods, many also resort to the help of the church. If you talk with the priest, he will tell you that there is a prayer for the epilepsy, with epilepsy it is read twice a day. Believers believe that only God can help them cure such an ailment.
Epilepsy conspiracies
Conspiracies from a communicable disease are also often used in the treatment of people, because relatives try to resort to any of the methods to only help alleviate suffering:
- You need to take a crumb of bread, make a ball out of it and roll it on the chest, arms and legs of a patient with epilepsy, then take this ball to the crossroads and say: “Holy kindness, accept bread and salt, and forgive the servant of God (name).”
- Also using the crumb of bread, and rolling them all over the patient’s body, pronounce the following words: “Roll out, pronounce and transverse, enviable and joyful, from a violent head, from a ruddy face, from bones, from brains, from a liver, from a lung, from a zealous hearts, with white hands, with swift feet with pure words. "
Despite the fact that the most effective medicine that could cope with epilepsy does not exist, but there are many drugs that can be used to alleviate the patient’s condition, improve his quality of life, and reduce the frequency of attacks. Do not self-medicate and self-diagnose. Only a specialist has the right to do this.