Epilepsy is a brain disorder in which a person experiences repeated seizures, or convulsions, over time. A seizure is a set of disturbed or interrupted brain activity that cause changes in attention and/or behavior, and if a seizure only happens once then it is not epilepsy. Epileptic seizures occur when changes in brain tissue cause the brain to be too excitable or jumpy, which causes the brain to send out abnormal signals; which is similar to something like a computer overloading or freezing up. There are many common causes of epilepsy, and some of these causes are:
Stroke or Transient Ischemic Attack (A stroke being lack of blood flow to part of the brain, and TIA is much the same, although the blood flow is only halted for a small amount of time and can often be a warning sign of a stroke)
Dementia, such as Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease.
Traumatic brain injury.
Birth defects.
Brain tumors.
Abnormal or strange blood vessels in the brain.
The age that epilepsy is first diagnosed is usually around 5-20 years old, and if it doesn’t happen by then, chances are you don’t have it, although it can happen at any age.
The symptoms of epilepsy vary. Some people have “staring spells,” meaning that they would literally just stare forward for a brief period of time and not notice, whereas others can have violent shaking and loss of consciousness or alertness. The type and intensity all depend on the location of disturbance in the brain.
Site: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0001714/
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