Treatments and epilepsy Choices for Families

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MIAMI – Oct. 23, 2018 – PRLog — Possibly, your initial thought that involves mind when thinking about epilepsy; is really a one who is having a severe seizure, and collapsing to the grounding. While that is true, you will find a complete many more to it.

It all starts with the mind. Electrical activity running right through nerve cells helps the human brain tell the body how to proceed. However, if abnormal signals interrupt the brain’s normal functioning, a seizure will occur.

What is Epilepsy?

Epilepsy is really a chronic disorder, the sign of that is recurrent, unprovoked seizures. One is identified as having epilepsy should they have two unprovoked seizures which were not due to some known and reversible condition like alcohol withdrawal or extremely low blood sugar levels. Epilepsy is quite normal with 65 million people round the global world with it; it affects about 3.4 million Americans. You need to do everything they are able to, in hopes to avoid it from occurring ever.

Andrew Lerman, M.D., a neurologist with First Choice Neurology, says probably the most definitive solution to diagnose epilepsy has been a video EEG or electroencephalogram. An EEG measures the brain’s electrical activity and the video component captures your body’s a reaction to the abnormal brain activity.

There may also be numerous other tests that may be performed to find or eliminate different causes for the seizures such as for example:

• A neurological exam will undoubtedly be used to learn useful information regarding the individual. Information such as for example your history; the physician should ask you questions relating to your conditions and symptoms.

• A blood test can help determine in case a seizure was due to epilepsy or another disorder. A blood test could calculate the number of hormone prolactin in the blood also.

• Imaging test will determine if the mind has any lesions on the mind which could indicate a stroke or brain tumor.

• Spinal tap if any will eliminate infections.

Dr. Lerman states, “these tests help put everything together to supply a precise diagnosis.”

Treating Epilepsy

Treatment is a must hoping to improve the caliber of life preventing future repeated seizures.

Medication

Dr. Lerman says that “the initial type of treatment for epilepsy is medications.” Because of research, they dramatically have improved, with medications that aim at specific areas and functions of the mind and control the various forms of seizures the usually occur with epilepsy.

“We’ve about 20 to 25 medication we are able to use to greatly help manage epilepsy along with other seizure disorders,” he continues. “We might have to combine medications through learning from your errors to obtain the formula that is most effective, but more patients have their epilepsy controlled with medication.”

“We have been excited by great outcomes that people are observing with regards to seizure prevention and treatment of associated symptoms with usage of medical cannabis. We’ve seen a decrease in seizure burden, improvement in the grade of life measures, sleep quality in addition to comorbid mood complaints.”

Surgical Options

Depending on the severe nature of the patient’s epilepsy; some patients shall neglect to react to medications, referred to as “medically refractory epilepsy otherwise.” Besides those patients, Dr. Lerman states that “surgery often helps patients whose epilepsy affects one section of the brain.”

Usual procedures include:

• Laser Interstitial Thermal Therapy (LITT) – a minimally invasive procedure where the certain section of the brain where seizures originate is subjected to a laser, creating a kind of scar that stops abnormal signals from occurring.

• Implantation of a Responsive Neurostimulation (RNS) device – a pacemaker-like device implanted in to the skull that senses abnormal brain activity and delivers electrical stimulation to the mind to avoid a seizure from happening.

• Lobectomy – surgeons remove some of the temporal lobe of the mind where seizures originate in temporal lobe epilepsy.

• Corpus Callosotomy – surgeons disconnect the proper and left sides of the mind to avoid seizures that occur using one side from moving to another side.

• Hemispherectomy – for severe cases of epilepsy, surgeons remove some of or a whole half of the mind associated with seizures.

Dr. Lerman states that “these technological advances, in the regions of minimally invasive procedures especially, such as for example LITT and RNS, are greatly improving the management of epilepsy and the grade of life for patients who undergo them.”

Complementary Treatments

Some patients have considered alternative, complementary therapies which have shown promising results for epilepsy.

Patients with refractory epilepsy, who’ve adopted a strict ketogenic diet have observed effective management of these seizures. Dr. Lerman said for the reason that of the burning of fats, of carbohydrates instead, for your body’s fuel results in changes in the metabolism of the mind. He stated the keto diet could be effective if carefully followed also.

Additionally, the FDA approved a drug, Epidiolex – a cannabidiol oral solution – for the treating two rare and severe types of epilepsy, Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, and Dravet syndrome. Cannabidiol, or CBD, comes from the plant used to create marijuana but doesn’t support the high-producing chemical tetrahydrocannabinol, or THC, in line with the FDA. Dr. Lerman said CBD acts like other chemicals which are inside our brains and help suppress seizures naturally.

Living with Epilepsy

Dr. Lerman expresses the urgency of treating epilepsy to regulate seizures. “Our greatest fear may be the threat of disability from seizures,” he said, “Seizures may also result in death.”

Dr. Lerman wants the stigma connected with epilepsy should be addressed through education of patients, their own families, and the general public. Everyone ought to be educated concerning the disease and how it ought to be treated. Dr. Lerman wants visitors to understand the severe nature of the disorder and how exactly to live with it. “By educating others concerning the disease and its own treatment options, and proving social resources to greatly help patients and their caregivers deal with the management of seizures, we are able to minimize the stigma and improve patients’ standard of living,” stated by Dr. Lerman.

For more information about Dr and epilepsy. Andrew Lerman, visit https://www.fcneurology.net