Are you born with epilepsy or does it develop?

It can also happen during birth. You may not get epilepsy until long after your brain injury -- sometimes years later. Brain conditions. Most cases of epilepsy in people older than 35 happen because of brain damage from a stroke or even after brain surgery.

Can you suddenly develop epilepsy?

Epilepsy can start at any age, but usually starts either in childhood or in people over 60. It's often lifelong, but can sometimes get slowly better over time.

Can you develop epilepsy or is it genetic?

Experts believe that, in many cases, genetic predisposition combined with environmental conditions lead to epilepsy. About 30 to 40 percent of epilepsy is caused by genetic predisposition. First-degree relatives of people with inherited epilepsy have a two- to four-fold increased risk for epilepsy.

What triggers epilepsy?

What food should epileptics avoid?

If you have a sudden spike or crash in blood sugar, this could cause seizures. This is why it is generally best to avoid high sugar, processed foods such as cookies, cakes, candy and white bread. Ideally you should aim to follow a balanced diet which will release energy into your bloodstream at a slower, steadier rate.

What Really Causes Epilepsy?

Can epilepsy go away?

Treatment with medications or sometimes surgery can control seizures for the majority of people with epilepsy. Some people require lifelong treatment to control seizures, but for others, the seizures eventually go away. Some children with epilepsy may outgrow the condition with age.

At what age does epilepsy usually start?

Epilepsy can begin at any time of life, but it's most commonly diagnosed in children, and people over the age of 65.

What are the warning signs of epilepsy?

How can epilepsy be prevented?

Can you get epilepsy from stress?

What you may want to know is why. The reason is that all of these situations change your brain's excitability. Your brain is very sensitive to these changes, and if there is a big enough change from normal, you may begin to have a seizure. Emotional stress also can lead to seizures.

Who is at risk of epilepsy?

Epilepsy and seizures can develop in any person at any age. Seizures and epilepsy are more common in young children and older people. About 1 in 100 people in the U.S. has had a single unprovoked seizure or has been diagnosed with epilepsy. 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy in their lifetime.

Can a healthy person have a seizure?

Anything that interrupts the normal connections between nerve cells in the brain can cause a seizure. This includes a high fever, high or low blood sugar, alcohol or drug withdrawal, or a brain concussion. But when a person has 2 or more seizures with no known cause, this is diagnosed as epilepsy.

Can you feel a seizure coming on?

Prodrome: Some people may experience feelings, sensations, or changes in behavior hours or days before a seizure. These feelings are generally not part of the seizure, but may warn a person that a seizure may come.

What's the difference between seizures and epilepsy?

A seizure is a single occurrence, whereas epilepsy is a neurological condition characterized by two or more unprovoked seizures.

What diet is best for epilepsy?

The "classic" ketogenic diet is a special high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that helps to control seizures in some people with epilepsy. It is prescribed by a physician and carefully monitored by a dietitian. It is usually used in children with seizures that do not respond to medications.

What is silent epilepsy?

Overview. Absence seizures involve brief, sudden lapses of consciousness. They're more common in children than in adults. Someone having an absence seizure may look like he or she is staring blankly into space for a few seconds.

Can anxiety cause seizures?

If you have already been diagnosed with epilepsy then yes, anxiety can cause seizures. Severe stress is a very common seizure trigger, and those with severe anxiety often experience severe stress. However, it should be noted that this is far more common with those who already have epilepsy.

Can you have epilepsy and not know it?

Some people with undiagnosed epilepsy may not even realize that the strange sensations or emotions they're experiencing are due to a seizure. Epileptic seizures can vary by the type of epilepsy causing them.

Does epilepsy go away with age?

It isn't common for epilepsy to go away on its own.

Some people have seizures during childhood that resolve as they mature, and it's difficult to say whether their seizures are gone for good. That's especially true if we don't know what caused them in the first place.

Which famous person has epilepsy?

Vincent van Gogh suffered from seizures doctors believed were cause by temporal lobe epilepsy. Composer George Gershwin was diagnosed with epilepsy. Actress Margaux Hemingway had from epilepsy from the age of seven. Korn front man Jonathan Davis believes his epilepsy was induced by years of drug use.

How long do people with epilepsy live?

Reduction in life expectancy can be up to 2 years for people with a diagnosis of idiopathic/cryptogenic epilepsy, and the reduction can be up to 10 years in people with symptomatic epilepsy. Reductions in life expectancy are highest at the time of diagnosis and diminish with time.

Does epilepsy affect memory?

The epilepsy may cause difficulties with being able to store memories. Research has shown that people with epilepsy are prone to forget things more quickly than others.

What causes seizures in adults out of nowhere?

Seizures in adults with no seizure history can be caused by a number of factors ranging from high blood pressure, drug abuse and toxic exposures to brain injury, brain infection (encephalitis) and heart disease.

Does drinking water help with seizures?

In the hazards of living department: Individuals with epilepsy must be wary of consuming large amounts of water or risk increasing their chance of developing seizures. Excessive water intake is a known trigger for seizures and individuals with seizure disorders may be particularly vulnerable to this phenomenon.

Can stress cause seizures without epilepsy?

Even in people without epilepsy, stress and anxiety can trigger PNES, which are also known as pseudoseizures. PNES are physiologically different from the neurological seizures found in epilepsy.