Rethinking Epilepsy

Preliminary Reading: Laser Cascade, Too Much Light, and How a Flicker Causes a Seizure

I’ve recently covered a completely new electrical function of the human body. The input mechanism as well as the necessary output balance. It the last post, we defined a seizure as the body’s natural way to rid the body of excess electrical charge.

Risk Factors:

Babies who are born small for their age
Babies who have seizures in the first month of life
Babies who are born with abnormal areas in the brain
Bleeding into the brain
Abnormal blood vessels in the brain
Serious brain injury or lack of oxygen to the brain
Brain tumors
Infections of the brain: abscess, meningitis, or encephalitis
Stroke resulting from blockage of arteries
Cerebral palsy
Conditions with intellectual and developmental disabilities
Seizures occurring within days after head injury (“early post-traumatic seizures”)
Family history of epilepsy or fever-related seizures
Alzheimer’s disease (late in the illness)
Autism spectrum disorder
Fever-related (febrile) seizures that are unusually long
Long episodes of seizures or repeated seizures called status epilepticus
Use of illegal drugs such as cocaine

Triggers:

Missed medication
Lack of sleep or disrupted sleep
Illness (both with and without fever)
Psychological stress
Heavy alcohol use or seizures after alcohol withdrawal
Use of cocaine and other recreational drugs such as Ecstasy
Over-the-counter drugs, prescription medications or supplements that decrease the effectiveness of seizure medicines
Nutritional deficiencies: vitamins and minerals
Poor eating habits, such as long times without eating, dehydration or not enough fluids
The menstrual cycle or hormonal changes
Flashing lights or patterns
Specific activities, noises or foods

The cause of most cases of epilepsy is unknown. Now we have a puzzle worth solving.

Certain disorders occur more often in people with epilepsy, depending partly on the epilepsy syndrome present. These include depression, anxiety, obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), and migraine. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder affects three to five times more children with epilepsy than children without the condition. ADHD and epilepsy have significant consequences on a child’s behavioral, learning, and social development. Epilepsy is also more common in children with autism.

What happens biologically during a seizure?

A seizure is a period of symptoms due to abnormally excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain. Outward effects vary from uncontrolled shaking movements involving much of the body with loss of consciousness (tonic-clonic seizure), to shaking movements involving only part of the body with variable levels of consciousness (focal seizure), to a subtle momentary loss of awareness (absence seizure). Most of the time these episodes last less than two minutes and it takes some time to return to normal. Loss of bladder control may occur.

What causes a seizure? There is evidence that epileptic seizures are usually not a random event. Seizures are often brought on by factors such as stress, alcohol abuse, flickering light, or a lack of sleep, among others. The term seizure threshold is used to indicate the amount of stimulus necessary to bring about a seizure. Seizure threshold is lowered in epilepsy.

Even in someone with epilepsy, there are factors that make this event non-random. Seizures do not happen all the time. People have certain triggers, and warning signs that a seizure is coming. Meaning that the mental state that causes seizures is not stationary, and it is not random. The fact that it can be triggered means that it can be targeted and mitigated.

How can we best describe the mental states that produce seizures? High entropy. We describe in previous articles those people with Alzheimer’s and Autism as very high entropy. Also, the fact that psychological stress and lack of sleep may be triggers add to the case that the seizures are caused by a heightened brain state.

What about Tourette’s? Would a Tourette tic be considered a mild seizure?

Here are the risk factors associated with Tourette’s:

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)
Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD)
Autism spectrum disorder
Learning disabilities
Sleep disorders
Depression
Anxiety disorders
Pain related to tics, especially headaches
Anger-management problems

If time doesn’t exist in the brain, and a seizure is abnormal electric activity. Then Tourette’s is epilepsy. The duration and frequency of the seizures is different.

Tourette’s is defined by these tics. Involuntary muscle movements or speech. We know that the involuntary muscle movements are electrical signals. And the speech is too.

If Tourette’s is a series of involuntary electrical signals, it is no different than epilepsy. If the two are the same, why is one so much more frequent than the other? It’s the stress and rest pattern of the brain. Once the brain reaches the seizure threshold, it produces an undesired result. Higher energy individuals would naturally trend higher on this scale.

Sources:

Don't Read This Blog

unproven ideas that will never change the world

Rethinking Epilepsy

Share this:

Like this: