...Epilepsy is a brain disorder and chronic medical condition with sudden abnormal electrical activity that produce seizures which affect a variety of mental and physical functions . It is a word that derived from the Greek "epilepsia" which means "to take hold of". Patients with epilepsy have recurrent seizures, strange sensations and emotions or behave strangely. "The seizures happen when clusters of nerve cells, or neurons, in the brain send out the wrong signals."(1) Epilepsy has existed for thousands of years but only in the past hundred years or so has it begun to be understood. Epileptic seizures were described in ancient cultures, including those of China, Egypt, and India. The seizure was attributed to the god of the moon. "They...
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...In this paper I will discuss Epilepsy and the research based on the information I have found. Such as what part of the brain is affected by the disease, what the signs and symptoms are depending on what part of the brain has taken damage. Then, I will also discuss the possible treatments, though it is still an incurable disease. Next, I will describe the prognosis and where modern medicine is heading to help in dealing with epilepsy. Finally, I will give examples of epilepsy and how it affects one's life from my own personal experience, and the names will be changed for the safety of the family. Epilepsy a Brief History While epilepsy has been documented since the writing system was invented, it has a history of being superstitious as well....
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...Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that affects the nervous system. The main characteristics of epilepsy are seizures. Epilepsy comes in a tremendous amount of variations ranging from the type of seizure to the way the body reacts towards treatment. The treatment for epilepsy also varies. Depending on the diagnosis, a medical expert can give treatment such as a new diet, the prescription of certain vitamins or seizure reducing drug, or even surgery. When someone has had two or more seizures that have not been from a previous medical, they are usually diagnosed with epilepsy. A seizure is a disturbance in the electrical activity of the brain (Shafer). The significant change of either too little or too much electrical activity is what causes...
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...Epilepsy Epilepsy is a neurological disorder that causes abnormal brain activity that causes seizure activity, unusual behavior and sometimes loss of awareness. Epilepsy affects females and males of all ethnic background and race. Children will sometimes outgrow epilepsy and some will live throughout adult hood. Some symptoms of epilepsy are confusion, uncontrollable jerking, and loss of consciousness, many other symptoms depend on the type of seizure that the person is having. The different types of seizures are focal seizures that is when the abnormal activity affects one are of the brain. Seizures that affect all parts of the brain generalized seizures, there is six types of generalized seizures, the absence seizure also called...
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...In most cases surgical procedures could be performed without intracranial monitoring. Intracranial monitoring is invasive because it requires placing electrodes under the skull to find the seizure focal point. Scalp EEG monitoring and brain imaging work hand in hand. Modalities utilized in detecting early seizures or epilepsy are MSI, MRS, SPECT and PET scanning. A common example to include is a person with temporal lobe epilepsy, the EEG shows clear signs of seizures and a MRI would reveal scar tissue in the temporal region. (Koubeissi, 2017). This photo is a courtesy from www.epilepsy.com. According to the article Pre-Surgery Intracranial Monitoring: Stereotypes EEG vs. Subdural Electrodes. Intracranial monitoring helps the surgeons view the blue print of the brain and its functions. Intracranial monitoring administers stimulation through electricity. That electrical current helps to identify which department is responsible for movement and 4 communication. Intracranial monitoring is very essential so surgeons don’t remove the area of the brain that serve important roles. Early seizure detection will help reduce...
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...Epilepsy symptoms can be worsened by the natural hormone changes that occur in a woman's body as she ages. Epilepsy is a serious disorder of the brain, which causes muscle contractions, jerky movements, and a loss of consciousness. It is caused by the nerve cells in the brain becoming overstimulated. Usually, the seizures are controllable though since there are several effective medications currently available to treat them. However, natural changes in a woman's hormone levels because of perimenopause or menopause can have an impact on the brain's nerve cells, so the medications might not work as well as they are supposed to. Because of this, it is important that all women who have epilepsy read the following information about the way that their hormone levels can affect their health condition. How Hormones Affect Nerve Cells Women have more estrogen in their body than men do. Most people know that this is what causes them to have softer skin, higher voices, and increased fat deposits on their hips, thighs, and chest area. But what some might not realize is...
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...Have you ever wondered what children with epilepsy deal with every single day? Children with epilepsy do not live a normal life. Epilepsy is chronic seizure disorder discovered in the 1880s by Dr. John Jackson. Thousands of children in the United States are affected with epilepsy.They have side effects from medications, social, behavioral, and mental health issues. There are a lot of medical researchers for all types of disorders. I wish there could be more research done for epilepsy because a lot of children are suffering from this disorder and the medication side effects. Epilepsy is long-lived disorder that can cause repeated seizures. Children with epilepsy experience a lot of issues, one of them being depression. Many symptoms of depression are sleep disruptions, listlessness, lack of passion, and constant emotional outburst. Behavioral issues are accompanied by depression. I think that more research needs to be put to these issues to...
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...Personal Impact Paper NUR/427 January 18, 2016 Personal Impact Paper Living with a chronic disorder may affect a person and their family's lives. These disorders affect a person's physical and psychological health, emotions, independence, and their jobs. Depending on the disorder and severity determines treatment options that can affect the person financially. With today's medicine, technology, and resources people can manage and live a life. Learning to live with a chronic disorder can be emotional and takes time to accept. Millions of people worldwide live with epilepsy. One in twenty-six will develop epilepsy. The causes are unknown in two-thirds of patients. This neurological disorder causes a disruption in brain cells, which can cause seizures, sensations, unusual behavior, or loss of consciousness. Epilepsy treatment depends on the severity and frequency of seizures, a person's overall health, medical history, and age. These treatments may include medication, diets, surgery, epilepsy devices, and epilepsy first aid. A young woman, Nichole was nineteen years old, and just completed an emergency medical technician (EMT) school when she had her first grand mal seizure. She had to learn about and how to live with this disorder. As a way to help herself and others, she began posting videos titled Nichole's epilepsy on youtube.com: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1BIjErzoq8oH9apq_DPpiw. She shares her feelings of depression and the loss of her independence...
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...In society today, there are many serious diseases that plague nations all across the world. Diseases like Glaucoma, Epilepsy, Parkinsons disease, and migraine headaches. What do all of these serious illnesses have in common? Every one of theses sicknesses can be cured or helped by the use of Marijuana. Throughout this paper I will discuss the positive aspects of Marijuana and the negative aspects. This issue has been raising a lot of eyebrows ever since scientific evidence has been provided that links Marijuana to the cure and decrease of certain illnesses. The main reason that Marijuana has been looked down upon by so many people for so long is because many individuals abuse the drug. An obvious setback to legalizing marijuana for medicinal uses is that the number of people that abuse the drug will undoubtedly increase. Glaucoma is the second leading cause of blindness in the world, and there is an estimated 67 million people affected by this disease in the world today (National Academy of Sciences.) Effective treatment for glaucoma involves pharmaceutical agents or surgical procedures that prevent progressive optic nerve damage. For surgery to be an effective way of therapy, a drug or surgical procedure that reduces intraocular pressure (IOP) must do so without causing more damage to the eye. Marijuana can reduce IOP when administrated orally, or by inhalation (Marijuana and Medicine.). Marijuana is a natural way to slow down the progression of glaucoma. Marijuana should be...
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...healing qualities of medical marijuana in the treatment of Dravet’s syndrome along with a number of other illnesses. I researched the benefits of medical marijuana, specifically the medicalization of the plant and its derivatives. This includes the extraction and ingestion of cannabis oil in its pure form for the treatment of Dravet’s syndrome, a form of chronic epilepsy often found in children. This paper focuses on the history of the use of cannabis for its healing properties and provides a brief overview of the documentary which is the basis of the paper, detailing the importance of the medicalization of the cannabis plant for use in treating a number of ailments, including but not limited to the treatment of Dravet’s Syndrome and Autism in children. It was not until I watched the documentary which was recently aired on CNN entitled “Weed, Cannabis Madness” and its sequel “Weed 2” that I became interested in the healing qualities that this plant possesses and more specifically, its ability to treat children who are suffering from a condition called Dravet’s Syndrome. Dravet’s Syndrome is a form of chronic epilepsy which causes children to seize violently for upwards of 50 seizures per day. There is no cure for this disease, and for many children the drugs prescribed by their physicians such as anti-seizure medications are not effective and even harmful. The child in the first documentary, Charlotte Figi suffers from an extreme case of the disease. Her prognosis was not...
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...Early societies used hemp crops as a source of food, fiber, oil, and paper. Medical marijuana is becoming popular around the world because many new studies suggest that medical marijuana benefits a person’s health. Marijuana has been used medically for centuries, although there isn’t too much scientific research dating back that far. Marijuana is prescribed for a variety of medical conditions including pain, epilepsy, crohn’s disease, cancer, depression, etc. Medical marijuana can provide a variety of health benefits to one’s health. Medical marijuana is a medication used to treat a variety of health conditions. According to Bonni Goldstein, a physician with over two decades of experience, marijuana can improve the lives of people diagnosed with cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, and other health conditions (Goldstein). Medical Marijuana patients of Bonnie Goldstein have had beneficial results from the treatment of medical cannabis with little to no side effects (Goldstein). THC isn’t the only chemical in marijuana. CBD, short for cannabidiol, helps cure illnesses without giving people “a high”. Cannabinoids, a property of the marijuana plant, provide benefits...
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...The author will conduct her research method with a survey. The instrument that will be used will be an interview with Zmira King-Elbaz, a psychologist at the Lester B. Pearson School Board. This school board has a fairly large faculty and staff (N= 1000-5000), where the author will have a sample of one psychologist (n=1). It is to be expected that she will be in favour of having the street name changed to Doctor Penfield Avenue, taking into account his contributions to McGill University and more specifically, psychology and neuroscience. Literature Review Wilder Penfield is one of the most famous doctors, let alone neurosurgeons in the world. According to McGill University, the Montreal Neurological Institute was founded in 1934 by Dr....
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...brings technological, health and economic benefits to the world. When people hear the word hemp or marijuana they believe in the medical aspects but it also has a vast amount of usefulness for example; hemp is able to produce plastic and medicine it is said that one acre of hemp is to produce more oxygen than twenty-five acres of forest. One important use of cannabis is the use as bio fuel with the plant’s ability to grow in infertile soils also reduces the need to grow it on primary croplands, which can then be reserved for growing food, says Richard Parnas, a professor of chemical, materials, and bimolecular engineering(Christine Buckley). With the high demand of oil and jobs, hemp is a more reliable source a resources in addition a research from the University of Connecticut stated: The hemp biodiesel showed a high efficiency of conversion – 97 percent of the hemp oil was converted to...
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...Utilization of Continuous Electroencephalography in the Intensive Care Unit TCP1 – Task 2 – Research Paper Patients are admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) of a hospital for a myriad of disease and injury conditions. Critically ill patients often present with a specific serious health issue that needs to be addressed, however, can often evolve to include secondary problems. Secondary cardiac issues develop from a long list of unrelated heart conditions, and as such, all ICU patients today are placed on bedside electrocardiogram (EKG) monitoring. Years of research, advancements in technology, and international implementation of the service has led to bedside EKG being the standard of care for all ICU patients, regardless of the primary diagnosis. The heart is not the only organ that can often have secondary issues. For decades physicians have tracked and noted secondary neurologic changes in their critically ill patients, but lacked research-based evidence on what caused the neurologic change onset, and how best to monitor and watch for those changes. Over the past two decades, a lot of research has been conducted looking into this specific issue. Research now suggests that the use of continuous electroencephalography (cEEG) for patient populations in the ICU is an effective, affordable, valuable, and prognostic diagnostic tool to evaluate cerebral function, detection of epileptic activity, and to monitor neurologic changes. Electroencephalography (EEG) is...
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...To Legalize or Not to Legalize Medical Marijuana Elizabeth Connell ENG/102 Research Writing To Legalize or Not to Legalize Medical Marijuana Even though marijuana is a drug, legalized marijuana for medicinal use will help patients through various medical issues. Marijuana has been proven to ease the side effects of chemotherapy, helps patients with severe migraine, and glaucoma patients. Many people are on the fence over the legalization of medical marijuana. There are several reasons to legalize marijuana for medical use, let me tell you about one of the reasons. Six-year-old Charlotte is a little girl who suffered from an untreatable form of epilepsy. By the time she was two years old, her parents had tried all medications to cure her some of which almost killed her. She suffered nearly fifty seizures a night. Her parents managed to get her a medical marijuana card in Colorado. Her parents reported her seizures stopped after her first dose of cannabis oil. Charlotte came out of her catatonic state and met her parents for the first time. CNN featured Charlotte and documented her story. Some parents have turned to medical marijuana to treat their children of the incapacitating epilepsy. Doctors are attributing the drug with reducing seizure activity and bringing alleviation to epileptics. According to an article written by K. Pickert (2014), an innovative clinical trial is about to commence. This clinical trial may finally afford some science to support their assertions...
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