Epilepsy – Causes and Symptoms

Epilepsy, in history, was known as madness when people were not aware about fits and seizures. It is also known as temporal lobe epilepsy or seizure disorder. It is actually a brain disorder in which a person experiences repeated convulsions over time. These seizures actually result due to the disturbed brain activity that causes changes in behavior and attention.
There can also be permanent changes in the brain tissue that can result in the brain being very excited, due to which epilepsy occurs. The brain sends out abnormal signals which cause unpredictable repeated seizures. Although one should know that a single seizure that is not repeated is not epilepsy. The causes of this disorder may be a brain injury or some medical injury that affects the brain or it may be idiopathic, that is, the cause may not be known.
Some of the common causes may be brain tumors, congenital metabolism disorders known as phenylketonuria, destruction of brain tissue by any illness, dementia or stroke, TIA – transient ischemic attack or infections like meningitis, AIDS, brain abscess, encephalitis or abnormal blood vessels in the brain. The epilepsy seizures are mostly experienced between the age of 5 and 20 but it can also happen later in life. According to healthcare experts, it may also be inherited due to family history.
The symptoms of this disorder vary in every individual and some may shake violently while other may have staring spells. That depends on the affected part of the brain and also the cause of the disorder. One should be alert and aware to prevent the epilepsy seizure.