Award-Winning Actor Danny Glover Featured on "Sharing Miracles"

[PhylisFeinerJohnson]

"WASHINGTON, Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A recent edition of Immunotherapy Weekly reported that the television program 'Sharing Miracles' featured award-winning actor Danny Glover during the month of September. In this episode, the Hollywood star discussed his career and his battle against epilepsy.

Danny Glover is probably best known for his role as Detective Murtaugh in the
Lethal Weapon movie series. Less known to his fans may be the fact that Glover struggled with epilepsy for 20 years.

Glover experienced his first epileptic seizure when he was 15 years old.
Despite many tests, it wasn't until he suffered from several more seizures
that he was diagnosed with epilepsy and treated with medication.

Fortunately, Glover was able to control his illness and build an impressive acting career -- appearing in dozens of movies including The Color Purple, Places in the Heart, The Royal Tenenbaums and Dreamgirls, among others.

After 20 years, for reasons unknown, Glover stopped experiencing seizures.
However, other epilepsy patients are not so lucky.

'Sharing Miracles' is a 30-minute public affairs television program that tells
the compelling and inspirational stories of real patients. Sharing Miracles
airs every Sunday morning on more than 300 television stations nationwide."

http://www.reuters.com/article/press...09+PRN20091023

[gigi]

Did Danny Glover stop having seizures and remain on medication or is he seizure free and off meds.? My understanding is that once a person is into adulthood that the diagnoses sticks and can or can not be controlled by meds. and other alternative treatments. What was it that changed or halted his seizures? Does he no longer have his triggers?

[Meetz1064]

is that he is seizure free AND off meds. It CAN happen. Not often, but it can.....it's a bit unusual, but hey, who's gonna argue with it?

[PhylisFeinerJohnson]

According to an interview posted by The Epelepsy Foundation: "Glover said that he had developed epilepsy at the age of 15, and in one cross-country trip with his family had experienced six seizures in a row.

He also described how, as a young actor, he had faced the possibility of having a seizure on stage and how he developed a way of concentrating so that seizures wouldn't happen.

In one case he felt he had kept the seizure at bay until he was safely off the stage.

Finally, he added, the seizures went away and he no longer has them."

http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/ep...usa/glover.cfm

[skillefer]

Cool! Just wish that kind of info was more widely known....might make those newly diagnosed not despair so much.

[PhylisFeinerJohnson]

And I WISH he could be a spokesperson, instead of that Greg Grunberg guy that nobody knows!

[gigi]

I know Danny Glover to be a flaming liberal - so if it takes that to become seizure free, I am willing to switch sides!?!

Just a little humor there!!

[Rae1889]

I heard that Prince (or the artist formerly known as prince) had E when he was young, and then supposedly he went to his mother one day after a really bad almost deadly seizure, and said an angel visited him, and said that he wont have any more seizures. And he never did....

[marion]

I wonder how someone on meds that are controlling seizures will know if the seizures stop. Do they just stop the meds and wait to see what happens?

[epileric]

I wonder how someone on meds that are controlling seizures will know if the seizures stop. Do they just stop the meds and wait to see what happens?

My understanding is that they keep you on meds for about a year with no seizures (sometimes longer, sometimes shorter) then slowly try to taper them off and see if that triggers a seizure or not.

[gigi]

I tried that experiment when I was in my twenties. I went off my medication thinking I was young and healthy and did not need it. Three days later I had an awful seizure, wet the bed and threw up. I spent 5 days in bed. That was the end of that experiment.

[PhylisFeinerJohnson]

And I went into a coma. It was lovely...

[marion]

Sounds like that's not a good thing to do. I guess if the meds are controlling the seizures we keep taking them and never know if the seizures stop. I'm reluctant to try an alternative treatment for that reason - I think you'd have to stop the meds to know if it works.

[PhylisFeinerJohnson]

And as we all know, that CAN be tricky...