For those that know....

[CrunchyFrog]

I've been reading through the forums and it seems like a lot of people don't have any obvious reasons for their seizures. I was just wondering how many people actually know what is causing their seizures onder:
My Epilepsy is caused by a cyst which has apparently been there my whole life but didn't cause problems until I was in my 20's. I'm just interested in other peoples experiences.
Wondering if I'm the only one who has randomly started having seizures as an adult from something that has been there since birth :dontknow:

 

[Meetz1064]

Mine are

idiopathic in nature. In other words, unknown. I do have a pineal cyst, but it doesn't affect my seizures.

 

[Nakamova]

My seizures started when I was 35. While there's no way to know for sure, the thinking is that a bad head injury when I was 5 may have left a scar that made me vulnerable 30 years later.

 

[kostareyna]

Altough i have JME and it started after drinking of alot of alcohol and sleeping for 2 hours when i was 15 which is typical for JME,I honestly think it started after my friend bashed my head into a wall.

I mean JME is genetic and is not sepused to start from a head injury but with epilepsy anything can cause it starting from head injuries,infections,or genetics,those are the reasons so saying that it idiopathic is not that accurate

 

[CrunchyFrog]

Does anyone know if there is any research into why childhood injuries etc can cause Epilepsy in later life, rather than directly after the injury or at birth in the case of my cyst. Are there triggers that can cause it, or is it a total mystery?

It seems like it might be a case of bad luck, I went to school with a boy who fell of a ladder and smashed his head open on a concrete gutter and despite being in a coma and having a metal plate in his head he has never had any kind of seizure, not to date anyway...

 

[SevenC]

Mine are from multiple cysts. I developed PCOS in 2007 (I was around 23) and that's exactly when the seizures started. My seizures also only usually occur during a certain time of the month which further chalks them up to my hormones being involved. I'm working really hard on my insulin resistance right now, to shrink the cysts and hopefully help the epilepsy.

 

[momof3boys]

I had seizures as an infant, but wasnt offically dx'd with epilepsy til the age of 18 months. When my mom was in labor, she said my heart rate and oxygen dropped and it stayed low for about half an hour. Back in those days, the drs were not really all that concerned like they are these days. So my drs think its a possibility that my seizures were developed during that time my oxygen and heart rate went too low in that time period.

Ive been on a ton of different medications all my life. The two best medications that controlled my seizures were Keppra and Carbatrol Combined. My dr took me off of Carbatrol in march of this year, due to being on it for over 10 years, he didnt want me to have the bad side effects of it. Since then Ive been on Keppra. Ive treid two others.... Vimpat and Lamictal and those didnt do me any good at all! Im back to being only on Keppra for now.

 

[epileric]

My seizures were diagnosed as idiopathic until I was 39 and they finally discovered a lesion on the hypothalamus of my brain. I was actually surprised at how little of a difference it made both in how much of a difference it made to me or how they treated it.

Does anyone know if there is any research into why childhood injuries etc can cause Epilepsy in later life, rather than directly after the injury or at birth in the case of my cyst. Are there triggers that can cause it, or is it a total mystery?

As far as I understand, they know that seizures are caused when a neuron misfires but they don't know why a neuron would start to misfire so long after the actual cause. For that matter when that happens they can only guess what the cause is but not know for sure.

 

[Nakamova]

This is just a guess: A scar or lesion from a head injury, cyst, etc. can set the stage for a lowered seizure threshold, but it may take just the right combination of environmental factors to push someone over that threshold. Some of the factors may take awhile to come into play. The aging process brings changes in hormones, vascular structure, metabolic habits, stress patterns, etc. -- all of which can play a role in changing a seizure predisposition into a seizure disorder. In my case, it took 30 years for that "perfect storm" of triggers to arise -- and I could have been slowly coming closer to the seizure threhsold for years without being aware of it.

 

[elizzza811]

I believe my adult-onset seizures are caused by the exponential increase in the amount of electromagnetic fields and microwaves in the environment, thanks to the cell phone-wireless boom. These episodes of mine took off in the mid-90's, right around the time cell phone towers began popping up on every corner. That's when Klonopin stopped helping my symptoms, too.

Seizures Caused by Cell Phone Radiation:
http://www.ehow.com/facts_7424090_se...radiation.html

GSM radiation triggers seizures and increases cerebral c-Fos positivity in rats pretreated with subconvulsive doses of picrotoxin:
http://tinyurl.com/4pvpukl

Check for towers and antennas here:
www.antennasearch.com

So if you don't have a cyst or any other obvious seizure trigger, you might want to consider this.

 

[CrunchyFrog]

Didn't even think of that. I googled and read in some places recently cases of Epilepsy have increase by 100%. It would make sense that external influences could be to cause, there has also been some research that I've been reading about preservatives, gluten, and dairy being a possible trigger for seizures.
I've read about a few people who've actually managed to stop their seizures completely by eliminating those foods.:yippee:
But, if some sudden onset Epilepsy is caused electromagnetic fields it would be impossible to change, these days towers are everywhere even in regional areas:dontknow: