What all one needs to know about Epileptic seizure

According to a recent study, this is the most common neurological emergency in children and seizures are potentially fatal. In fact, up to 5 percent of affected children succumb to it and a third suffer brain damage. The longer the seizure, the greater the chance of long-term complications.
Epilepsy is a neurological disorder where abnormal brain activity induces unprovoked seizures. It can affect anyone regardless of sex, race, age and cultural background. Though uncommon, this condition can sometimes cause fatal epileptic seizures.

Medications can control the seizures to a certain extent. However, surgical intervention may be needed in some cases. Most people, however, have to be on medication throughout their lives to control seizures but, for others, it becomes infrequent and then stops completely as they age. One peculiarity about this disease is that it is more common in young children and the older generation.

WHAT CAN AN EPILEPTIC SEIZURE DO?

It can cause temporary confusion, uncontrollable jerking movements of the arms and legs, loss of consciousness or awareness and psychic symptoms like fear, anxiety or déjà vu. It can also make a person stare at the same spot for the duration of seizure. Though symptoms vary from person to person, it usually remains the same for each person.

WHEN DOES AN EPILEPTIC SEIZURE BECOME FATAL?

Epileptic seizures are usually not fatal and only 1 in 1000 patients die because of it, suggests some estimate. However, sometimes, it can cause death. Let us look at a few conditions that can cause fatal epileptic seizures.

Lafora disease

According to researchers  Lafora disease, an inherited form of epilepsy that results in death by the age of 30, can be caused by mutations in a gene that regulates the concentration of the protein laforin.  In Lafora disease, a person has normal development for the first decade of life, followed by an initial seizure in the second decade. These seizures become progressively worse and eventually it causes early dementia and death within 10 years of onset. Medications can help contain the initial symptoms, but there is no long-term treatment or cure yet.

Status epilepticus

This condition increases the risk of permanent brain damage and death.Usually, a seizure will stop by itself. But, at times, you may experience a long seizure or a series of seizures without recovering in between. If this carries on for 5 minutes or more, it is called status epilepticus.

What you can do: If this happens in a tonic-clonic seizure where people fall down and shake, you need to get medical help immediately. If a convulsive seizure carries on for more than 30 minutes,it can cause brain damage and even death. Call an ambulance if the patient has trouble breathing after the seizure or if one seizure immediately follows another with no recovery in between. You also need to act fast if the seizure lasts two minutes longer than usual for that person and if the seizure lasts for five minutes or more.

Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP)

This is rare, but the risk is there. Only about 1 per cent or 1 in 1000 epilepsy patients die of SUDEP. Death usually occurs suddenly when the patient is sleeping, either during or after a seizure and the cause is often inconclusive. Most experts are of the view that this could be due to heart or respiratory health.The risk is greater in patients who have frequent tonic-clonic seizures or those whose seizures are not controlled by medications. This is more common in people with poorly controlled epilepsy and is rarely seen in children.

Though the exact cause of SUDEP is not known, experts suspect that it could be due to pauses in breathing during a seizure, which can cause death if they go on too long. A convulsive seizure may also result in an obstructed airway, which leads to suffocation. Though it is rare, a seizure may sometimes induce a cardiac arrest and this can result in sudden death.

What you can do: SUDEP is related to seizures. To reduce the risk of death, it is important to control seizures and especially tonic-clonic seizures. You can also reduce the risk of SUDEP by listening to your doctor and taking the prescribed anti-epileptic drug on time. Also, if there is any change in medication, see that it is gradual. Talk to your doctor about controlling seizures at night and use a seizure alarm if you have to. Keep yourself healthy.

A few other complications

Having a seizure at an inconvenient time can be dangerous to yourself as well as others. This is especially true if you drive. If you have a seizure in the middle of traffic, you may cause an accident and injure yourself and others. Such accidents, at times, can be fatal. In fact, many countries have very strict rules regarding issuance of driver’s license to a patient of epilepsy. You may also hurt yourself seriously if you suffer a fall during a seizure. Drowning is also a real possibility if you suffer one while swimming or even in a bathtub.

People with epilepsy can also die from problems that can happen during or after a seizure. One can inhale vomit, and this can be fatal. If you see anybody having a seizure, turn them onto one side immediately. This will allow saliva, vomit or other fluids to drain out of the mouth and not enter the lungs.

WHEN SHOULD YOU CONTACT A DOCTOR?

Consult a doctor immediately if you experience or see somebody experiencing the following symptoms:

• An  epileptic seizure that continues for 5 minutes or more.
• Breathing becomes slow and consciousness doesn’t return even after seizure stops.
• Recurrent seizures with no recovery time in between.
• Temperature is high.
• There is any injury due to seizures.
• A pregnant or diabetic person undergoing seizure          
  
   
  THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                                                                      FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                     https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com

Fat Loss - 7 Food Items To Help You Out!

Excessive fat in the body can cause a lot of health complications such as diabetes, blood pressure, gout and disorders related to the gallbladder. However, there are certain food types that can help you achieve a healthy body with optimal fat levels.
Some food items that aid fat loss are:

1. Greek yoghurt: This type of yoghurt contains higher amounts of protein and fewer carbohydrates as compared to regular yoghurt. It will help you feel full for a longer duration and prevent over snacking.
2. Green tea: Apart from its antioxidant properties which are beneficial to the body, it also raises the metabolic rate in the body to burn calories. Catechin is a compound present in green tea that aids in removing belly fat.
3. Chili peppers: They have a compound containing capsaicin that helps in boosting metabolism which in turn burns fat.
4. Chicken: Chicken mostly consists of lean protein that requires more calories to digest as compared to digesting fats and carbohydrates. Lean protein also helps in building muscle in the body which burns more calories when the body is at rest.
5. Cinnamon: Cinnamon aids the body in transporting the sugar into the cells so that it can be used as energy and not stored as fat.
6. Eggs: Eggs are considered to be a type of superfood as they contain plenty of minerals and vitamins. Eggs also contain protein that helps in feeling full for a longer duration.
7. Non-starchy vegetables: Non-starchy vegetables such as carrots, squash and zucchini contain fibers that help you feel fuller. They also contain very less carbohydrates so they do
   not add much calorific value to the body.                           

THIS IS ONLY FOR INFORMATION, ALWAYS CONSULT YOU PHYSICIAN BEFORE HAVING ANY PARTICULAR FOOD/ MEDICATION/EXERCISE/OTHER REMEDIES.                                    PS- THOSE INTERESTED IN RECIPES ARE FREE TO  VIEW MY BLOG-                                                                                           https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/                                                                                                                                                FOR INFO ABOUT KNEE REPLACEMENT, YOU CAN VIEW MY BLOG-                                                  https:// kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com/                                                                      FOR CROCHET DESIGNS                                                                                                                                                                                          https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com

Why wounds take longer to heal with age decoded

Wounds take longer to heal in older people because of disruption in communication between skin cells and the immune system with age, a new study has found.

Researchers explored this physiological puzzle by examining molecular changes in ageing mouse skin.

"Within days of an injury, skin cells migrate in and close the wound, a process that requires coordination with nearby immune cells," said Elaine Fuchs from the Rockefeller University in the US.

"Our experiments have shown that, with ageing, disruptions to communication between skin cells and their immune cells slow down this step," said Fuchs.

"This discovery suggests new approaches to developing treatments that could speed healing among older people," Fuchs added.

Whenever a wound occurs, the body needs to repair it quickly to restore its protective skin barrier.

Both skin cells and immune cells contribute to this elaborate process, which begins with the formation of a scab.

New skin cells known as keratinocytes later travel in as a sheet to fill in the wound under the scab.

Researchers focused on this latter step in healing in two-month-old versus 24-month-old mice-roughly equivalent to 20- and 70-year-old humans.

They found that among the older mice, keratinocytes were much slower to migrate into the skin gap under the scab and as a result, wounds often took days longer to close.

Wound healing is known to require specialised immune cells that reside in the skin.

The researcher's new experiments showed that following an injury, the keratinocytes at the wound edge talk to these immune cells by producing proteins known as Skints that appear to tell the immune cells to stay around and assist in filling the gap.

In older mice, the keratinocytes failed to produce these immune signals.

To see if they could enhance Skint signalling in older skin, the researchers turned to a protein that resident immune cells normally release after injury.

When they applied this protein to young and old mouse skin tissue in a petri dish, they saw an increase in keratinocyte migration, which was most pronounced in the older skin. In effect, the old keratinocytes behaved more youthfully.

The scientists hope the same principle could be applied to developing treatments for age-related delays in healing.

"Our work suggests it may be possible to develop drugs to activate pathways that help ageing skin cells to communicate better with their immune cell neighbours, and so boost the signals that normally decline with age," said Fuchs.

The study appears in the journal Cell.

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations

https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes

https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

Preserving donor lungs for longer time may provide greater flexibility during transplants

A new method which doubles the usual time donor lungs can remain outside the body can benefit patients, staff and allow retrieval of donor lungs across greater geographical areas, says a study published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine.

After retrieval, donor lungs are usually bathed in an organ-preserving solution, inflated with oxygen and kept on ice less than eight hours. If too much time passes before the organ can be transplanted, the organ may become too damaged to be used. The maximum acceptable time in most centers has been six to eight hours.

Dr. Marcelo Cypel, thoracic surgeon at Toronto General Hospital (TGH), University Health Network (UHN) and Scientist, Toronto General Research Institute (TGRI) and the Toronto Lung Transplant Program team demonstrated that preserving donor lungs with the help of ex vivo lung perfusion for up to 20 hours is safe and will enable more transplants to be performed with greater flexibility in their timing.

"It's a change in paradigm for how we do lung transplants," says Dr. Cypel, adding that there are many benefits to patients who must uproot their lives to live near a transplant centre, and to staff who frequently perform these complex operations in the middle of the night.

Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, Surgeon in Chief, Sprott Department of Surgery at UHN, says that "instead of racing the clock to transfer the organ from the donor to the recipient, we have created the opportunity for more detailed assessment and treatment of the organ, while also providing valuable hours to optimize the logistics of the transplant operation. This will eventually translate into improved outcomes and reduced costs of organ transplantation."

The study is published in The Lancet Respiratory Medicine, November 17, 2016 entitled, "Outcomes after Transplantation of Lungs Preserved for More Than Twelve Hours: A Retrospective Study", by first author UHN thoracic surgeon Dr. Jonathan Yeung, senior author Dr. Cypel, as well as Dr. Shaf Keshavjee, UHN Surgeon-in-Chief and Director of the Toronto Lung Transplant Program, and Dr. Lianne Singer, Medical Director, Toronto Lung Transplant Program and Clinical Researcher, TGRI.

The study reviewed 906 patients from 2006 to 2015 who received lung transplants at Toronto General Hospital. Ninety-seven (97) of these patients received lungs which were preserved outside the body for more than 12 hours, with an average of 14.6 hours, while 809 patients received lungs that were preserved for less than 12 hours - on average about 6.7 hours.

Despite the use of higher-risk organs in the group in which lungs were preserved for more than 12 hours, early outcomes between the two groups were similar.

The two groups were followed between two and a half and four years, and the main results measured were primary graft dysfunction, or injury to the lung after the first 72 hours and a leading cause of death after transplantation, intensive care unit and hospital stay and survival of patients. No differences were observed between the two groups in primary graft dysfunction, and length of hospital and intensive care unit stay was the same between the two groups.

At one year, the survival of patients who received lungs preserved less than 12 hours was 86%, and 87% for those who received lungs preserved for more than 12 hours. The widely accepted International Society of Heart and Lung Transplantation benchmark for one-year survival of lung transplant patients is 80%.

Donor lungs are fragile and more susceptible to injury than other organs, explains Dr. Singer, noting that only about 15-20% of all donor lungs are used for transplant. "We need to explore every opportunity for those waiting for a life-saving transplant to be able to receive a healthy donor lung." About 20% of all those needing a lung transplant die while waiting for one.

The study used a combination of warm and cold preservation to increase the length of time the lungs were able to survive safely outside the donor body.

Retrieved lungs were first cooled to slow down deterioration and tissue injury, transported to TGH, then treated and evaluated with the ex vivo lung perfusion (EVLP) system for four to six hours - first pioneered by Drs. Keshavjee and Cypel in 2008 at TGH. 

Subsequently lungs were subjected to protective cooling again until transplantation.

In the EVLP system, the lungs are placed in a protective dome in which a system continuously pumps a bloodless solution of oxygen, proteins and nutrients into the injured donor lungs, mimicking normal physiological conditions. This makes it possible for the injured cells to begin repairing themselves, and sets the stage for more sophisticated repair techniques to be applied to donor lungs.
Since 2012, there has been an unprecedented 30 per cent increase in lung transplants at TGH as a result of the EVLP system. TGH now routinely performs more than 120 lung transplants a year, making this one of the largest centres in the world.

Dr. Cypel describes the paradigm shift as not only preserving donor organs, but interrupting the injury process to the lungs, and enhancing their recovery.

With longer preservation times, we can get organs from longer distances anywhere in North America, he says, while allowing more flexibility in planning surgeries, in allowing patients more latitude to travel to Toronto for their transplants rather than waiting in Toronto, and extra time for better immunological matching between donated lungs and recipients. It also provides more opportunities to treat injured organs initially deemed unsuitable for transplant, he adds.

"Now we don't have to rush. Lung transplants don't have to be emergency surgeries."

this is only for your information, kindly take the advice of your doctor for medicines, exercises and so on.

https://gscrochetdesigns.blogspot.com. one can see my crochet creations

https://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com. feel free to view for easy, simple and healthy recipes

https://kneereplacement-stickclub.blogspot.com. for info on knee replacement

Do you want to cut heart failure risk? Exercise more and sit less

Researchers have found that sitting for long periods increases heart failure risk in men, even for those who exercise regularly.

Deborah Rohm Young, Ph.D., lead researcher and a senior scientist at Kaiser Permanente in Pasadena, California, has advised to be more active and sit less.

Researchers followed a racially diverse group of 84,170 men ages 45 to 69 without heart failure. Exercise levels were calculated in METs, or metabolic equivalent of task, a measure of the body’s energy use. Sedentary levels were measured in hours.

After an average of nearly eight years of follow-up, researchers found that men with low levels of physical activity were 52 percent more likely to develop heart failure than men with high physical activity levels, even after adjusting for differences in sedentary time.

The study also found that outside of work, men who spent five or more hours a day sitting were 34 percent more likely to develop heart failure than men who spent no more than two hours a day sitting, regardless of how much they exercised.

Another finding was that the heart failure risk more than doubled in men who sat for at least five hours a day and got little exercise compared to men who were very physically active and sat for two hours or less a day.

The research has been published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation: Heart Failure.

ps- this is only for information, always consult you physician before having any particular food/ medication/exercise/other remedies.

ps- those interested in recipes are free to view my blog-

http://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/

for info about knee replacement, you can view my blog-

http://Knee replacement-stick club.blogspot.com/

for crochet designs

http://My Crochet Creations.blogspot.com

Positive outlook in heart disease tied to fewer deaths

People with heart disease who are more upbeat and excited tend to live longer than those who don't have such a positive outlook, a new study suggests, possibly because they are often more active.

Researchers surveyed people with ischemic heart disease - when the heart doesn't get enough blood due to narrowed arteries - and found earning a high score on measures of "positive affect" was tied to a greater chance of being a regular exerciser and a lower risk of dying over the next five years.

It adds to the body of literature suggesting that there may be relationships between positive affect … and all-cause mortality.

The new study included 607 heart patients who were seen at one  hospital.

The Dr. and her colleagues asked the patients about their quality of life, mood and lifestyle habits including physical activity in 2005. Then they used death and hospital records to track participants through 2010.

On a mood scale ranging from 0 to 40, where higher scores indicate feeling more relaxed, self-confident and excited, half of participants scored a 24 or above. (Negative affect was measured separately - so a person could score high or low on measures of both positive attitude and insecurity or helplessness.)

During the follow-up period, 30 of the high positive affect patients died of any cause, compared to 50 people with a lower positive attitude score.

Some of that association appeared to be driven by exercise habits, the researchers found. People with high mood scores were more likely than other participants to say they exercised at least once a week, and exercisers were half as likely to die as non-exercisers.

There was not a clear difference, however, in how often people were hospitalized for heart-related conditions, based on their positivity. During the study period, about half of all participants were hospitalized for a heart attack, heart failure or chest pain.

The researchers said past studies also found a link between having a positive outlook and better heart health, but it was unclear what explained the association.

"There is some evidence to suggest that even among people who are already ill, who already have heart disease or diabetes or related conditions, that those people who are happier also have better outcomes..

Health behaviours such as exercise are one possible explanation for that link, she told. Some researchers have also proposed another mechanism, suggesting optimism may affect physiologic processes in the body that would ultimately influence heart health, such as inflammation levels.

Dr. and her colleagues noted that they did not have information on participants' type or intensity of exercise. The researcher also said the study can't say how exercise and positive affect may be linked.

"We do not know what comes first (also known as the ‘chicken and egg' problem) and thus cannot make any conclusions about the direction of causality - is it exercise that increases positive affect or positive affect that leads to more exercise with an effect on mortality or both?" she said.

"Irrespectively, it cements what we already know - namely that exercise is good for the heart."

"Hopefully you would have the added benefit of feeling more happy (and) optimistic," she said.

ps- this is only for information, always consult you physician before having any particular food/ medication/exercise/other remedies.

ps- those interested in recipes are free to view my blog-

http://gseasyrecipes.blogspot.com/

for info about knee replacement, you can view my blog-

http://Knee replacement-stick club.blogspot.com/

for crochet designs

http://My Crochet Creations.blogspot.com