How to Reduce Seizures Due to Epilepsy

Epilepsy is chronic neurological condition characterized by recurring grande mal seizures. According to the World Health Organization, about 50 million people have epilepsy worldwide. Even though it is more likely to occur in the very young or the elderly, epilepsy can affect anyone. Many epileptic patients control their seizure episodes with medication, but seizure medication cannot cure epilepsy. There have been cases of surgical cures for epilepsy, but these required complex neurosurgical procedures and have a low success rate. Most epileptic patients use a combination of medication and lifestyle choices to reduce seizures due to epilepsy.

Instructions

• 1

  Have your doctor give you a professional diagnosis. Having frequent seizures is not enough to say you have epilepsy. A seizure can be a symptom of an underlying health condition, including brain cancer or toxicity. If another health condition is causing your seizures, treatment of that health condition will often cure them. Your doctor will run a series of diagnostics and exams to rule out other possible conditions before diagnosing you with epilepsy.

• 2

  Discuss your prescription drug options with your doctor. Nearly all epileptic patients use seizure medication to help reduce their change of having seizure episodes. Seizure medications have serious side effects and may not completely stop your seizure episodes. They can also be very expensive, depending on your healthcare plan. Never change the dose or stop taking your seizure medication without speaking to your doctor first. Both of these actions can actually cause an epileptic seizure.

• 3

  Determine if you have any epileptic seizure triggers and avoid them. For example, some epileptic patients can have seizures episodes after being exposed to flashing or flickering lights. These patients should avoid movies or video games that have these types of lights in them.

• 4

  Determine if diet plays a role in your epileptic seizures by keeping a food diary. Write down everything you eat each day and note any seizure episodes you may have. By examining your food diary over time, you can determine if there is a relationship between what you are eating and when you have an epileptic seizure. If you notice any correlation between certain foods, consider removing those types of foods from your diet for a month to see in your condition improves.

• 5

  Consider surgical options for severe epilepsy conditions that do not respond to medication or lifestyle changes. According to the Mayo Clinic, nearly 30 percent of epileptic patients cannot reduce their epileptic seizure rate through drug therapy. The surgery for epilepsy is still largely experimental and may not have a high success rate. This would require brain surgery and there are numerous risks to this type of procedure.