In India, November 17 is noticed each year as National Epilepsy Day to raise awareness about epilepsy. Epilepsy is a neurological condition that is portrayed by signs and side effects like seizures, temporary confusion, loss of awareness, fear, anxiety, etc. The seizures are caused because of sudden, excessive electrical discharges in the neurons (synapses). The condition can influence individuals at whatever stage in life and each age group has different concerns and issues. Influencing individuals of all ages, sex, or topography, epilepsy has no recognized reason. However, specialists accept that specific elements including hereditary impact, head injury, pre-birth injury, chemical imbalance, and so forth can conceivably add to the beginning of the condition.

As indicated by the World Health Organization (WHO), around 50 million individuals have epilepsy over the world, out of which 80% of individuals are living in developing nations. Despite the fact that epilepsy is treatable, yet three-fourth of influenced individuals in non-industrial nations don't get the necessary treatment.

In India, around 10 million individuals experience the ill effects of seizures related to epilepsy.

Diagnosis of Epilepsy

All things considered, your primary care physician will play out a neurological test and some blood tests prior to affirming the condition. A neurological test will enable the specialist to know your motor capacities and mental capacity. In specific cases, you may likewise need to get an EEG, CT sweep, MRI, or PET test done.

The symptoms of epilepsy are as per the following:

• Sudden twitching (wild jolting movements of the arms and legs)
• Loss of consciousness
• Tingling or shivering sensation (sentiment of pricking pins or needles) in arms or legs
• Firmness in muscles of arms or legs or face

Reasons for Epilepsy

• Brain damage from pre-birth and peri-natal injury
• Inborn errors or congenital abnormalities
• Mind Infections
• Stroke and Brain Tumors
• Head Injury/Accidents
• Drawn out high fever during adolescence

Management of epilepsy

Tips for Epileptic patients

• Take the epilepsy meds consistently as exhorted by the specialist, regardless of whether you are not having seizures.
• Try not to end the prescriptions without your PCPs' recommendation.
• Counsel your primary care physician while taking some other prescriptions to evade conceivable results or any confusion.
• Try not to drink liquor as it incites seizures.

Tips to manage Seizures

• Try not to attempt to control the individual during a seizure.
• Do not panic
• Eliminate sharp articles or other destructive items out of the individual with seizures.
• Release any close neckwear.
• Tenderly roll the individual onto one side so any liquid in the mouth can securely come out.
• Put something delicate under their head.
• Try not to place anything into the individual's mouth for the dread of gulping tongue.
• Be with the individual until clinical assistance shows up.
• Permit the individual to sleep or rest.

Epilepsy is generally treatable with drugs. The basic thing about epilepsy is that one ought not to postpone its treatment. Start the treatment when it is analyzed. This forestalls further disintegration of the condition.

Diet for Epilepsy

A ketogenic diet is strictly a therapeutic diet along with a weight control plan that may be a treatment decision for epilepsy. It incorporates a high fat and low carbohydrate diet that ensures the body will mainly devour fat rather than starch and protein for energy, therefore supplying the body cells with ketones instead of glucose.

The brain uses ketones as a last resort in the absence of glucose for energy. The eating routine duplicates the body's metabolic state during fasting or sickness. This high ketone state (ketosis) decreases seizure development in specific conditions by parts that are not totally seen. The eating routine intentionally raises the ketones in the blood.

Component of the Ketogenic diet

When an individual is on the ketogenic diet, their body doesn't get enough glucose to devour for energy, so it must use fat, when fats are burned in the body, the fuel makes ketones. At the point when this occurs, the body is in ketosis. To achieve this, an individual must adhere to the eating routine for a long period of time. Ketosis occurs during seasons of fasting. As per a recent report, people have used fasting as a seizure treatment for a pretty long time.

How likely is it that the Ketogenic diet works for Epilepsy?

It is fundamental to have functional suppositions with respect to the likelihood of dietary treatment helping in epilepsy. The ketogenic diet doesn't control seizures in all patients. If a wide scope of epilepsy is thought about, somewhat more than one of each three patients will have a more than 50 % decrease in their seizure recurrence. Another in three will have fewer than 50 % decrease in seizure recurrence and the leftover one of each three will have no change in seizure recurrence. Less than one out of ten will have in excess of a 90% decrease in seizures and less than one of every twenty will become seizure-free.

Be that as it may, a couple of sorts of epilepsy may respond better to ketogenic diet, for instance, absence epilepsy, myoclonic-atonic epilepsy (Doose syndrome), Dravet syndrome, and infantile spasms.

Advantages and disadvantages of Ketogenic diet

A modified ketogenic diet may give benefits to past epilepsy management. Adults on the eating routine may experience upgrades in:

• Alertness
• Focus
• Mental functioning
• Personal satisfaction

Kids and grown-ups who follow a ketogenic diet must see their essential consideration doctor or dietitian at regular intervals. These ordinary visits are huge for noticing headway and improvement and checking for any adversarial effects of the eating schedule.

Disadvantages of a ketogenic diet include:

• Constipation
• Weight reduction
• Elevated cholesterol or fatty oil levels
• Lethargy
• Kidney stones

Since the eating routine takes into account not many natural products, vegetables, grains, and different nutritious nourishments, supplementation with a glucose-free multivitamin is important.

References:

• https://www.nhp.gov.in/National-Epilepsy-Day_pg
• https://www.forbesindia.com/article/brand-interface/ketogenic-diet-in-epilepsy/63015/1#:~:text=Ketogenic%20diet%20is%20strictly%20therapeutic,for%20vitality%2C%20consequently%20delivering%20ketones.