Epilepsy is a condition in which people have epileptic attacks (also known as seizures). It is one of the more common neurological conditions, affecting 0.5-1 per cent of the population. Epilepsy is not a single condition, but a group of conditions with differing causes, treatments and prognoses Epilepsy is not a single medical condition in itself. It is a symptom of a range of other conditions that cause somebody to have repeated fits, which are also known as seizures.

Symptoms

There are many signs and symptoms of epilepsy. In many cases, the symptoms are unnoticeable. The most common symptom is a seizure. Seizures are classified as grand mal or petit mal. Grand mal seizures may consist of rapid pulse, whole body spasms, jerking muscles, biting of the tongue, bladder and bowel incontinence, and dilated pupils. Petit mal seizures are less severe and typically include temporary lack of awareness. Sufferers may appear to have a blank expression on their face, or temporarily “space out.” Once the seizure concludes, the sufferer is usually unaware of their previous condition. For this reason, petit mal seizures can often overlooked.

Causes

Causes of seizures (and sometimes epilepsy) are further divided into acute and remote causes. This subclassification depends on whether there is active brain disease (an acute cause) or whether the brain abnormality is the result of an injury caused by a previous event (in which case it would be called remote). For example, if a child with meningitis experiences seizures during the illness, they would be termed acute symptomatic seizures. If that same child developed seizures that persisted for years afterwards, she would be diagnosed as having remote symptomatic epilepsy

Epilepsy stems from dozens of causes: genetics, heredity, brain tumours, viral infections, head trauma from accidents or falls, alchoholism, Alzheimer’s disease, trauma during birth, strokes, heart attacks, high blood pressure, AIDS, poison or environmental conditions, nicotine from cigarette smoke, overmedicating from certain types of drugs, hormonal changes and even lack of sleep. Epilepsy is also associated with other disorders like autism, TB, and cerebral palsy. This is one reason why the disease is often difficult to diagnose, and why, for some, it remains such a confusing disease.

Treatment

Many people have their seizures successfully controlled with anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs). This is the most common way that epilepsy is treated. AEDs do not cure epilepsy. At the moment there is no cure for epilepsy. The aim of AEDs is to prevent seizures by controlling the excitability of the brain. How they do this is not totally understood. Despite this, their effectiveness in treating epilepsy has been scientifically proven.

Vagus nerve stimulation

Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) can reduce seizures in some people. This is when an electrical device, implanted in the chest, regularly stimulates a nerve in your neck called the vagus nerve. The vagus nerve then sends signals to areas of the brain. This treatment is only available if other medicines haven’t helped and neurosurgery (brain surgery) isn’t possible.

Surgery

You may be offered neurosurgery if your epilepsy is severe and is not controlled after trying several different epilepsy medicines. This can only take place if the epilepsy is associated with a specific area of your brain. Your specialist will be able to explain your options to you.

Nail fungus is an embarrassing dilemma which causes humiliating experiences and restriction of wearing open-toed sandals. It is not easy to treat when the fungus is quite hard to reach.

Some people don’t realize that they have toe fungus. So how do you exactly know? Here are some symptoms: yellowing of toenails, thickening, and painful separation from the nail bed. Now you know that you have nail fungus, here are five nail fungus treatments which can help you get rid of that horrific problem.

The first treatment is to apply an anti-fungal cream religiously for at least 6 months to ensure that the nail fungus doesn’t come back. Most anti-fungal creams are available over the counter and are reasonably priced. Creams are applied directly to the nail and can be used for mild and moderate nail fungus infections. Make sure to read the contents of the creams before buying and follow the instructions carefully to prevent further damage. Make sure to clean your hands and feet before applying anti-fungal creams to prevent more bacteria from spreading.

Second treatment is to orally take medication. Prescription pills are one of the best choices for treatment. However, when taking prescription pills one must monitor the effectiveness since it can cause some dangerous side effects. Liver and kidney functions are most likely to be affected and the heart’s ability to contract is also a factor to be considered. Always ask for a prescription from a legitimate doctor to prevent more problems. You can ask them regarding the side effects and what can be done to avert it. If you are still worried about the risks, creams are the best option for you.

Third treatment is a non-surgical nail removal. For this treatment, a cream is used to soften and dissolve the nail which will remove the infected tissue. An anti-fungal cream will be applied once the infected nail is removed. Non-surgical nail removal is a rare procedure but nonetheless painless.

Fourth treatment is a surgical nail removal. This procedure is done if you have a severe or recurring nail fungus infection. Just like the process for non-surgical removal, an anti-fungal cream will also be applied directly once the infected nail is removed.

Fifth treatment is to apply soothing oils that will move down under the nails and reach down to the roots of the fungus. Oils have other purposes which come in handy while you treat your nail fungus. It helps in smoothing and softening your nails during each application and it also penetrates the nail when applied on top of it for protection. Soothing oils must be applied day and night to further improve the chances of nail fungus infection treatment. It also helps to apply oil to other nails with no nail fungus infection to prevent the spread of the nail fungus to the other nails.

Last but not the least, ask for a professional doctor’s advice. Creams and treatments can only do so much. Getting advice from a professional will help prevent further infection caused by wrong treatments.

 

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder that is characterized by recurrent unprovoked seizures.[1][2] These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms due to abnormal, excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain.[3] About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy at any one time.[4] Epilepsy is usually controlled, but not cured, with medication, although surgery may be considered in difficult cases. Not all epilepsy syndromes are lifelong – some forms are confined to particular stages of childhood.

What Causes Epilepsy?

This is a tricky question with no clear-cut answer. Often doctors can’t pinpoint exactly what causes epilepsy in a particular individual. But scientists do know that these are some of the things that can make a person more likely to develop epilepsy:

A brain injury, such as from a car crash or bike accident

An infection or illness that affected the developing brain of a fetus during pregnancy

Epilepsy can arise as a result of many different conditions that affect the brain. Examples of these conditions include stroke (resulting from a blockage of the blood supply to parts of the brain), complications during childbirth, infections (such as meningitis, encephalitis, cysticercosis, or brain abscess), head trauma, and certain genetic disorders.

Epilepsy Symptoms

Eyes are generally open.

The person may not appear to be breathing. The person is often breathing deeply after an episode.

The return to consciousness is gradual and should occur within a few moments.

Simple partial – person fully aware; abnormal twitching movement of part of the body, for example, head, eyes, hand or arm, or tingling sensation; person may sense odd smells, sounds or tastes

Complex partial – person experiences odd tastes or smells or déjà-vu; dream-like state follows; during an attack, lip smacking, grimacing or fidgeting may occur; can be followed by generalised seizure

How Is Epilepsy Treated?

Drug Therapy

Many drugs are available to treat epilepsy, several of which have only recently been released.

Older, classic medications used to treat epilepsy include:

Dilantin or Phenytek

Phenobarbital

Tegretol or Carbatrol

Vagus nerve stimulation — This procedure involves minor surgery and is a relatively new treatment that helps prevent or lessen the severity of seizures. An electrical stimulator is placed beneath the skin of the upper chest. The stimulator, which emits electrical impulses, is connected to an electrode that is attached to a nerve in the neck through a small incision. A patient with a vagus nerve stimulator continues to take medication but sometimes can reduce the amount or number of medications.

Surgery

Surgery is an option for a small number of patients whose epilepsy cannot be controlled with medication. A good candidate for surgery has seizures that always begin in the same cerebral location, which can be removed (resected) without creating deficits. Neurosurgeons generally avoid performing surgery in areas of the brain responsible for speech, hearing, and other important functions.

What is the prognosis?

Most people with epilepsy lead outwardly normal lives. While epilepsy cannot currently be cured, for some people it does eventually go away. Most seizures do not cause brain damage. It is not uncommon for people with epilepsy, especially children, to develop behavioral and emotional problems, sometimes the consequence of embarrassment and frustration or bullying, teasing, or avoidance in school and other social setting. For many people with epilepsy, the risk of seizures restricts their independence (some states refuse drivers licenses to people with epilepsy) and recreational activities.

There are more and more types and styles of hearing aid available today, as technology becomes more advanced and hearing aid components become ever smaller. What this also means is that hearing aid prices will vary hugely.

Hearing aids can be analogue or digital, but it’s worth remembering that hearing aid prices will differ significantly within the analogue range and also the digital hearing aid ranges.

Prices of digital hearing aids can vary from as little as £300 or £400 to over £2,000 per hearing aid.  When considering a hearing aid you must first seek professional advice and learn about your individual hearing loss and what hearing aid solutions are available to help.

 It may be that with a mild hearing loss a more cost effective hearing aid will be suitable but this may not offer the benefits or smaller hearing aid devices or in-the-ear hearing aids.

The best hearing aids will almost always be branded hearing aids offered by the leading hearing aid manufacturers such as Oticon, Phonak, Siemens, GN Resound and Widex.

Non branded hearings can be suitable but it is difficult to know what you are buying and whether your hearing aid will stand the test of time.

There are four main types of hearing aid, open ear hearing aids, which can also incorporate RITE (receiver in the ear) technology, BTE (behind the ear), ITE (in the ear), and CIC (completely in the canal) digital hearing aids. There are benefits and disadvantages of each type, but the one with the fewest disadvantages is the open ear RITE.

Most people with hearing loss can benefit from an open ear hearing aid, but severe and profound losses may find that BTE digital hearing aids are more suitable. If you are concerned about your hearing go for a free hearing test from a local hearing aid dispenser first. Phonak is one of the world’s leading hearing aid manufacturers and provides some of the best hearing aids available for all types of hearing loss and for all budgets. So if you are considering a hearing aid ask about Phonak hearing aids.  

For those who want to try a discrete but varatile hearing adi ask about Phonak Audeo Yes. It’s a really tiny, light and discrete hearing aid, the Audeo Yes hearing aid has several features that make it an excellent choice. CrystalSound is the core of the hearing aid processor. It digitally amplifies the subtle, high-pitched sounds critical to understanding speech and makes sure nothing gets lost. Digital SurroundZoom is one the industry’s best directional microphone systems. All packaged into a cool, Red Dot Design Award winning form that combines style with ergonomics and practicality. The Audeo Yes shape is designed to allow optimum placement of the dual microphones on the hearing aid for the best performance in noise.

Also worth considering Oticon hearing aids such as Epoq the top of the range digital hearing aid that has binaural processing and can even communicate with mobile phones and other electrical devices. If you are considering a lower cost option consider Oticon Dual which also has amazing processing power and some great features.

With so many digital hearing aids available it’s difficult to know where to start so best seek advice from a hearing care professional.