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Abstract Summary: Purpose: Photosensitivity can represent a serious problem in epilepsy patients, also because pharmacologic treatment is often ineffective. Nonpharmacologic treatment using blue sunglasses is effective and safe in controlling photosensitivity, but large series of patients have never been studied. Methods: This multicenter study was conducted in 12 epilepsy centers in northern, central, southern, and insular Italy. A commercially available lens, named Z1, obtained in a previous trial, was used to test consecutively enrolled pediatric and adult epilepsy patients with photosensitivity. Only type 4 photosensitivity (photoparoxysmal response, PPR) was considered in the study. A standardized method was used for photostimulation. Results:...

I need to start this story off with a personal confession. I myself suffer from the same medical condition as Hillary Clinton, epilepsy. It is because I have lived it that I can confirm that the sunglasses seen in this picture were by no means normal sunglasses. Blue lenses are frequently used to reduce the light intake of epileptics to prevent seizures. I myself used to use them frequently when I would go to concerts to stop strobe lights from triggering me. Hillary Clinton has been shown countless times to also be triggered by flashing lights. They will often result...

11/6/12: D-4,266,317 voters; R-3,131,144 voters; UAF-1,110,554 voters 9/5/16: D-4,094,000 voters; R-3,175,000 voters; UAF-685,390 voters

A novel nonpharmacologic treatment for photosensitive epilepsy: a report of three patients tested with blue cross-polarized glasses. Kepecs MR1, Boro A, Haut S, Kepecs G, Moshé SL. Author information Abstract PURPOSE: Pharmacotherapy for photosensitive epilepsy is not always effective and is associated with well-recognized toxicities. Nonpharmacologic approaches to the management of photosensitive epilepsy have included the use of sunglasses of various types. Blue lenses have been shown to suppress the photoparoxysmal response more effectively than lenses of other colors with similar overall transmittances. Recently, cross-polarized glasses have shown promise. The axes of polarization of the two lenses of such glasses...

First Do No Harm Directed by Jim Abrahams, about a boy whose severe epilepsy, unresponsive to medications with terrible side effects, is controlled by the ketogenic diet. Aspects of the story mirror Abrahams' own experience with his son Charlie. Starring Meryl Streep Fred Ward Seth Adkins Allison Janney Margo Martindale Oni Faida Lampley Leo Burmester Tom Butler Mairon Bennett Michael Yarmush Millicent Kelly Diana Belshaw The film tells a story in the life of a Midwestern family, the Reimullers. About a boy whose severe epilepsy, unresponsive to medications with terrible side effects. Lori (played by Meryl Streep) is the mother...

For whatever reason, my thoughts about shame and stigma are never far from the surface these days. And, a recent post on Facebook triggered another long and involved look into what those of us with epilepsy experience and what we sometimes inflict on ourselves. The post was from someone with epilepsy who had just received an ice bucket challenge to raise money for ALS. For those of you not in the States, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is an activity to raise money and awareness for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, known as ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s Disease. The nominated person has...

Kind stranger pays check for couple having dinner with their special needs son after giving them a note saying: 'God only gives special children to special people' A mother was reduced to tears by a beautiful gesture from a generous stranger towards her family and special needs son on Friday night. Ashley England, of North Carolina, was eating out with her family in China Grove when her eight-year-old son Riley, who is non-verbal and suffers from epilepsy, got frustrated and noisy.The mom worried that he would upset other diners in the restaurant. Instead, a kind-hearted mystery man paid for their...

The role of cannabinoids in the treatment of seizure disorders in children has come under the spotlight in recent months amid a string of media reports of parents obtaining the substances in states where medical marijuana is now legal and claiming "miraculous" reductions in seizures with the treatment. Among the reports was that of a 6-year-old boy with Dravet's syndrome, a rare form of childhood epilepsy, reported by CNN. In an interview, the parents said the boy was left immobilized by the 22 antiseizure pills a day required to control his seizures, but after treatment with a liquid, nonpsychoactive form...

In November 2008, when he was just 6, William Moller had his first epileptic seizure, during a reading class at school. For about 20 seconds, he simply froze in place, as if someone had pressed a pause button. He could not respond to his teacher. This is known as an absence seizure, and over the next year William, now 10, who lives with his family in Brooklyn, went from having one or two a day to suffering constant seizures. Not all were absence seizures; others were frightening tonic-clonics, also known as grand mals, during which he lost consciousness and convulsed....

The number of E. coli cases has risen dramatically in northern Germany, authorities announced Wednesday, with at least 180 new cases emerging in the past 24 hours in Hamburg and Lower Saxony alone. The new figures came as doctors in Schleswig-Holstein reported that the bacterial illness was also causing unusual neurological effects including epilepsy. Seventeen people – one in Sweden and the rest in Germany – have now died from the virulent form of enterohamorrhagic E. coli (EHEC), which can cause bloody diarrhoea and kidney failure known as haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS). In the past day, the number of cases...

Sam will tell on Joy in a heartbeat. It’s his job — and often it’s potentially life-saving. Sam, a 3-year-old Labrador/spaniel, likes to romp with the kids, but when his vest and balance harness go on, he becomes 11-year-old Joy Cahill’s service dog and official lookout. No one is then allowed to touch him because Sam is busy, keeping alert and ready to warn someone should this Wilmington girl have a health emergency. “He’s gotten to know her norm,” said Denise Cahill, Joy’s mother. “So when something is not normal, he reacts. He also doesn’t let Joy do anything she’s...

A study published in the journal Epilepsia has determined that individuals with a specific form of epilepsy may benefit the most from a meat-rich diet. Researchers found that the majority of children with myoclonic-astatic epilepsy who switched from a modified Atkins diet to a ketogenic diet reduced their seizures by at least 10 percent. The ketogenic diet is similar to the Atkins regimen. Both consist primarily of protein-heavy meals, eaten with little or no carbohydrates. The ketogenic diet simply has more restrictions on the types of fats, proteins and fluids that an individual may consume. The study's authors concluded that...

Frédéric Chopin Hot news today, of sorts: a team of Spanish medial researchers think that Chopin may have been an epileptic. And perhaps he was. His early death at 39 has never been explained, and that he had serious health problems is obvious. Maybe, along with tuberculosis and cystic fibrosis, epilepsy is a contender. But without claiming the slightest medical expertise here, I’m not convinced by the medics’ argument that his recorded instances of apparent hallucination are proof of epileptic seizure. The traditional explanation for these time-out moments has usually to do with the hypersensitivity of a romantic soul; and...

David Axelrod, President Obama's senior adviser and architect of his 2008 campaign, doesn't fear a good political fight. But in his personal life, Axelrod and his wife, Susan, have been fighting a 29-year battle with their first child Lauren's epilepsy. Their story began when Susan discovered her 7-month-old in the crib, blue and listless. "She was sort of salivating at the mouth, and making a guttural sound" Susan recalls. "I think I was just sort of in shock." The Axelrods rushed Lauren to the hospital , where doctors told them their daughter was having a seizure. "It took months after...

Once every three or four months my son, Sam, grabs a cookie or a piece of candy and, wide-eyed, holds it inches from his mouth, ready to devour it. He knows he’s not allowed to eat these things, but like any 9-year-old, he hopes that somehow, this once, my wife, Evelyn, or I will make an exception. We never make exceptions when it comes to Sam and food, though, which means that when temptation takes hold of Sam and he is denied, things can get pretty hairy. Confronted with a gingerbread house at a friend’s party last December, he went...

When my wife was diagnosed with temporal lobe epilepsy in 2005, the word “epilepsy” was all she heard. “My ears began to buzz and I felt as if I was going to black out,” she says. “It was as if someone had just told me that I was possessed by demons.” Since that diagnosis, Sharon describes her daily struggles as plunging into a medieval world of demonic possession, of medical professionals who did not believe in the diagnosis, and into an arena of social stigmas that she never knew existed. Medical experts (www.epilepsyfoundation.org) agree epilepsy affects between one and two...

Fatally epileptic children, and their parents in California had hoped that lawmakers would pass SB-1051, a law to allow lay persons to administer the drug, Diastat, which, if given quickly and properly, could save the child’s life. Nurses unions and associations, on the other hand, argued that Diastat, administered rectally via syringe, is not as safe as some doctors claim, and if inserted into the vaginal cavity, could harm young girls who receive the treatment. The Nurses unions won, and SB 1051 was not passed. Diastat was designed to be administered in cases of prolonged, potentially fatal seizures. Both sides...

Today, Max Irvine enjoys life as a normal, 4-year-old boy. But just last year, more than 100 daily epileptic seizures were deteriorating his brain. His family's strong and a unique medical diet is what saved the young boy's life. "Last November he basically stopped talking and walking and he started losing all of his skills," Max's mom, Kristine Irvine, recalled. "There were times when I prayed to God to either make him better, or take him home," his father, Troy Irvine, added. "Because I just couldn't stand to see him going through what he was going through. There were many...

From Surviving Wonderland: My life with temporal lobe epilepsy, by Sharon Powell and John David Powell Looking back, we see that Sharon’s temporal lobe epilepsy has been a manipulative companion throughout our lives together, from our first days at Indiana State University, through the years of unpleasantness and separation, and up to today as we compile this amazing compendium of her survival of Wonderland. How would our lives be different if we had known? Sharon writes of pain as a constant companion today, but it’s always been around for the nearly 40 years we’ve been together. When we first met,...

A trip to the doctor is all good news these days for 4-year-old Max Irvine. Just a year ago, however, Max was enduring more than 100 seizures a day. Even a barrage of tests at the famed Mayo Clinic's Epilepsy Laboratory revealed no clear medical explanation. Epilepsy was consuming every waking hour of Max's life. "It got to the point where he couldn't walk or talk or function, or even eat hardly," said Max's father Troy Irvine. Medications control epilepsy for 75 percent of children, but not for Max. His family watched helplessly as the light disappeared from his eyes....