Neurology and Rehabilitation Fast Facts

There are over two million people in the U.S. with diagnosed epilepsy, and if you live to be 80 there's a 10% chance that you will experience a seizure of some kind. Yet although it is relatively common, the disease is widely misunderstood. Not all epileptics, for example, suffer violent body convulsions, and most can lead normal, safe lives. But what do we really know about the disease? So what have the experts discovered about this mysterious condition?

The definition of epilepsy is very simple. It's someone who has two or more seizures. And a seizure can be of many different types. A seizure is an abnormal discharge in the brain. Usually neurons in the brain, the cells of the brain, talk to each other, to do the things we do everyday. To talk, to move, to laugh. But when you have a seizure, the cells work together in a more exuberant fashion. They actually fire all at the same time. And that abnormal firing is what causes the symptoms of a seizure.