Seizures

Epilepsy explained: what a seizure actually is, and the two things you must never do.

When somebody has a seizure in front of us, almost everybody does the wrong thing. A neurosurgeon explains what a seizure actually is — not electrical noise but too much order, a large group of brain cells firing together in lockstep — and then exactly what to do. Covers: how the normal brain balances excitation and inhibition; why what you see depends on where the seizure starts; why an aura is the seizure beginning rather than a warning before it; how it spreads to both halves of the brain; the absence seizure that teachers call daydreaming; why the recovery afterwards is part of the attack; the six causes, and why neurocysticercosis — the commonest infectious cause — is NOT caught from eating pork but from swallowing tapeworm eggs, so vegetarians get it too; why one seizure is not epilepsy; and what really triggers seizures (missed medication first, not flashing lights). Then seizure first aid in full: STAY, SAFE, SIDE, the two things you must never do, why nobody can swallow their tongue, why the shoe and the onion appear to work, and the seven reasons to call for help.

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