[Kim Jaeho's Life Story]<268> Understanding Epilepsy and Wise Responses

There can be no good diseases in the world, but the quality of life for people suffering from epilepsy cannot be high either. Epilepsy patients are at high risk of physical injuries such as wounds or burns caused by seizures, feel anxiety and fear because they never know when the next seizure will occur, face difficulties in social life due to social misunderstandings and prejudices about epilepsy, and may also experience psychological problems such as depression, anxiety disorders, and suicidal impulses.

Brain cells perform their functions by maintaining a balance between excitation and inhibition. Seizures are symptoms that occur when this balance is disrupted by excessive electrical discharges in brain cells, resulting in excessive excitation. Seizures can manifest in various ways, ranging from brief loss of attention or muscle spasms to temporary paralysis of brain functions such as loss of consciousness and generalized tremors. The frequency of seizures also varies from less than once a year to several times a day.

When such seizures occur more than twice, the condition is defined as epilepsy. In the past, it was called ‘ganjil’ (epilepsy), but due to misunderstandings and prejudices associated with the term, it is now called epilepsy. Among the more than 600 known neurological diseases, epilepsy is the third most common neurological disorder after stroke, which occurs when blood vessels in the brain are blocked or burst causing brain cells to die due to lack of nutrients and oxygen, and dementia.

Globally, there are about 50 million epilepsy patients, and the lifetime prevalence of epilepsy is known to be 4 to 10 per 1,000 people, indicating that it affects many people. In South Korea, the prevalence of epilepsy has shown an increasing trend from 3.4 per 1,000 people in 2009 to 4.8 per 1,000 people in 2017, and the incidence rate also increased from 28.7 per 100,000 people in 2009 to 35.4 per 100,000 people in 2017.

Meanwhile, the prevalence of epilepsy is slightly higher in males by gender, and the incidence rate by age shows a U-shaped pattern with higher rates in younger age groups and in elderly people aged 65 to 70 and above. The number of people treated for epilepsy in South Korea increased from 146,000 in 2018 to 156,000 in 2023, exceeding the number of people treated for Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s disease.

How is epilepsy treated? Seizures often do not occur frequently, but if the cause of the seizures is not removed and remains, seizures can recur at any time. Therefore, if the risk of recurrence is judged to be high, treatment is administered. Epilepsy treatment is broadly divided into medication, surgery, and other treatments, with medication being the primary and fundamental approach.

Medication aims to improve the state where excessive excitation disrupts the balance by using anticonvulsants to suppress excitatory neurons, weaken excitatory neurotransmission, or strengthen inhibitory neurotransmission. It is known that 70-80% of epilepsy patients are controlled by medication, while the remaining 20-30% who are drug-resistant consider surgical or other treatment methods.

Next, surgical treatment involves locating and removing the area in the cerebrum that causes seizures. Other treatments include cerebral stimulation therapy, which stimulates the brain to treat epilepsy, and ketogenic diet therapy, which limits carbohydrate intake while supplying fats and essential proteins.

Are these treatments effectively curing epilepsy? Current epilepsy treatments do not remove the cause of epilepsy but aim to temporarily suppress seizure symptoms. Even if treatment is successful in temporarily stopping seizures, patients must continue treatments such as medication for a long time, which lowers quality of life due to various side effects including those from drugs.

People with epilepsy have more physical problems such as fractures or bruises caused by seizure-related injuries, and tend to have higher rates of psychological disorders including anxiety and depression. The risk of premature death is up to three times higher than in people without epilepsy. The number of deaths due to epilepsy was maintained at a considerable level of 400 to 500 annually but surged to 620 in 2022 and 586 in 2023.

Considering the reality of epilepsy treatment discussed above, unless one is lucky enough not to have seizures recur after stopping medication, it is wise to strive to remove the cause of epilepsy and cure it, even if temporarily aided by medication.

To prevent and cure epilepsy, which is neither a mental illness nor an infectious disease, it is desirable to remove the causes of epilepsy. However, the medical community states that epilepsy has structural, metabolic, genetic, infectious, and immunological causes, but in more than half of patients, the cause is unknown, and treatments that remove the cause of epilepsy are rarely performed.

However, the World Health Organization (WHO), the world’s leading international health organization, states that about 25% of epilepsy cases can be prevented by preventing head injuries caused by falls, traffic accidents, and sports injuries; preventing or controlling stroke, hypertension, diabetes, and obesity; and reducing cardiovascular risk factors by avoiding smoking and excessive alcohol consumption.

The National Health Information Portal recommends that “regular and sufficient sleep, balanced meals, and regular eating habits are very important for seizure control,” and advises reducing seizure triggers such as excessive drinking, physical overwork, mental stress, and infectious diseases including colds.

Following the WHO’s epilepsy prevention measures and the recommendations of the Disease Control Agency’s National Health Information Portal can help somewhat in preventing and curing epilepsy, but these measures have limitations. There is something we must pay close attention to in order to prevent and cure epilepsy.

Research shows that cells in our body experience damage to up to one million DNA molecules per day out of the six billion DNA molecules that make up a single cell. If these damaged DNAs are not repaired and remain damaged, the genes with damaged DNA will not be activated, and cells cannot perform their functions properly. Therefore, all damaged DNAs in every cell must be identified and replaced with new DNA of the same type.

How is this incredibly complex and mysterious DNA repair possible? The process of repairing damaged DNA is carried out by an ‘omnipotent intelligence’ encoded in the genes inside the cells, which activates the necessary genes when needed. The author calls this omnipotent intelligence the ‘best master doctor prepared inside my body.’

However, the degree of DNA damage and the extent of DNA repair are deeply related to our lifestyle habits. The number of damaged DNAs decreases if we maintain good lifestyle habits, but increases if we have poor lifestyle habits. DNA repair is more effective with good lifestyle habits but is difficult with poor lifestyle habits.

If too many DNAs inside cells are excessively damaged or if the genes responsible for repairing damaged cells fail to function properly, resulting in many cells not being restored to their original state, we become susceptible to various diseases.

Brain cells are no different. If the DNA of brain cells is heavily damaged and poor lifestyle habits that hinder DNA repair are not corrected, brain cells suffer many DNA damages due to toxins, lack of nutrients or oxygen, stress, and other reasons. Since damaged DNAs are not well repaired, the number of normally functioning brain cells decreases, weakening brain cell function and leading to various diseases.

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder caused by excessive damage to the DNA of brain cells and poor repair of damaged DNA, resulting in excessive excitation of brain cells and disruption of the balance between excitation and inhibition. To prevent and cure epilepsy, brain cell genes must not be heavily damaged, damaged genes must be well repaired, and gene switches must be properly activated through lifestyle habits.

Such a lifestyle creates a good environment where the best master doctor inside my body can work enthusiastically, and this is called Newstart (refer to Life Story Part 6).

Among the eight items of Newstart, the first life food is to eat a variety of plant-based foods including fruits, vegetables, and grains in sufficient amounts without selective eating of specific foods. Along with this, it is important to reduce intake of sugar?which causes many problems when consumed excessively?as well as processed or refined bad carbohydrates, saturated fats, trans fats, salt, and alcohol. It is also important to practice the other Newstart items: exercise, water, sunlight, temperance, air, rest, trust, and love.

Independent Researcher

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.