NewsBreak Original

My mom and dad were wonderful parents, but they were not very good at sharing family medical history. I knew that my oldest sister had epilepsy, and although I was told she had several grand mal seizures in her life, I never saw her have a seizure or show any other sign of epilepsy. I had no idea that I had childhood epilepsy until my youngest had her first seizure.

My personal experiences with seizures and idiopathic epilepsy. A seizure is a burst of uncontrolled electrical activity in the brain which causes temporary abnormalities in muscle tone or movements, behaviours, sensations, or states of awareness.

Many with autism also suffer from epilepsy and a new treatment could potentially target both. Many children who have autism also suffer from epilepsy. A new study published in Neuron discusses the discovery of a protein in the brain that appears to calm overactive brain cells. Children who suffer from epilepsy and autism have been found to have low levels of this protein in their brains.