Study suggests promising results for epilepsy surgery

Study suggests promising results for epilepsy surgery as you can read in this BBC News report. "The most common type of surgery undertaken on people in the study was temporal lobe surgery, which focuses on the area of the brain behind the forehead between the ear and the eye, where most seizures originate. Researchers who carried out the study, published in The Lancet, reported that 63% of all patients were free of seizures two years after surgery (excluding simple partial seizures), 52% after five years and 47% after 10 years." - I can't say I'd consider these percentages very 'promising' myself...

But you may be very hesitant about embarking on brain surgery - and I'd certainly be with you on that! - and you probably wish there could be a third option, i.e. not surgery and not drugs either. - I'd be with you about avoiding anti-epilepsy drugs too because they tend to have undesirable side-effects, don't they? (Though some of the serious side-effects, e.g. weight gain, from anti-epileptics such as Epilim, can be greatly reduced by cutting down on salt and salty food. See amitriptyline and other drugs.)

Well there is indeed a third option, and it has much to commend it. - Maybe you have already heard of it? - The ketogenic diet? - The ketogenic diet is a high fat, adequate protein, low carbohydrate diet. Maybe you have heard of it but been advised that it is a difficult diet to stick to, and so you haven't given it further thought. - But compared with brain surgery! - Surely it's a no-brainer as an option to brain surgery!? - Check out this excellent, reassuring article about this kind of diet. As a matter of fact, although I do not suffer from epilepsy, I nevertheless eat a ketogenic diet and have done so for many months now and it suits me very well. You may like to consider it and discuss it with your medical adviser and read further about it on the internet.

A catalogue of failures in the care and treatment of epilepsy is leading to wasted lives and wasted money

Epileptics' lives lost in care shambles - Guardian

Extract:

"Nearly 400 lives and £189m are wasted every year in England through a catalogue of failures in the care and treatment of epilepsy, according to a report published today by the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Epilepsy.

The report - Wasted Money, Wasted Lives - concludes that, despite effective treatments, there are 365 avoidable deaths a year from epilepsy, 69,000 people are living with unnecessary seizures, and 74,000 people are taking anti-epilepsy drugs they do not need.

Baroness Gould, chair of the APPG, says the report identifies a national scandal: "Perhaps the most shocking aspect of the report is the fact that better services would result in savings for the NHS ... and around £189m could be saved every year. This would more than cover the cost of improved services."

Supported by the Joint Epilepsy Council of the UK and Ireland (JEC), the report also condemns what it calls the continued government failure to meet the needs of people living with the condition. "Government guidelines for major changes to the treatment of epilepsy do exist," says Karen Deacon, chair of the JEC. "But, without targets or powers, these are little more than wish lists and are of little use to patients facing critical service failures." The JEC says the government should accept responsibility for the shortfall in services and increase the numbers of doctors and nurses specialising in epilepsy as a "matter of urgency".