by Mohd Sufyan, BSME, MBA Last updated on May 3, 2019,
How to prevent seizures?
The cause of epilepsy is often not known, therefore it can't be prevented, but the seizures associated with epilepsy can be.
Seizures can occur for a variety of reasons and they can often be prevented. One of the common reasons why seizures occur is epilepsy, and in most cases, seizures in epilepsy can be prevented if you know the triggers. You can take necessary steps to avoid or modify those triggers.
Know your triggers
Seizures due to epilepsy are often associated with certain triggers. Here are common factors that may trigger an epileptic seizure.
- Stress or anxiety
- Emotional problems
- Change in sleep schedules
- Extreme level sleep deprivation
- Fatigue
- Alcohol or drug abuse
- Something that over-stimulates your senses, such as bright lights, watching television, playing video games, or working on a computer screen
- Hormonal changes in women such as during menstruation and pregnancy
- Use of certain medicines
You can't always predict what can trigger an epileptic seizure. Sometimes they occur for no apparent reason. But many people are able to associate their seizures with certain behaviors and trigger. You can minimize the chances of getting a seizure by taking these steps.
Tips for preventing seizures
- Set a regular sleep schedule and get plenty of sleep each night. Follow the schedule honestly.
- Avoid drugs and alcohol
- Learn relaxation techniques to manage stress, mental strains, and anxiety
- Take your medicines as prescribed by the doctor
- Avoid bright and flashing lights
- Avoid playing video games and computer games
- Avoid being on computer screen or watching a TV whenever possible
- Eat a healthy and balanced diet
- Note carefully if there is anything else that triggers yours seizures. Avoid or modify them when possible.
Simple Breathing Exercise
In 1960s, a leading Russian Physiologist Doctor KP Buteyko, and his colleagues used a breathing exercise on hundreds of patients with seizures and epilepsy. These doctors used the Buteyko breathing medical technique to prevent and treat partial and simple seizures.
Sometimes seizures can develop within some seconds. Therefore, it is important to apply this exercise immediately for success. Sometimes a person is able to anticipate seizures and can control own breathing so as to change the usual development of events that may lead to a seizure.
You can perform this exercise with these steps:
Start this breath exercise as soon as you anticipate or feel that something wrong is going on with your body and/or mind.
- Breathe regularly and only through the nose
- Take small or short inhalations using the diaphragm while breathing, instead of taking large and quick inhales and exhales using your chest muscles
- In order to exhale, simply relax the diaphragm and count for about 3-4 seconds for each exhale.
- Breathe regularly all the time during this exercise.
- Due to reduced breathing, you should get air hunger or desire to breathe more. It should appear within a few seconds after you begin this exercise. Maintain this air hunger so that extra carbon dioxide in your blood and brain calms down the overexcited nerve cells and lessen their threshold of excitation. CO2 will also improve blood supply for the brain.
- Increased supply of the blood to brain will raise oxygen and glucose transport and increase CO2 level in the brain as well.
