New Hope for Patients with Epilepsy

People often ask me why I became an epileptologist, or what it is that makes me passionate about my work. I think that the answers to those questions are similar. Simply, I feel that in doing my job, I can help make people better. Epilepsy is a disease that can be so crippling to a person's life, leading to loss of driving privileges, missed work and school days, and just overall difficulties with some of the life activities that you and I take for granted. However, advances in modern epilepsy treatment, both medical and surgical, have come a long way over the last several years. The concept of seizure freedom has become the expectation instead of a hopeless dream. Personally, it is incredibly rewarding for me to see a person achieve seizure freedom, and return to school, work or society with newfound confidence and security that their seizures are under control.

At the Nebraska Medical Center, we are very fortunate to have a strong and dedicated team of physicians, nurses and other providers who provide comprehensive epilepsy care for folks with even the toughest seizure disorders. The concept of seizure freedom has become the expectation instead of a hopeless dream. Additionally, with advanced tools such as Magnetoencephalography (MEG), we are able to noninvasively diagnose and localize many epilepsies that eluded treatment in previous eras, which allows us to provide the most modern care possible. I consider myself blessed to work with a number of dedicated and expert surgeons, which allows me to offer advanced epilepsy therapies to patients that was not available in the region even as recently as two years ago. Finally, we have also made tremendous strides with epilepsy medications as a community, where we can now offer medical management that is more effective and safer than older seizure drugs. All in all, we are in the middle of a very exciting time in epilepsy therapy, and are standing on the cusp of even more advancements in the next few years. Through our epilepsy center, we are also planning to contribute to this advancement by offering clinical trials in the very near future.

Finally, I believe that 2011 is going to be a banner year for our epilepsy center. As Director, I look forward to extending our reach and collaborating with other hospitals and clinics to maximize our ability to treat patients. In addition to offering advanced medical and surgical treatments for epilepsy, we are planning to specifically focus on the effects of general wellness on seizure control. It may be surprising, but factors like diet, stress management and getting a good night's sleep can be as effective as a medicine for the control of seizures! For those of you in the epilepsy community that know us, I thank you for your support, and for those that don't, I look forward to meeting you over the next year.

Deepak Madhavan, MD
Medical Director of the epilepsy program
The Nebraska Medical Center

Call 800-922-0000 to make an appointment with Dr. Deepak Madhavan. For clinic location and hours use the Find a Physician link.

Comments

[Stacey Doty]

It sounds like this next year will be full of new opportunity.

[John lawlor]

I would be interested in hearing your comments on how diet specifically effects seizure activity-John lawlor

[Deepak Madhavan, MD]

The relationship between diet and epilepsy has been known for some time in pediatric epilepsy populations. Specifically, some children with epilepsy are treated with the ketogenic diet, which is a very restrictive diet where lipids and proteins are dominant, and carbohydrates are minimized. In other populations, the benefits of a low carbohydrate, or low-glycemic index diet, are beginning to be explored. At our center, we offer meetings with our dietitian staff to create epilepsy friendly diets that are personalized for our patients.

Deepak Madhavan, MD
Medical Director of the epilepsy program
The Nebraska Medical Center

[Shane]

I'm anxious to learn more about recent advances since my 13 year old son has been on same "treatment" since age 4 and I think he deserves better.

[Hammadi]

Problem with digestion and/or etxcering can cause higher level of Bilirubin which then stores itself in fat, affect nerves and create itchiness under the skin. The brain is also made of fat. The blood brain barrier in children is not fully developed allowing Bilirubin into the brain which affects the membranes of the Neurons therefore creating seizures. Ketone from a high fat diet restores the membranes of the neurons therefore protecting against seizure. A good diet here helps in 2 ways.

[Mai]

My niece has epilepsy and meds weernt working at all with her-she was having several seizures a day that required hospitalizations due to their severity!!! Meds were like water for her-until the Ketogenic diet!! Then she started Living!! Together w/meds it's working!! Her seizures are under control now-she's stable and doing great for a 4 yr old!!-She's had seizures since she was 5 mos old! Ketogenic Diet Changed her life!!

[Araceli]

My daughter began this diet at age 1 with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN as well. It has been our micrale. She was seizure free for 12 months with one relaspe because the diet was off a bit for a few weeks, she is back on track without seizures again. We are so thankful. Our daughter was a ragdoll on all the various medications they tried. Within 24 hours of being on this diet, she rolled over for the first time at age 1!! IShe now can almost crawl and makes many sounds.