This channel is the perfect blend of knowledge, humour and kindness. We need more channels on youtube like that, akin to Kurzgesagt, thank you for your content Dr. Gill!
These videos are very entertaining and informative. I’m sure it is for everyone here as well. I’ve been having seizures for 10 years now and it makes me feel good that epilepsy is getting more attention.
It’s one of those silent disabilities. Which can be more problematic, as when you are fine… we’ll, you’re fine I think the best way to deal with these things is talk about it 😊
I think we are still trying to get the balance for the A-Z correct, I personally like the dynamic of a medical chat, rather than mini lectures for this services, but as the same time we still need to make sure people are getting useful info
@@DrJamesGill I find most of these topics interesting and informative even if they subjects don’t affect me personally. I think I missed my calling and should have gone to med school. 😄
It’s nice to hear people talking about epilepsy in a casual but informative way. I’ve had epilepsy since I was 5 and used to have major seizures with a couple minutes in between each one. The specialist still doesn’t know what triggers it but through trial and error they eventually found my current medication (800mg lamotrigine and 1000mg levetiracetam a day) that helps keep it in control, although I do still have breakthroughs more regularly than I would like.
such an interesting topic and an amazing video! i just remembered that last year, around the first covid outbreak, i had blacked out at home, then continued to feel extremely dizzy for a few days when i finally decided to visit a doctor. she examinated my nerves, everything was fine, but later on during my visit i told her about these weird episodes that i had been experiencing for an year (those were derealization and depersonalisation episodes but i didn't know it yet) and managed to describe them as accurately as possible as it's really difficult to describe them ... she was quite surprised, she said she'd never had anyone experience any of that stuff but she thought it was epilepsy. so, i was prescribed medicine meant for people who get regular seizures. i only took them for a few days as they made my dizziness a lot worse, it felt as if i was high of some sort. thankfully, about a month afterwards i discovered that the episodes i'd been experiencing were depersonalisation and derealization episodes. just a pointless story, love the video! thank you.
That is still something that would need looking into. The question I always ask myself with a patient is “what has caused the symptoms, and what do we need to do to, if not necessarily fix them, but then increase their quality of life”
I have epilepsy and get a weird blank sensation prior to having a seizure, almost a warning sign. Luckily for me I have it under relative control now due to medication.
My father had epilepsy and also would have this “weird blank sensation” prior to having a seizure. It enabled him to get into a safe place (chair, couch, bed).
I have it too and didn’t have my 1st one until I was 40. I take Briviact+ Lamotrigine. The worst thing is getting confused and memory loss. I’m with you all 😉
I go through an aura before I have one. For me it’s more like a numb sensation in my ears. Patients who have auras I think are very lucky. Levetiracetam, lamictal, and gabapentin have worked for me. Those are the best for ME so far.
The anti-epileptic medications really are life changing for patients. Unfortunately sometimes it can take a little tries and error to get things balanced correctly
I got in to learn about epilepsy, not only I have learned about the condition but I really enjoyed the extra links and associations you through in the middle. and how you manage to put that in an enjoyable video. Brilliant! P.S. I am a doctor.
@@DrJamesGill hello Dr I watch ur vidio on epilipsy. Does this sickness has treatment . My relative has this sickness from almost 30 year now it change to agrassive issues like crying and shouting so does it have any treatment this patient had many type of medicine but nothing change can u advise any thing . Kindly waiting for ur reply.
@@DrJamesGill oh my goodness. Those are terribly painful 😣 I had a severe infection when I was 16 from spending days swimming while on vacation in Florida. My neck swelled up so bad and my ear canal closed up. 😬 I lost a little bit of hearing but sometimes my fiancé says: do you dog ears?? 😆 guess I still have selective hearing. 😏😏
Thank you for doing this episode. You heard my request for information on Epilepsy. I’m always grateful for education about this annoying neurological disorder. Thank goodness for medicine that works to control my condition. Love your content Dr. Gill. 🤙🏻😊😊
@@DrJamesGill in 2014. I had three seizures, unprovoked from October 12, 2013 -Dec 5th 2013, then I was put on medication permanently. I was taking phenytoin, from 2014 until April 2019. I was having too many side effects went on another medication for two months and it made me crazy moods completely out of control. Now I have two medicines at work great thankfully I am pretty stable. I get my forgetful moments, and kind of spaced out for a few seconds but it’s not ever really a problem just more annoying than anything else. 🤷🏼♀️ I will not let epilepsy stop me from doing what I want: besides drink some wine 🍷 with dinner. 🙃
Very sensible re the avoiding alcohol This is a great example of medicine. Sometimes it takes time, and we might not get a 100% fix, but we try to get a reasonable management of the issue
I read somewhere that a seizure is sort of like a depolarization of the hemispheres. I will say that after I had one after a few years that I felt more “calm” as if my brain was so stressed and then the seizure manifested, then the next day I felt better. My body was sore and I had the postictal headache and confusion with it but overall I felt ok. Strangely enough they have only happened at night or in my sleep which is really interesting 🤔
@@DrJamesGill I had a car accident when I was 20, bumped my head in 2,places. ☹️ consequently I developed migraines within a month after my concussion. My personality changed and my moods became unstable so my nervous system has been through hell, I suppose seizures had something to do with it? 🧐 just took 20 years to manifest. Side bar here: my depression has been easier to manage since I had to put my dog down in March. I was absolutely distraught and I let in cripple me. It is so hard to get motivated and lift yourself out of the darkness of depression.
I am half way through 50 and had three seizures this year. I had one where I passed out and got up in a minute and then 3 months or so later I got an assay buffer that had sodium azide in it and the next morning I had a grand mal seizure and somehow fractured my t5 and t12 vertebrae and was out of it for a week. Now a few days ago I was standing at the counter in the kitchen and dropped and hit my head and shoulder but woke within a minute. When I go out my eyes are open and I snore with no response. The last one I had to have a nap after for a few hours. They happened around 9 am each time. They put me on lamotragine now. I had no warning at all but remember a major sense of dread as it started. They took my life license when I had my second big one and now another 6 months to see if I control it with the meds. It's pretty weird and hard to accept. My neurologist was going to clear me but the last seizure happened the day before my appointment and so he changed his mind. My eeg didn't show much, a few spikes. I feel it's my heart though but who knows. Peace to all of you
When he talks about your first-fit tests, it reminded me of my first one when I was 8 and I was in hospital for 2 days wandering around with a drip, eating rubbish hospital food😂
Unfortunately a childhood friend lost their only son to SUDC (sudden unexplained death in childhood, basically what they call SIDS once you’re no longer an infant) and their only warning sign was a fever the day before he passed in his sleep. He’d had a couple of febrile seizures with a fever prior to that and the best they could guess was that he had a seizure in his sleep which somehow stopped his breathing and it never restarted. Thankfully two out of three of their daughters are completely fine but unfortunately one of them is also prone to febrile seizures as well so they have to be extra careful with them because of what happened to their son. Seizures are definitely an interesting condition that’s for sure…
@@DrJamesGill yes.. a friend of mine is on the spectrum with Asperger’s syndrome and does really well. He’s living by himself, not on medication and he’s smarter than he thinks he is. I’m proud of him for taking such good care of himself and his kitty cats 🐈😇
I’ve seen plenty of patients with the lack of sleep trigger, we will often do sleep deprived EEG’s to confirm this. Once we are confident with patients triggers it can help the management
I used to know an epileptic -- he was on medication, but it didn't control it well. I noticed that he had multiple types of seizures -- Grand Mal, Peti Mal, and also absences. I don't know how common that is?
I was diagnosed with Photosensitive Epilepsy when I was 2 and had my Seizure Tumor surgically removed when I was 8. The biggest question of all is why Epilepsy is incurable but Seizures are curable?
I’m sorry to hear you had that, but hopefully doing well now? A seizure will have a cause. If you can treat the cause, you’ll stop the seizure. However, we can’t be certain that we can treat the cause of the seizure. Epilepsy IS a cause of a seizure, which is difficult to treat. Hypoglycaemia is a cause of a seizure, but should be relatively easy to prevent. I hope that makes sense?
I know that in cats can be caused by anesthesia. mainly due to the ketamine anaesthetics. You also see this more in certain breeds and or cats with a certain color that they are more sensitive to ketamine anesthetics. this is because due to the color there is another slower action of the lipin. what about people? is it also possible that this is triggered by ketamine? does this occur more or less in, for example, people with a certain hair color or ethnic background? in animals that have it it can also provoke an attack by sound, what about people? Sorry for the many questions🙊 I have ideas for some other letters the p:Polycythaemia vera and for the H: hemicrania
@@DrJamesGill oh i know! Didn't make it any less hilarious 🤣 Keep doing what you're doing, doc. 2 of my siblings suffer from epilepsy so this was super informative to me
Yes, there will be a cause, but as you say, it is something we can’t find. That does however mean we also can’t treat t as easily Often “idiopathic” means there isn’t a singular cause, but a constellation of small stressors the all combine together. Unfortunately that can mean we can’t identify them, as the individual effect is too small
@@DrJamesGill Someone I know was on anti seizure meds for years, after what were likely just one or two isolated incidents. As she's been off them for many years more -- with no issues -- it's pretty obvious she was misdiagnosed. The adverse effects of the meds caused her real, serious health problems (I think the currently available treatments would have been better, that's beside the point). Most serious, in my view, is the distrust for "mainstream" medicine she has now. I can't really say I can fault those doctors, so long ago --- I think over-treatment was sort of normalized, back then. Your presentation reminds that there's still more we need to know, so thanks.
My aunt started having seizures after a car accident and they were violent. ☹️ she’s very lucky to be alive today and is doing well with Keppra: she just gets fatigued easily such as myself.
An ambulance is a weapon of epileptic destruction when it goes at night with the same light power as during the day. Color bars or shopping shelves are unconfortable to look at when short sighted or exhausted from walking fast in cold weather. Flat screen TVs no longer flicker. We had "dark mode" until 75 Hz monitors came about. I rememeber news and government organizations freaking out about Pokemon, singling it out unfairly. Looking into the shrink ray of Duke Nukem is hazardous to your health. I'm skeptical about these statistics. If 2% have epilepsy, and up to 10% have some related issue and 2% have diabetes, and we account for all other diseases the same way, it may turn out that humans are too sick to exist at all.
This channel is the perfect blend of knowledge, humour and kindness. We need more channels on youtube like that, akin to Kurzgesagt, thank you for your content Dr. Gill!
Well thank you 😊 that’s very kind
These videos are very entertaining and informative. I’m sure it is for everyone here as well. I’ve been having seizures for 10 years now and it makes me feel good that epilepsy is getting more attention.
It’s one of those silent disabilities. Which can be more problematic, as when you are fine… we’ll, you’re fine
I think the best way to deal with these things is talk about it 😊
@@DrJamesGill Hi Dr Gill love watching these video's you do on A to Z. For your next video on A would you do one on Aspergers/Autism?
Absolutely agree with you @The New Dave.
I love these. Just a couple of legends shooting the breeze.
I think we are still trying to get the balance for the A-Z correct, I personally like the dynamic of a medical chat, rather than mini lectures for this services, but as the same time we still need to make sure people are getting useful info
@@DrJamesGill I find most of these topics interesting and informative even if they subjects don’t affect me personally. I think I missed my calling and should have gone to med school. 😄
It’s nice to hear people talking about epilepsy in a casual but informative way.
I’ve had epilepsy since I was 5 and used to have major seizures with a couple minutes in between each one.
The specialist still doesn’t know what triggers it but through trial and error they eventually found my current medication (800mg lamotrigine and 1000mg levetiracetam a day) that helps keep it in control, although I do still have breakthroughs more regularly than I would like.
We’re trying very hard with this series to make it accessible 😊 so thank you for that feedback
I’m glad things are broadly stable for you 😊
such an interesting topic and an amazing video! i just remembered that last year, around the first covid outbreak, i had blacked out at home, then continued to feel extremely dizzy for a few days when i finally decided to visit a doctor. she examinated my nerves, everything was fine, but later on during my visit i told her about these weird episodes that i had been experiencing for an year (those were derealization and depersonalisation episodes but i didn't know it yet) and managed to describe them as accurately as possible as it's really difficult to describe them ... she was quite surprised, she said she'd never had anyone experience any of that stuff but she thought it was epilepsy. so, i was prescribed medicine meant for people who get regular seizures. i only took them for a few days as they made my dizziness a lot worse, it felt as if i was high of some sort. thankfully, about a month afterwards i discovered that the episodes i'd been experiencing were depersonalisation and derealization episodes. just a pointless story, love the video! thank you.
That is still something that would need looking into. The question I always ask myself with a patient is “what has caused the symptoms, and what do we need to do to, if not necessarily fix them, but then increase their quality of life”
I have epilepsy and get a weird blank sensation prior to having a seizure, almost a warning sign. Luckily for me I have it under relative control now due to medication.
My father had epilepsy and also would have this “weird blank sensation” prior to having a seizure. It enabled him to get into a safe place (chair, couch, bed).
I have it too and didn’t have my 1st one until I was 40.
I take Briviact+ Lamotrigine.
The worst thing is getting confused and memory loss. I’m with you all 😉
@@Cindee-Schnitman same Lamotrigine has done wonders for me
I go through an aura before I have one. For me it’s more like a numb sensation in my ears. Patients who have auras I think are very lucky.
Levetiracetam, lamictal, and gabapentin have worked for me. Those are the best for ME so far.
The anti-epileptic medications really are life changing for patients.
Unfortunately sometimes it can take a little tries and error to get things balanced correctly
I got in to learn about epilepsy, not only I have learned about the condition but I really enjoyed the extra links and associations you through in the middle. and how you manage to put that in an enjoyable video. Brilliant! P.S. I am a doctor.
Thank you! That’s an brilliant comment from a colleague. I really appreciate it 😊
@@DrJamesGill hello Dr I watch ur vidio on epilipsy. Does this sickness has treatment . My relative has this sickness from almost 30 year now it change to agrassive issues like crying and shouting so does it have any treatment this patient had many type of medicine but nothing change can u advise any thing . Kindly waiting for ur reply.
DR. Gill is back 😍
We’ve also got one on ear infections, which is big part of my work load
@@DrJamesGill oh my goodness. Those are terribly painful 😣 I had a severe infection when I was 16 from spending days swimming while on vacation in Florida. My neck swelled up so bad and my ear canal closed up. 😬 I lost a little bit of hearing but sometimes my fiancé says: do you dog ears?? 😆 guess I still have selective hearing. 😏😏
Thank you for doing this episode. You heard my request for information on Epilepsy. I’m always grateful for education about this annoying neurological disorder. Thank goodness for medicine that works to control my condition.
Love your content Dr. Gill. 🤙🏻😊😊
I’m pleased to hear things are under control. How long ago were you diagnosed?
@@DrJamesGill in 2014. I had three seizures, unprovoked from October 12, 2013 -Dec 5th 2013, then I was put on medication permanently.
I was taking phenytoin, from 2014 until April 2019. I was having too many side effects went on another medication for two months and it made me crazy moods completely out of control. Now I have two medicines at work great thankfully I am pretty stable. I get my forgetful moments, and kind of spaced out for a few seconds but it’s not ever really a problem just more annoying than anything else. 🤷🏼♀️ I will not let epilepsy stop me from doing what I want: besides drink some wine 🍷 with dinner. 🙃
Very sensible re the avoiding alcohol
This is a great example of medicine. Sometimes it takes time, and we might not get a 100% fix, but we try to get a reasonable management of the issue
I love how Doc is pop cultured!
I read somewhere that a seizure is sort of like a depolarization of the hemispheres. I will say that after I had one after a few years that I felt more “calm” as if my brain was so stressed and then the seizure manifested, then the next day I felt better. My body was sore and I had the postictal headache and confusion with it but overall I felt ok. Strangely enough they have only happened at night or in my sleep which is really interesting 🤔
I think this is part of the rationale for ECT in depression 😊
@@DrJamesGill I had a car accident when I was 20, bumped my head in 2,places. ☹️ consequently I developed migraines within a month after my concussion.
My personality changed and my moods became unstable so my nervous system has been through hell, I suppose seizures had something to do with it? 🧐 just took 20 years to manifest.
Side bar here: my depression has been easier to manage since I had to put my dog down in March. I was absolutely distraught and I let in cripple me. It is so hard to get motivated and lift yourself out of the darkness of depression.
The 38th episode of Pokemon which caused seizures 'Computer Warrior Porygon'
Some how seems fitting it was a “computer / electrical” themed episode
I am half way through 50 and had three seizures this year. I had one where I passed out and got up in a minute and then 3 months or so later I got an assay buffer that had sodium azide in it and the next morning I had a grand mal seizure and somehow fractured my t5 and t12 vertebrae and was out of it for a week. Now a few days ago I was standing at the counter in the kitchen and dropped and hit my head and shoulder but woke within a minute. When I go out my eyes are open and I snore with no response. The last one I had to have a nap after for a few hours. They happened around 9 am each time. They put me on lamotragine now. I had no warning at all but remember a major sense of dread as it started. They took my life license when I had my second big one and now another 6 months to see if I control it with the meds.
It's pretty weird and hard to accept. My neurologist was going to clear me but the last seizure happened the day before my appointment and so he changed his mind. My eeg didn't show much, a few spikes. I feel it's my heart though but who knows.
Peace to all of you
When he talks about your first-fit tests, it reminded me of my first one when I was 8 and I was in hospital for 2 days wandering around with a drip, eating rubbish hospital food😂
Unfortunately a childhood friend lost their only son to SUDC (sudden unexplained death in childhood, basically what they call SIDS once you’re no longer an infant) and their only warning sign was a fever the day before he passed in his sleep. He’d had a couple of febrile seizures with a fever prior to that and the best they could guess was that he had a seizure in his sleep which somehow stopped his breathing and it never restarted. Thankfully two out of three of their daughters are completely fine but unfortunately one of them is also prone to febrile seizures as well so they have to be extra careful with them because of what happened to their son. Seizures are definitely an interesting condition that’s for sure…
I've been loving your A to Z series! Would you do a video on autism?
Maybe when we swing back around, I think that would be a good one to tackle
@@DrJamesGill yes.. a friend of mine is on the spectrum with Asperger’s syndrome and does really well. He’s living by himself, not on medication and he’s smarter than he thinks he is.
I’m proud of him for taking such good care of himself and his kitty cats 🐈😇
0:23 when the undercover cop tries to buy ecstasy
Gold 🤣
I have JME and its relatively well controlled. I no longer drink . My only triggers are lack of sleep
I’ve seen plenty of patients with the lack of sleep trigger, we will often do sleep deprived EEG’s to confirm this.
Once we are confident with patients triggers it can help the management
@@DrJamesGill do you believe sleep deprivation will trigger seizures for the rest of my adult life ?
@@DrJamesGill seemed to be a very big trigger for me too. I have chronic insomnia hence why I’m still up at 2a.m. 🤫
I used to know an epileptic -- he was on medication, but it didn't control it well. I noticed that he had multiple types of seizures -- Grand Mal, Peti Mal, and also absences.
I don't know how common that is?
I was diagnosed with Photosensitive Epilepsy when I was 2 and had my Seizure Tumor surgically removed when I was 8.
The biggest question of all is why Epilepsy is incurable but Seizures are curable?
I’m sorry to hear you had that, but hopefully doing well now?
A seizure will have a cause. If you can treat the cause, you’ll stop the seizure.
However, we can’t be certain that we can treat the cause of the seizure. Epilepsy IS a cause of a seizure, which is difficult to treat.
Hypoglycaemia is a cause of a seizure, but should be relatively easy to prevent.
I hope that makes sense?
I know that in cats can be caused by anesthesia. mainly due to the ketamine anaesthetics. You also see this more in certain breeds and or cats with a certain color that they are more sensitive to ketamine anesthetics. this is because due to the color there is another slower action of the lipin. what about people? is it also possible that this is triggered by ketamine? does this occur more or less in, for example, people with a certain hair color or ethnic background? in animals that have it it can also provoke an attack by sound, what about people?
Sorry for the many questions🙊
I have ideas for some other letters the p:Polycythaemia vera and for the H: hemicrania
I think polycythemia might be a worth while one. But perhaps we’ll just do a “poly” video and cover several, from the comment to the unusual
Wow 😯 that’s interesting, as I have never heard of that being a trigger in cats.
WARNING WARNING OLD MAN RANTS AT SKY 😂
I don’t know where that quote is from, possibly the Simpson’s, but it’s normally said with love on my case
@@DrJamesGill oh i know! Didn't make it any less hilarious 🤣 Keep doing what you're doing, doc. 2 of my siblings suffer from epilepsy so this was super informative to me
Dr. Gill should do a video with Dr Bonnie Henry, British Columbia's Provincial Health Officer.
My friend has epilepsy, he is a good friend of mine but I’ve only ever seen him have a seizure at school camp
You DRE is good What is some prostate area firm mean? Is firm area one day become hard? Thx
i love those pants doctor, do you happen to know where you got them?
Wow thanks. That's an very interesting topic.. But before I start watching... DID SHE SAID "NO"? Where is your engagement ring?
He won’t have an engagement ring. He gets his the day of the wedding. Just the wedding band
@@brentlorence3493 oh ok. thanks for information. here in europe things are very different between countries
When you say someone could have epilepsy with no cause -- I think there must be a cause, but we just can't find it with our current tools?
Yes, there will be a cause, but as you say, it is something we can’t find.
That does however mean we also can’t treat t as easily
Often “idiopathic” means there isn’t a singular cause, but a constellation of small stressors the all combine together.
Unfortunately that can mean we can’t identify them, as the individual effect is too small
@@DrJamesGill Someone I know was on anti seizure meds for years, after what were likely just one or two isolated incidents. As she's been off them for many years more -- with no issues -- it's pretty obvious she was misdiagnosed. The adverse effects of the meds caused her real, serious health problems (I think the currently available treatments would have been better, that's beside the point). Most serious, in my view, is the distrust for "mainstream" medicine she has now. I can't really say I can fault those doctors, so long ago --- I think over-treatment was sort of normalized, back then. Your presentation reminds that there's still more we need to know, so thanks.
My aunt started having seizures after a car accident and they were violent. ☹️ she’s very lucky to be alive today and is doing well with Keppra: she just gets fatigued easily such as myself.
An ambulance is a weapon of epileptic destruction when it goes at night with the same light power as during the day. Color bars or shopping shelves are unconfortable to look at when short sighted or exhausted from walking fast in cold weather. Flat screen TVs no longer flicker. We had "dark mode" until 75 Hz monitors came about.
I rememeber news and government organizations freaking out about Pokemon, singling it out unfairly. Looking into the shrink ray of Duke Nukem is hazardous to your health.
I'm skeptical about these statistics. If 2% have epilepsy, and up to 10% have some related issue and 2% have diabetes, and we account for all other diseases the same way, it may turn out that humans are too sick to exist at all.
Dr.Gill is a Pokemon fan? 😳
🤫
The political commentary was a little annoying :p