Epilepsy is a chronic disorder of recurrent unprovoked seizures, and is one type of seizure disorder. Convulsion is pretty much same as seizure. Some folks with low sugar or with head trauma can jerk and twitch a few times, this is not epilepsy but a convulsion or a seizure. According to the Institute of Medicine, one in 26 people in the US will suffer from epilepsy at some point in their life. More than 3,000 Americans die each year from Sudden Unexpected Death in Epilepsy. Recent estimates by CDC1, reveal 1.2% of the US population suffers from Epilepsy, (@ 3.4 million), including 470,000 children. Reality is that @ 35% are not controlled by medication, while another third is only partially controlled with medication2.
So many health initiatives and innovations in treatment are coming from overseas. Yet another catch by the FDA just occurred – the approval of a smartwatch for seizure patients. Approved in EU in April 2017, the Embrace seizure monitoring smart watch tracks sleep, stress, and physical activity, along with seizure activity -impressive! It can learn and notify wearer if a convulsion is coming. It can also send alerts to whomever you assign. A crowdfunding initiative brought this to market. Got to LOVE what technology is doing for health care!
1 https://www.cdc.gov/epilepsy/data/index.html
2 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/labs/articles/9092951/
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