My river reverie
Does exercise lower instances of epileptic fits? This newspaper article appears to suggest so. Let see what it says.
One Muhammad Jazlan (let just call him Jazlan) suffers from epileptic fits. The medicine for treating epilepsys can be very costly, and you are prescribed a dosage according to your physical size. Don't ask me about the physiology behind this. I am not medically trained. But there is truth to this. I remember once my neurologist specialist sizing up my weight before deciding how much an increase in my epilepsy drug that he could increase.
The article further reports that Jazlan's epilepsy attacks decreased over time as he had taken to regular cycling exercises to cut his weight. He even participated in the OCBC Cycle more than once, such was his dedication to keeping fit. Thus it was reasonable to assume that exercise decreases epileptic fits. But it didn't all go away. The report also cites instances when Jazlan would stop cycling and rest when he had an epileptic aura. My doctor once told me that when I have an aura, an epileptic attack in the brain is already in progress. So auras count as epileptic attacks although it is not visible to anyone. There appears to be an awareness period of what is happening because it has happened before, but soon you lose control.
I had just such an attack several years ago when I went cycling in the Sengkang sector of the Park Connector Network. I could continue cycling. I didn't black out. Such an attack does not affect me physically. It is all mental - a combination of loss of awareness (not consciousness) of where you are and what you are doing. Some people call this absence epilepsy. You'd be wide awake and you can continue to do what you are doing. In my case, riding a bicycle, keeping balance, rolling on, and navigating corners and all that. Of course, the prudent thing to do is to stop cycling and rest. But when such an epileptic attack is in progress, you wouldn't know what to do, really. You don't have control. There's nothing you can do except wait for the epileptic fit which is akin to a "mental storm", to subside. You just struggle mentally to recall what you are doing, where you are, and why you are there. This has happened in other circumstances. Sometimes it happens while I was travelling in a train. I struggle to regain some semblance of control. The train is rolling on. Where am I? Have I missed my planned stop? I could stand up and walk around, but to what end? So invariably, I wait for the "storm" to subside when I regain awareness of my surroundings.
Coming back, does exercise reduce epileptic attacks? I am not sure that it does for every sufferer. I've probably put on a significant amount of weight over the last 7 years because of my sedentary lifestyle. In this same period, my epileptic attacks have stopped completely. Exercise or a lack of it doesn't explain everything. Obviously there are other factors at work.
I wish Jazlan all the best.
One Muhammad Jazlan (let just call him Jazlan) suffers from epileptic fits. The medicine for treating epilepsys can be very costly, and you are prescribed a dosage according to your physical size. Don't ask me about the physiology behind this. I am not medically trained. But there is truth to this. I remember once my neurologist specialist sizing up my weight before deciding how much an increase in my epilepsy drug that he could increase.
The article further reports that Jazlan's epilepsy attacks decreased over time as he had taken to regular cycling exercises to cut his weight. He even participated in the OCBC Cycle more than once, such was his dedication to keeping fit. Thus it was reasonable to assume that exercise decreases epileptic fits. But it didn't all go away. The report also cites instances when Jazlan would stop cycling and rest when he had an epileptic aura. My doctor once told me that when I have an aura, an epileptic attack in the brain is already in progress. So auras count as epileptic attacks although it is not visible to anyone. There appears to be an awareness period of what is happening because it has happened before, but soon you lose control.
I had just such an attack several years ago when I went cycling in the Sengkang sector of the Park Connector Network. I could continue cycling. I didn't black out. Such an attack does not affect me physically. It is all mental - a combination of loss of awareness (not consciousness) of where you are and what you are doing. Some people call this absence epilepsy. You'd be wide awake and you can continue to do what you are doing. In my case, riding a bicycle, keeping balance, rolling on, and navigating corners and all that. Of course, the prudent thing to do is to stop cycling and rest. But when such an epileptic attack is in progress, you wouldn't know what to do, really. You don't have control. There's nothing you can do except wait for the epileptic fit which is akin to a "mental storm", to subside. You just struggle mentally to recall what you are doing, where you are, and why you are there. This has happened in other circumstances. Sometimes it happens while I was travelling in a train. I struggle to regain some semblance of control. The train is rolling on. Where am I? Have I missed my planned stop? I could stand up and walk around, but to what end? So invariably, I wait for the "storm" to subside when I regain awareness of my surroundings.
Coming back, does exercise reduce epileptic attacks? I am not sure that it does for every sufferer. I've probably put on a significant amount of weight over the last 7 years because of my sedentary lifestyle. In this same period, my epileptic attacks have stopped completely. Exercise or a lack of it doesn't explain everything. Obviously there are other factors at work.
I wish Jazlan all the best.
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