Epilepsy

We're seeing some significant advances in efforts to leverage light-sensitive proteins to improve human health, a field known as optogenetics, but new research out of Germany flips the script on this emerging technology.

Microglia are immune cells that clean out unwanted debris in the brain and central nervous system, but it turns out they might help heal injured neurons too – a discovery that could pave the way for new treatments for epilepsy and other conditions.

A research team has demonstrated how using light to target specific brain cells, a technique called optogenetics, might work to tackle epilepsy, by using the approach to prevent seizures in mouse models of the disease.

A study is showing that it may be possible to predict the onset of epileptic seizures several days in advance. By analyzing data from a brain implant designed to monitor and prevent seizures, the research hopes to develop a seizure forecasting tool.

Although medication does help control seizures in some epilepsy patients, it doesn't have much of an effect on others. A new system is designed to help the latter group, by at least letting them know when seizures are about to occur.

A new review has examined a dozen studies into the effect of Mozart’s music on epilepsy, finding the classical music may reduce the frequency of seizures. It rekindles an old pseudoscientific idea that listening to Mozart can make you smarter.

The Epilepsy Foundation is striking back against a campaign by Twitter trolls to flood some hashtags with flashing GIFs designed to trigger seizures in vulnerable individuals. The cyber-attacks follow on from a similar attack on a journalist in 2016.

Two compelling new studies are building on a hypothesis suggesting age-related dementia is caused by a leaky blood-brain barrier. Experts suggest the studies are interesting but not particularly applicable to human cases of dementia.

CBD is now an FDA-approved medicine, but there has been very little study into how food affects the cannabis-derived compound’s absorption. A valuable new study has strikingly found that CBD absorption is significantly increased when it is consumed alongside high-fat foods.

Cilantro, also known as coriander, has been traditionally used as a folk medicine for thousands of years. One of those uses has been as an anticonvulsant to prevent the onset of epileptic seizures. New research has homed in on the molecular action that explains how this herb can reduce seizures.

A team of chemists from the University of California, Davis, recently demonstrated a new synthetic analogue of cannabidiol (CBD) may be just as effective for medicinal uses as its naturally extracted counterpart. This synthetic CBD compound also promises to be easier, cheaper and faster to produce.

​There may be new hope for people who suffer from epilepsy. A recent study has shown that an experimental implant reduces seizures in epileptic rats by 93 percent, and that the effects remain after the device has been removed.