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The symptoms of epilepsy vary depending on what kind of seizure the person has. Possibly the simplest way of explaining this is to give an overview of what the different kinds of seizure would look like to an observer and feel like to the person experiencing them.

Partial seizures are often called ‘petit mal’. To the outside observer, the signs of this are not obvious ones. In the simple partial seizure the person first has what is famously called an ‘aura’. This is actually the first part of the seizure activity. There is no loss of awareness however, which can make it seem like a separate phenomenon. The aura is not necessarily a set of lights shimmering in front of the person. It is equally likely to involve a sense of numbness or tingling in some part of the body. Alternatively, there may be a compulsive twitching start in the face of some other familiar part of the body. It can be very unpleasant, like nausea or increased heart rate. However, the aura has also been described as ecstatic and may come in the form of hallucinations that are considered by the person to be worth the pain of the seizure that will inevitably follow.

The next type of epileptic seizure is the complex partial seizure. To the observer, the epilepsy symptoms are obvious and disturbing. In this type of seizure the person does lose consciousness and they can proceed to behavior that is so odd and out of character that they can be a danger to themselves and others. This behavior can involve taking off clothes, doing strange random actions, walking around and mumbling. The variety is endless and quite individual and these seizures can last from 30 seconds to 3 minutes.

The more common conception of an epileptic seizure is of someone having a ‘fit’. This is the generalized tonic-clonic seizure, or ‘grand mal’ beginning with a sudden cry and a fall. The stiffening of the body that starts the process is called the tonic, the spasms and jerking that follow is called the clonic. This can look quite alarming, especially if the person manages to bite their tongue and blood appears. It usually lasts for only about 2 minutes, which can feel like an eternity if you are the onlooker. The person usually needs some care and reassurance when they come around as they are likely to feel confused and extremely tired after the epilepsy symptoms pass.

Finally there is a general group of tonic and myclonic seizures. The myoclonics involve significant muscle jerks, causing the person to spill what they are holding or even to fall off the chair. Among the tonic disorders here are two types of ‘drop’ attack, so called because they cause the person to fall to the ground if they happen to be standing. The ‘tonic’ causes the person to go rigid, while the ‘atonic’ predictably causes the person to lose all tone and also fall for that reason. In none of these last seizures is there any noticeable loss of consciousness.

Menopause is a difficult experience for any woman. The symptoms are irritating. Most treatments take exorbitant amounts of time to actually show results and some never do. You probably have all sorts of people giving you unsolicited advice. You pray for the day when you go deaf so you won’t have to hear everyone’s advice. Truthfully, it’s expected since one of your symptoms is irritability. Fortunately, for those around you there are many treatment options available.

When you discover one treatment doesn’t work for you don’t fret there is likely more. Here are some proven effective treatments you might not know about yet.

Develop a diet rich in phytoestrogens. Phytoestrogens come from a variety of naturally occurring foods. Lignans are one of the types of phytoestrogen available in the food we eat. You can find lignans in foods that contain flaxseed, whole grains and they are also in many fruits and vegetables.

Isoflavones are also found in some beans. Most women will forgo hormone replacement therapy by using these foods rich in phytoestrogens. Tests have shown some promise as far as phytoestrogens are concerned but there is no solid proof that they can completely replace hormones. Treatment results vary greatly depending on the person. Many women describe fewer symptoms with treatment. Hormone therapy has also been reported to diminish these symptoms. It should go without writing but to keep everything covered and spelled out: a healthy and balanced diet really is an effective menopause treatment. Consuming a balanced and nutritious diet will help you keep your whole body healthy. Of course the needs of a woman going through menopause are going to be different than the needs of a woman who has not gone through the change yet. One’s calcium intake should be increased during and after menopause. If you want to keep osteoporosis at bay and keep your bone density levels up, doctors say you should get at least 1200mgs of calcium.

Smoking is, obviously, a no-no. Actually, you should not ever smoke. Quitting smoking can make you more irritable in the beginning but once you get over the initial withdrawals, leaving nicotine behind is a quite effective menopause treatment. Women who do not smoke experience fewer hot flashes. If you smoke you will probably go through menopause earlier than your non-smoking friends. So throw out the cigarettes!

You cannot universally treat menopause. No single treatment that will help every menopausal woman exists. Most women find that a combination of herbal, medicinal and lifestyle treatment is the best menopause treatment method. Other women choose only one form of treatment. Still others insist that menopause is not actually happening to them. You will figure out what is best for you. Make sure, however, that no matter what kind of menopause treatment that you decide to try, you run it past your doctor. Don’t try anything new without your doctor’s okay. You want to help yourself not hurt yourself.

Pain behind the eyes may be a symptom of different types of headaches and even other health problems. Most commonly people complain to have an extreme one-sided headache especially involving the area around or behind one eye. This is a typical description of cluster headache. Other symptoms associated with cluster headache are eye redness or tearing, smaller pupil on the affected side of the face and stuffy, runny nose.

Cluster headaches are very severe and last from 25 minutes to a couple of hours. They may recur several times a day for up to 8 weeks and than disappear for a few months or even years.

One of the most effective and safest treatments for cluster headaches is oxygen mask that raises levels of oxygen in the blood and as a result relaxes constricted blood vessels. If that does not help injections of sumatriphan and dihydroergotamine may provide relief from the headache behind the eyes.

Over-the-counter painkillers are not a good alternative for relieving pain as headaches often goes away before the pill starts working.

Both cluster headaches and migraines are considered vascular headaches and are linked to abnormal function of brain’s blood vessels due to hormonal chemical change in the brain. Since those two types of headaches are closely linked together, during migraines, headache may start in the area surrounding one or both eyes.

Migraine headache often begins with visual disturbance called “aura” (a person is seeing zigzag lines or flashing lights or have blurred vision). Later migraine is often accompanied with such symptoms as vomiting, fatigue, nausea, sensitivity to lights and loud sounds.

People suffering from cluster or migraine headaches should avoid use of alcohol and tobacco, certain foods, especially the ones containing nitrates (food coloring, processed meats, preservatives), bright and glaring light, stress and certain medications that lead to hormonal changes (oral contraceptives, estrogens).

Sometimes infection of the frontal sinuses can lead to a dull, throbbing pain between or behind the eyes. It tends to get worse in the mornings and is accompanied with frequent tearing, congestion, runny nose, fever and sensitivity to light. Diving in dirty water, airborne allergies, cold or flu may cause sinus headache.

To eliminate pain behind the eyes, you should reduce inflammation and sinus swelling. Inhaling steam and applying heat over affected area combined with Vitamin C and zinc intake will facilitate the mucus drainage and help to boost immune mechanism to reduce sinus headache.

Other factors that can be the main reason for the headaches behind the eyes are eyestrain and glaucoma. Eyestrain occurs if the eyes are forced to focus on a close object (a newspaper, computer screen) for a long period of time, without focusing periodically at distant objects or due to uncorrected vision problems.

Glaucoma is caused by increased pressure within the eyeball that requires immediate medical attention as it may lead to optic nerve damage and loss of sight. Nowadays glaucoma may be treated by prescription drugs or surgery.

There are a number of alternative diabetes treatments available. Use of herbs and other supplements should be a part of your treatment. As with any disease, providing your body with the nutrients it needs to repair and rebuild itself is key to your good health.

Herbal medicines have been used in treating diabetes for centuries, and these medicines can regulate the glucose levels in your body.

Some of the herbs that are safe and effective as alternative diabetes treatment include:

Onion
Green tea
American ginseng
Garlic
Ginger
Bilberry
Bitter melon
Gurmar

You might try Aloe Vera. Some clinics have documented that users of this plant extract show a great improvement especially in those who have type-2 diabetes.

In addition to herbs, there are other supplements that can help control diabetes.
Some of these include the following:

Fiber: High fiber content prevents development of type-2 diabetes, improves cholesterol levels and triglyceride level, and lower average glucose and insulin levels. It is a very effective control.

Magnesium: Low levels of magnesium in the body worsen blood sugar levels in type-2 diabetes patients. Foods rich in magnesium include bananas, seeds, whole grains, green leafy vegetables, nuts, and legumes. The magnesium supplements promote healthy blood glucose levels

Chromium: this is found in foods and supplements like cheese, vegetables, meat, fish, liver, and whole grains. While Magnesium controls glucose, Chromium enhances your body’s sensitivity to insulin.

Antioxidants: Antioxidants that reverse the symptoms of diabetes and reduce the risk of associated complications include vitamin E, selenium, and zinc, vitamin C, and beta – carotene.

There are more alternative diabetes treatments and cures on the horizon. If you would like information on an exciting breakthrough in diabetes reversal and cure, hop over to http://www.squidoo.com/dibetesalternativemedicine

Terminal insomnia, also called late insomnia, is a frustrating condition where you can usually fall asleep easily upon going to bed…. but then you wake up four-to-five hours later, unable to get back to sleep. So you are waking up too early in the morning, which leaves you feeling exhausted, foggy and cranky when you roll out of bed to start your day. Despite the ominous sounding name, terminal insomnia will not kill you but can certainly be a joy-killer.

To get started on a cure for terminal insomnia, it’s important to determine how many hours of sleep you really need to get a full night’s rest. Unlike initial insomnia (not being able to fall asleep for hours after you go to bed) and middle insomnia (waking up in the middle of the night and taking hours to fall back to sleep) where all the symptoms clearly point to the condition, some people who think they have terminal insomnia might instead simply be “short sleepers.”

And what does that mean? Well, some people only need four or five hours of sleep to properly function throughout the day. If you have always been able to feel fine on less sleep than some of your friends and relatives, you might not be experiencing late insomnia symptoms, but just going to bed too early for the amount of sleep that you need.

If that’s the case, your tired, cranky feeling might be the result of lying awake too long, beating up on yourself because you can’t fall back to sleep. Try going to bed later so you will wake up at a more reasonable hour and can arise and start your day immediately. And then be grateful that you have a few extra hours in your day to do something other than sleep!

If, however, you have never been a short sleeper, and you now find yourself increasingly exhausted after these short hours of sleep, you could very well be experiencing terminal insomnia. As you would for any other type of insomnia, once you have determined that you have terminal insomnia, it is time to find out why. You can’t fight an unknown force, so understanding the causes of your condition comes before treatment.

Start With Emotional Causes of Insomnia

To help you uncover the causes of your terminal or late insomnia, keep a sleep diary for about two weeks. In this diary you will write down your thoughts and feelings when you first wake up in the morning. This can help you to determine if there are emotional reasons that you are unable to get back to sleep. Because the emotional reasons behind your inability to sleep might be a little hidden — possibly subconscious — it is important to analyze the situation completely. Don’t skip this step!

I have found that initial insomnia — where you are unable to fall asleep when you first go bed — is often associated with feelings of fear, stress, worry, and anxiety. Initial insomniacs may even experience sleep anxiety where they are unable to sleep because they are so focused upon getting to sleep. These emotional causes of insomnia tend to make your body tense and restless, so you can’t relax physically or mentally enough to fall asleep.

People with middle insomnia or terminal insomnia, though, tend more toward feelings of depression, anger, and frustration. These emotions do not cause the adrenaline rush in quite the same way as anxiety and worry. They also tend to get pushed more into the subconscious mind, where we aren’t aware of them much at all. But they can gnaw away in the background of our minds, and wake us up in the middle of the night.

Physical Causes

You can also determine possible physical causes of your late insomnia with the help of your sleeping diary. If you wake up at generally the same time every morning, there might be a physical reason or a combination of several physical reasons why this happens.

For example, if you have a thermostat set to change the temperature at that specific time, this change might be waking you. Does you neighbor leave for work at that time and turn on a bright light that shines in your bedroom window? Is there an increase in outdoor noise such as more traffic or a dog barking? Maybe your allergies are flaring up at that time. Some allergy suffers find that the predawn hours are the worst. By determining the cause or causes of your insomnia, you can then determine ways to cure the symptoms.

Some medications interfere with calcium absorption or bone formation and can leave us susceptible to developing osteoporosis. Steroids and corticosteroids are two of the greatest culprits.

Steroids and corticosteroids are used for a wide variety of conditions, including inflammatory intestinal illness, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis…as well as to suppress the immune system after a transplant. These drugs may be prescribed as a pill, injection, a spray or a skin cream. When used for a short time or injected into a joint or swollen area there is no effect on bone health; but when used for long periods of time (3 months or more) they begin to destroy the bone-building process. Some of the more frequently prescribed steroid drugs are Prednisone, Prednisolone, Medrol, Deltasone, Decadron, Cortisone, Cortel, Celestone, and Aristocort.

Studies show that within the first year after starting corticosteroid therapy, patients lose an average of 14 percent of their bone mineral content. Anyone on long-term steroids should have a bone density scan, use bone-building supplements, join an exercise class that includes weight training and consult with their doctor about taking medication that would prevent the inevitable bone loss.

When choosing a bone building supplement, the best calcium for osteoporosis treatment and prevention will include a lot more than calcium. Medical authorities agree that vitamin D is essential for calcium absorption but unfortunately few supplements provide the recommended level of 800 IUs a day. Vitamin K also helps to push calcium into the bones and magnesium helps to improve the quality of the bone. While all of these minerals and vitamins are available in a healthy diet, the right supplement will provide the extra boost needed to prevent steroid induced osteoporosis.

Strontium citrate should also be considered as part of an osteoporosis prevention program. Research has shown that strontium is an effective dual-action agent that can increase bone density by up to 15% within three years. But strontium is only effective when taken on an empty stomach and when supported by sufficient calcium and vitamin D.