65 Million People Have Epilepsy

Sixty five million people have epilepsy. That number shocks me, and one in ten of us is going to have a seizure in our lifetime. Numbers fail to tell the story though, because hundreds of thousands of people each year, die from this condition that so needs a cure. One of them was my son, and many others have experienced this horror, or in the prime of their lives been taken from this earth due to a seizure. I am a fan of the NIH, because this is one governmental organization, that has been effective with regards to medical research. They have developed a lot of new treatments, but still have a ways to go, just like other facilities that are working tirelessly around the clock. It bothers me, that only 1/2 of 1% of U.S. government funded money, goes to epilepsy research, when it affects more people than other afflictions. While some may say, there's a triage of sorts in effect, I counter that with the slice of the pie dollar wise is unfairly small.

Right now there is a mother watching her child have hundreds of seizures a day. A father cannot go to work, because his epilepsy medicine, while helpful, is allowing breakthrough seizures that leave him in bed. Another family is burying their child, because a seizure took their precious loved one from them. The economic costs as well as the pain produced by epilepsy, are impossible to calculate with any set number of dollars. Imagine if one day this was cured, so people with this condition, could fully live life to the fullest and be even more productive citizens? I am in awe of those who have epilepsy, because while they do suffer, they do not give up. Ever. They do the best that they can, trying to avoid so many potential triggers, that their lives could be described as walking through mine fields.

In the U.S. and other countries with access to medicines, there has been progress. Yet people in these lands suffer, and those who are in areas with limitations, death is even more possible. It does not have to be this way. All of the modern marvels we so appreciate, are proof that we can find that cure, if the resources were made available. If you can spare a moment, write to your legislatures and inform them of the importance of a cure. What it means to you, because the more voices that are heard, they cannot ignore the masses. Silence is unacceptable, and a means for failure. In our lifetimes this cure must be developed, and if Steve Jobs' premonition of technology and biology coming together as never before holds true, then we might come to that cross roads. Yet there still is heavy lifting to be done, and not another moment or life, must be lost to seizures.