Around 3% to 4% of people suffer from epilepsy at some stage of their life, making it a fairly common condition. Epilepsy is a neurological condition that is characterised by recurrent, unprovoked epileptic seizures. These seizures are signs of abnormal or excessive neuronal activity in the brain. An epileptic seizure can cause changes in sensation, awareness, and behaviour, or sometimes convulsions, muscle spasms or loss of consciousness, depending on where the seizure starts and spreads in the brain. Seizures can last a few seconds to a few minutes. Most seizures are over in less than three minutes.

There are many causes of epileptic seizures and a recent study suggests that the repetitive nature of teeth brushing can be a cause:

Tooth brushing can induce seizures in people with epilepsy, a new case study of three people with the condition has found.

“Brushing your teeth is very rhythmic. Our idea is that it causes a rhythmic over-activity in the brain, which feeds back on itself – similar to the effect of strobe lighting on people with photosensitive epilepsy,” says neurologist Wendyl D’Souza of St Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne

Thankfully, seizures brought on by teeth brushing are very rare:

Seizures bought on by a benign stimulus such as tooth brushing, reading or strobe lighting – called “reflex” seizures – are rare, D’Souza notes.

Tooth brushing seizures can last up to 90 seconds:

The tooth-brushing seizures were smaller and included jerking of the mouth, eyes, and face; tongue cramping; and excessive salivation, lasting for up to 90 seconds.

Although epilepsy is not curable, it can can generally be treated with medication or in some circumstances, with surgery.

Approximately 23% of Australians are smokers which equates to around 3.5 million people. These people are seriously risking their health and possibly shaving years off their life:

According to studies on smokers, if you smoke1 pack of cigarettes a day for 10 years you lose 2 years of your life. If you smoke2 packs in 10 years time you lose 4 years. If you have smoked one pack of cigarettes a day for 20 years you lose 4 years off of your life and if you smoke2 packs a day in 20 years you lose 9 years off of your life.

Smoking damages most organs in the human body and is linked to at least 10 different cancers. Smoking accounts for nearly 30 percent of all cancer deaths.

A few smoking facts:

• Tobacco smoking is the largest single preventable cause of death and disease in Australia (Cancer Council 2006).
• Smoking is a key risk factor for the three diseases that cause most deaths in Australia: ischaemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease and lung cancer. Smokers are also at increased risk of developing chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and reduced lung function.
• Smoking in pregnancy increases the risk of health problems for both mother and child.
• Smoking is responsible for around 80% of all lung cancer deaths and 20% of all cancer deaths (smoking has been linked to cancers of the mouth, bladder, kidney, stomach and cervix, among others).
• The 2003 Australian Burden of Disease Study indicates that tobacco smoking was second behind overweight among the leading causes of burden of disease in Australia. It was estimated that tobacco smoking was responsible for about 8% of the total burden of disease and injury for allAustralians (9.5% of total for males and 6.1% of total for females).

How to Quit Smoking

The first thing to do if you want to quit smoking and don’t know how is to speak to your doctor who can recommend a plan of action and then monitor your progress. Other useful information can be found at the Quit campaign website.

Coffee is often considered to be unhealthy due to some of the negative effects of caffeine on the body:

Drinking too much coffee can have adverse side effects, like restlessness, anxiety, and headaches, but limiting yourself to one to four brewed cups perdayseems to be a safe practice. Although for those with high blood pressure, consuming between two to four cups perdaymaybe a bit risky because coffee causes blood pressure to rise immediately after consumption. And all coffee drinkers should fight the urge to add sugar, flavored syrup, and whole milk to to their beverages.

 However, recent studies suggest that it’s not all that bad:

Studies show drinking coffee may reduce your risk of developing Parkinson’s disease, diabetes, cirrhosis of the liver, and colon cancer. It’s even been linked to a decreased risk of inflammatory and cardiovascular disease in postmenopausal women.

So should you be drinking coffee? Well, as usual, moderation is the key. A couple of cups of coffee per day should be fine for most healthy people.

We all know that fruit is good for us and we should be eating two or three services of fruit per day. Reasons why we should be eating fruit include:

• fruits are high in vitamins and minerals
• fruit are high in valuable antioxidants
• fruit is an excellent source of fibre

So if fruit is good for us, what about fruit juices? This is what Kathryn has to say about fruit:

Fruit is part of a healthy diet because of its vitamin, antioxidant and fibre content. Fruit also contributes small but useful amounts of potassium and nutritional guidelines recommend two or three pieces of fruit per day.

When you juice fruit you get most of the antioxidants, vitamins and potassium out. But you only get most, not all all of them. Moreover, juice doesn’t contain any of the fibre from the fruit, that goes down the waste tube.

Again, it’s common sense really. Fruit juice contains important vitamins and antioxidants but you’ll lose most if not all of the fibre. Fibre is extremely important and it is recommended that we eat around 30 grams of fibre per day. The main sources of fibre in our diets are:

• fruit
• vegetables
• nuts
• seeds
• legumes
• cereals
• bread

Although we can get our fibre intake from sources other than fruit, it is unlikely that we do. Most Australians only get around 20 grams of fibre per day so getting our fruit intake from juice rather than whole fruits is not recommended.

You might also wish to avoid fruit juice if you are trying to lose or maintain your weight. A glass of fruit juice may contain 3 or 4 times the number of calories of a piece of whole fruit and it will be much less filling.

Drinking fruit juice every now and then is fine and I’m sure having fruit juice is better than having no fruit at all but it’s best to try to eat 2 or 3 pieces of whole fresh fruit per day.

One of the healthiest diets in the world is believed to be the Mediterranean diet. The Mediterranean diet is high in:

• fruit
• vegetables
• nuts
• legumes
• whole grains
• fish
• olive oil

Recent research suggests this diet is especially beneficial for children:

A "Mediterranean" diet rich in fruits, vegetables and nuts protects against allergic rhinitis and asthma symptoms.

Children who ate nuts at least three times a week were less likely to wheeze. Nuts are a rich source of vitamin E, the body’s primary defence against cellular damage caused by free radicals. And they contain high levels of magnesium, which other research suggests, may protect against asthma and boost lung power.

And a daily diet of oranges, apples, and tomatoes also protected against wheezing and allergic rhinitis. Grapes in particular seemed to protect against current and previous wheezing and allergic rhinitis, even after adjusting for other potentially influential factors. Red grape skin contains high levels of antioxidants as well as resveratrol, a potent polyphenol, known to curb inflammatory activity, say the authors.

It’s not suprising that this kind of diet is healthy. Of course we should all be eating lots of fruit and vegetables and unprocessed foods. It’s not only common sense but also a Government recommendation:

Eating plenty of fruit and vegies not only contributes to good health, but also protects against a number of diseases and helps maintain a healthy weight.

Most Australians eat only half the amount of fruit and vegies recommended for good health. Adults need to eat at least 2 serves of fruit and 5 serves of vegies each day. The amount children need depends on their age.

For most of us, we just need to add a couple more servings of fresh food daily and we’ll be right but don’t forget the fish, nuts, and olive oil to get the real benefits of the Mediterranean diet.