Seizing Life

This week on Seizing Life® we speak with Dr. Alice Lam about the potential impacts of seizures on cognition and memory. We discuss the possible short-term and long-term effects of epilepsy on cognition and memory, and the differing ways that seizures may impact children, adults, and aging adults. Dr. Lam also highlights the complexities of the impacts created by medications, seizures, and the normal aging process.

This week on Seizing Life® former Marine Captain Jack Somers shares his long journey to an accurate epilepsy diagnosis. After more than a decade of seizures and a diagnosis of “generalized seizure disorder” from both the Veterans Administration and numerous neurologists, Jack Somers was finally told that he has epilepsy. Jack shares his confusing and sometimes frustrating journey to diagnosis.

This week we celebrate our 100th episode of Seizing Life by having guest host David Axelrod interview Kelly Cervantes about her role as an advocate, podcast host, and leader in the epilepsy community as the Chair of the CURE Epilepsy Board of Directors. Kelly discusses the importance of community, the impact of CURE Epilepsy on epilepsy research, finding hope in the promise of research, and how her personal experience with epilepsy impacts her work.

This week on Seizing Life ® we look at the challenges faced by minority groups in general and the Hispanic community in particular in accessing quality epilepsy care and learn about a program aimed at addressing these issues. Dr. Refugio Sepulveda, Assistant Professor of Research at the University of Arizona, discusses the known disparities in epilepsy care faced by the Hispanic community and outlines an approach called Mindset that is about to be tested within the community with the goal of empowering patients and providers to improve care and management of epilepsy.

This week on Seizing Life® we look at medical cannabis as a treatment option for epilepsy from the perspective of a mother, an advocate, and an educator with a master’s degree in medical cannabis and therapeutics – and in this case, they are all the same person. Sarah O’Hanlon’s journey to find relief for her son Owen’s daily seizures first led her to Colorado, then to advocacy in her home state of Virginia, and finally to a recently created master’s program in medical cannabis at the University of Maryland.

This week on Seizing Life® we talk seizure alert dogs with Jessa Kenworthy, Training Director at 4 Paws for Ability, a breeding, training, and placement organization for service dogs.

This week on Seizing Life® epilepsy advocate and mother Kate Neale Cooper shares her daughter Virginia’s 16-year epilepsy journey. She explains how a new diagnostic tool enabled doctors to localize Virginia’s seizures, and ultimately perform successful epilepsy surgery.

Filmmaker Miles Levin discusses growing-up with epilepsy and turning his experiences into the award-winning short film “Under the Lights”. Miles talks about his initial diagnosis at age 4 and details his long journey with epilepsy, focusing on the social impact that he experienced throughout childhood and adolescence.