女明星光鲜背后的心酸事：有人尿失禁，有人因癫痫险丧命

Nearly three millennia ago, a Babylonian tablet described a curious illness called miqtu. Said to cause symptoms ranging from facial twitching to full body convulsions, the Babylonians believed those afflicted were possessed by evil spirits, and the only treatment was divine intervention.

将近三千年前，巴比伦的一块碑文描述了一种叫做miqtu的奇怪疾病。据说会引起从面部抽搐到全身抽搐的症状，巴比伦人相信那些受苦的人是被恶魔附体的，唯一的治疗方法是神的干预。

Today, we know the symptoms of miqtu by another name, and modern medicine has developed numerous treatments for those experiencing seizures. But these ancient afflictions still hold a surprising number of secrets.

今天，我们用另一个名字来了解miqtu的症状，现代医学已经开发出许多治疗癫痫发作的方法。但这些古老的痛苦仍然有着惊人数量的秘密。

Doctors define a seizure as any set of symptoms resulting from excess electrical activity in the brain. Outside this shared feature, there is a massive range of seizure symptoms, and researchers have identified a variety of different seizure types.

医生将癫痫定义为大脑过度电活动引起的一系列症状。除了这一共同特征之外，还有大量的癫痫症状，研究人员已经确定了各种不同的癫痫类型。

But regardless of the underlying conditions that cause them, every seizure begins here. Hippocrates identified the brain as the source of seizures around 400 BCE. However, this insight didn't immediately lead to better treatments. Generally, ancient Greeks prescribed medicinal herbs and alterations in diet. If they believed the seizure was caused by bleeding in the skull, they sometimes employed a technique called trepanation.

但不管导致癫痫的潜在条件如何，每次发作都从这里开始。希波克拉底在公元前400年左右确定大脑是癫痫发作的来源。然而，这一发现并没有立即带来更好的治疗。一般来说，古希腊人开草药和改变饮食。如果他们认为癫痫发作是由头骨出血引起的，他们有时会采用一种叫做钻孔术的技术。

This early surgery involved drilling a hole in the skull to let blood escape and relieve pressure on the brain. Trepanation had... sizable risks. But it wasn’t until the 19th century that scientists would make the next leap forward in seizure treatment.

这种早期的手术包括在头骨上钻一个洞，让血液流出并减轻对大脑的压力。钻孔术其实.....有相当大的风险。但直到19世纪，科学家们才在癫痫治疗方面取得了下一个飞跃。

In 1870, two German researchers discovered that using electricity to stimulate specific areas of a dog’s brain could move parts of its body.

1870年，两名德国研究人员发现，用电刺激狗大脑的特定区域可以移动身体的某些部位。

Around the same time, other scientists discovered the brain and nervous system were connected via a network of cells called neurons that transmitted electrical signals throughout the body. This established the brain as the control center for nerve impulses that determine our thoughts and movement.

大约在同一时间，其他科学家发现大脑和神经系统是通过一个称为神经元的细胞网络连接起来的，神经元在全身传递电信号。这使得大脑成为决定我们思维和运动的神经冲动的控制中心。

Better yet, this model made it clear that seizures were due to errors in that control center, such as misfiring neurons or excess electrical activity. Early experiments even suggested that different patterns of misfiring could account for different seizure types and symptoms.

更好的是，这个模型清楚地表明癫痫发作是由控制中心的错误引起的，比如神经元失火或过度的电活动。早期的实验甚至表明，不同的失火模式可以解释不同的癫痫类型和症状。

So if seizures were due to neurons misfiring, how could doctors stop this from happening? Physicians like Sir Charles Locock hypothesized that sedative drugs might calm overactive brain activity, a theory he confirmed by treating seizures with a medication called potassium bromide. Others like Sir Victor Horsley suspected that removing damaged parts of the brain might stop a patient's seizures.

所以，如果癫痫发作是由于神经元失火引起的，医生如何才能阻止这种情况的发生？像查尔斯·洛科克爵士这样的医生假设镇静药物可以平息过度活跃的大脑活动，他用一种叫做溴化钾的药物治疗癫痫发作证实了这一理论。维克多·霍斯利爵士等其他人怀疑，切除受损的大脑部分可能会阻止患者的癫痫发作。

In 1886, he performed a craniotomy, temporarily removing part of a patient's skull to extract scarred brain tissue. Not only did his patient survive, but his seizures improved, launching further research in surgical treatments.

1886年，他进行了开颅手术，暂时切除了一名患者的部分头骨，以提取伤痕累累的脑组织。他的病人不仅存活了下来，而且他的癫痫发作也有所改善，从而启动了外科治疗方面的进一步研究。

Over the next two centuries, seizure treatments advanced rapidly. And today, there are dozens of available seizure medications that work with unprecedented specificity. Some newer medications are able to focus on specific proteins in the neuron to help manage electrical activity. And advanced brain imaging techniques can sometimes allow doctors to pinpoint exactly what parts of the brain are causing an individual's seizures.

在接下来的两个世纪里，癫痫治疗发展迅速。今天，有几十种可用的癫痫药物具有前所未有的特异性。一些较新的药物能够专注于神经元中的特定蛋白质，以帮助管理电活动。先进的脑成像技术有时可以让医生精确地确定大脑的哪些部分导致了个体的癫痫发作。

Surgeons then use this information to perform targeted surgeries.

外科医生然后利用这些信息进行有针对性的手术。

These various treatments help doctors manage the majority of seizure cases, allowing most people with seizures to live healthy and comfortable lives. But the underlying pathology of many seizures remains elusive.

这些不同的治疗方法帮助医生管理大部分癫痫病例，让大多数癫痫患者过上健康舒适的生活。但许多癫痫发作的潜在病理学仍然难以捉摸。

In cases without clear brain damage or certain types of pre-existing conditions, it's incredibly difficult to determine what causes neurons to misfire. It's also not always clear why some treatments are effective. And even more mysterious are cases where seizures are resistant to existing treatments that work on similar seizure types.

在没有明确的脑损伤或某些类型的先决条件的情况下，很难确定是什么导致神经元失火。为什么有些治疗方法是有效的也不总是很清楚。更为神秘的是，癫痫发作对治疗类似类型癫痫发作的现有疗法产生了抗药性。

Scientists are still working on these questions, but there are clear answers for what to do if you encounter someone experiencing a seizure. You should never hold a seizing person down, put objects in their mouth, or perform CPR. Instead, try to keep the person safe from falling or bumping their head, shift them onto their side to keep airways open, and stay with them until medical help arrives.

科学家们仍在研究这些问题，但如果你遇到癫痫发作的人，该怎么办有明确的答案。你不应该把被抓住的人抱下来，把东西放进他们的嘴里，或者做心肺复苏术。取而代之的是，尽量避免患者摔倒或碰伤头部，将患者侧移以保持气道畅通，并在医疗救助到来之前与患者呆在一起。