Winnipeg Sun: Epilepsy in Canada: An overview of stats, impact and resources
March 11, 2024 —
The authors note that inequalities in socioeconomic circumstances and education may pose differences in epilepsy risk, but regardless of the health indicator explored, Canadian indigenous peoples have been shown to suffer a disproportionate burden of epilepsy with poor outcomes.
Dr. Marcus Ng, associate professor of neurology and director of the Dreamspike Research Laboratory at the University of Manitoba. His team is on a mission to understand why epileptic activity breaks through the usual calming influence of REM, or rapid eye movement, sleep. Lack of sleep has long been associated with triggering seizures in some types of epilepsy because it can change the brain’s patterns of electrical activity.