Tag: epileptics

Here’s how leaky calcium puts epileptics at heart risk (Keith Brofsky/Getty Images) Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) has long bedeviled doctors and now, a team of researchers may have found the cause of it. In a paper, researchers from Baylor College of Medicine reported how a mutation in a gene involved in the regulation of calcium inside brain cells can help trigger blackouts of the brainstem, the center that controls heartbeat and breathing, and increase the risk of sudden unexpected death. “SUDEP turns out to be the most common…