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1. Epilepsy is usually described as a family of brain disorders that involve nerve cells that misfire, or signal abnormally, causing a seizure.

2. Epilepsy can affect anyone at any age. However, the disease most often begins in childhood or after the age of 60.

3. More than two million people in the United States have had an unprovoked seizure or have been diagnosed with epilepsy.

4. There is no single cause of epilepsy. Some of the known causes include injury to the brain before, during or after birth; infections and injury that damage the brain; toxic substances that affect the brain; and hereditary diseases that affect the brain.

5. About 3 percent of the population will be diagnosed with epilepsy by the time they reach age 75.

6. In 70 percent of new cases of epilepsy, there is no apparent cause.

7. Generalized seizures are more common in children younger than 10; after that age, more than half of people diagnosed with epilepsy will have partial seizures.

8. In general, medications can control epilepsy in 70 percent of people with the disease.

9. Cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's disease and alcoholism can trigger epilepsy.

10. Reproductive hormones influence seizure activity. Some women with epilepsy experience changes in the pattern of their seizures at times of hormonal fluctuations such as during puberty, menstruation, ovulation, pregnancy and menopause.