DEAR DR. DONOHUE: What causes seizures? My son has them, and his doctor says he doesn’t know what the cause is. He is being treated, and they’re controlled. My son works every day.

How is the doctor going to cure my boy if he doesn’t know the cause? Can a person drink alcohol when on medicine for seizures? My son does. — P.L.

ANSWER: When the brain has an electrical storm, a seizure results. Brain cells communicate with one another through the electric currents they generate. A seizure results when the brain’s electrical system goes haywire. When there’s a sudden discharge of electricity on both sides of the brain, then a major seizure occurs. The affected person falls to the ground. His body stiffens. And then the arms and legs begin to jerk. That’s a generalized seizure, something that used to be called “grand mal seizure.” When the electric discharge is on one side and in a limited brain area, that’s a partial seizure. An arm or a leg jerks. This description is way too simplistic.

Doctors, including your son’s doctor, know what happens when a seizure takes place. A disruptive discharge of electricity in brain cells has occurred.

Doctors know only in about half of seizure patients what causes the discharge. The aftermath of a stroke, scar tissue in the brain, previous brain infections, brain malformations and head trauma are some of the identifiable causes of seizures.

The number of drugs for seizure control is large. Your son appears to be well-controlled. His doctor is doing a good job.

Alcohol intake is something best left to the patient and the patient’s doctor. A moderate amount of alcohol — one drink a day for women and two for men — is often tolerated. With greater intakes of alcohol, the risk of undoing seizure control rises. Your son needs to follow his doctor’s instructions on this explicitly.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I have had pain in my upper-left thigh, near where the leg joins the abdomen. My doctor diagnosed it as meralgia paresthetica. He didn’t tell me what it is. His only words to me on the subject were to lose weight.

I am overweight, but I think the weight-loss remedy is used for too many problems. Will you expand on this condition? — F.K.

ANSWER: The pain of meralgia paresthetica is centered in the area covered by the side pants pocket. It’s the same area covered by a cowboy’s holster and gun. A moderately large nerve in that area is irritated by something pressing on it.

Fat is one of those somethings. If you lose weight, you should get relief, perhaps total relief.

Obesity isn’t the only cause. Diabetes, aging, scar tissue and a too-tight belt are other sources of pressure on that nerve.

Meralgia paresthetica might disappear on its own. I don’t understand how that happens.

Numbing the nerve is another way to control pain. If the pain is unbearable, the nerve can be removed.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: I am distraught. My best friend’s son has come out to his family as gay. I was as close to the boy as his parents are. What causes this? — V.T.

ANSWER: No one has the definitive answer to the causes of sexual orientation. It’s not a matter of the individual making a choice. It’s something that a person is born with.

Don’t be distraught. This young man is the same person you have known for so long and have felt so close to.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.

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