Health
Ohio woman with epilepsy finds safety with her service dog: ‘Our bond is set in stone’
For the more than three million people in the U.S. who are living with epilepsy, the uncertainty of the next seizure’s appearance can create dangerous situations.
Now, for many people with the neurological disorder, specially trained service dogs have helped provide safety and peace of mind.
In a recent study published in Neurology, service dogs were found to reduce seizure frequency by 31% while also dramatically improving mental health and quality of life.
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Channing Seideman, 30, is one of those patients whose life has been changed by a dedicated service dog.
Born and raised in Aspen, Colorado, Seideman — who now lives in Milford, Ohio — was just 10 years old when she received her epilepsy diagnosis after having two major seizures.
Channing Seideman, pictured with her service dog, Bishop, said he’s given her peace of mind amid her daily epileptic seizures. (Channing Seideman)
“Like any kid, I had big dreams of what I wanted to be when I grew up,” she said in an interview with Fox News Digital.
“I wanted to be a doctor, and I wanted to go to the Olympics and ride horses — and then I got diagnosed and life took a turn.”
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Dealing with epilepsy during middle school was a struggle, Seideman said.
Having always been a straight-A student, Seideman said she saw her grades plummet to straight Fs.
“Middle school is kind of a blur, to be honest — we were just starting the medication combinations, and my seizures were becoming more and more frequent,” she recalled.
“At the time, I wanted nothing to do with epilepsy, so the idea of having a service dog next to my side wearing a vest that said ‘epilepsy’ … was kind of scary.”
High school was also a challenge, she said.
“Finding my place was difficult. So I really leaned hard on sports, horseback riding in particular, and animals.”
New best friend
Given Seideman’s love of animals, her parents thought she might be interested in a service dog — but at age 15, she was hesitant at first.
“At the time, I wanted nothing to do with epilepsy, so the idea of having a service dog next to my side wearing a vest that said ‘epilepsy’ — making this disease visible — was kind of scary for me.”
Bishop, pictured here with his owner, is Seideman’s second service dog. “It was smooth sailing,” she said of the process. (Channing Seideman)
Her parents convinced her to put her name on the list, since there was a long wait time.
In Nov. 2010, Seideman was selected for a service dog.
The family traveled to Canine Assistants in Alpharetta, Georgia, to take part in a training “boot camp” with Seideman’s first service dog, Georgie.
Canine Assistants places service dogs with people who have a variety of conditions, primarily epilepsy.
“Nobody cares about the epilepsy. They just really like my dog.”
Thanks to a long-running partnership with UCB — a Belgian biopharmaceutical company committed to helping those living with epilepsy and rare seizure disorders — Canine Assistants is able to place dogs at no cost to the patients.
“Two weeks later, Georgie was on the flight home with us, and a couple of days later, she was at school with me,” Seideman said.
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“I was wondering, ‘Is this going to make this disease more visible, or is it going to be a life-saver?’ And it turned out to be a life-saver.”
Seideman’s fears of the disease being magnified were unfounded.
“It became, ‘Channing who?’” she joked. “Now it was all about this cute and amazing dog.”
Jennifer Arnold, founder of Canine Assistants in Georgia, has been pairing patients with service dogs for 32 years. She said earlier is better: “There’s really no reason to wait.” (Canine Assistants)
Jennifer Arnold, the founder of Canine Assistants in Georgia, said there is often a hesitation among young people to get a service dog, as “nobody really wants to stand out.”
Said Arnold, “You just want to fit in, and it feels like the dog’s going to make you not fit in.”
She has been working with service dogs for over 30 years, she told Fox News Digital.
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“But as Channing said, ‘Nobody cares about the epilepsy. They just really like my dog.’ The attention that she was getting was completely positive.”
When it comes to introducing service dogs to their owners, Arnold said, earlier is better.
“There’s really no reason to wait,” she said.
“Bishop goes absolutely everywhere with me,” said Seideman, pictured here with her current service dog. When he needs to, he alerts her by placing his paws on her and looking intently at her face, she said. (Channing Seideman)
The dog’s mere presence changes the dynamics in a family for the better, according to Arnold.
Even so, the sensing of oncoming seizures and alerting an owner is the most important part of the service dog’s job.
Service dogs were found to reduce seizure frequency by 31% in a recent study.
“Some dogs wake up at night and check on their people while they sleep,” Arnold said.
“They get nervous — they just want to be sure their owner is OK.”
Having a service dog also lowers the owner’s stress level, Arnold noted.
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“This results in a significant reduction in the number of seizures that patients have, because stress is a trigger,” she said.
“So just having the dog with you reduces the number of seizures you have, which is pretty magical in itself.”
The dog can also help by protecting its owner during a seizure if it occurs in public, and going to find help if needed.
‘The dogs pick the people’
The team at Canine Assistants is skilled at determining which dog will likely do well with which person, Arnold said.
“But the bottom line is, people think they’re going to get to pick their dog, but it’s the exact opposite,” she said.
“The dogs pick the people.”
“People think they’re going to get to pick their dog, but it’s the exact opposite,” said Jennifer Arnold, the founder of Canine Assistants in Georgia. (Canine Assistants)
In a typical scenario, Arnold said, Canine Assistants may have four dogs in a camp that have the skills needed for a particular individual.
“The first three might greet the person politely, but the fourth dog might run in, like, ‘Where have you been? I’ve been waiting for you for so long,’” Arnold said.
“That’s what we call ‘a tab A in a slot B,’” she said. “You see it and it’s just done.”
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After Seideman’s first dog passed away, there was a nine-month period before she was matched with another dog.
During that time, she said, she and her parents realized how much they’d come to rely on Georgie.
“My parents were back to feeling panicked, listening for the ‘thud alert,’” she said. “If they heard a thud upstairs, they would worry it was me falling.”
Seideman, added, “They didn’t realize how much that extra set of ears, extra set of paws, had been doing.”
“In addition to bringing peace of mind, the dogs make epilepsy approachable to the public,” said Seideman, pictured with her service dog, Bishop. (Channing Seideman)
It was a big relief when Seideman was placed with her current dog, Bishop.
“It was pretty much smooth sailing,” she said. “Now, Bishop goes absolutely everywhere with me. Our bond is set in stone.”
To anyone considering getting a service dog, Seideman said she highly recommends it.
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“In addition to bringing peace of mind, the dogs make epilepsy approachable to the public,” she said.
Epilepsy tends to carry a stigma, Seideman said — which is rooted in fear and misunderstandings.
“For example, one of the myths is that there’s only one type of seizure — the big, scary kind where you go unconscious, turn blue, convulse and foam at the mouth,” she said.
“In addition to bringing peace of mind, the dogs make epilepsy approachable to the public.”
Another myth, Arnold added, is that people should put something between the teeth of the person having a seizure to prevent them from swallowing their tongue.
“It is a very bad thing to do,” she warned — and it “could have significantly damaging consequences.”
Having the dog with the person helps to provide a sense of comfort, Seideman said — “something that people can ask questions about, something they can approach. It makes the public comfortable.”
‘He lets me know’
These days, Seideman said she continues to have seizures daily.
Although she has had about 60-70 of the more major episodes — known as tonic-clonic seizures — since her diagnosis, most of them are smaller.
“I have seizures where I may kind of space out and daydream, which is an absence seizure,” she said.
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“I also have seizures where I may have a jerk in the face, a mild clonic jerk, which can be scary if I’m crossing a street.”
That’s where Bishop comes into play, she said, as he senses what’s happening and stops her from crossing into the street.
“Some people get warnings before a seizure, like an aura,” Seideman said. “I don’t get that warning. I get Bishop. He lets me know.”
Seideman, who lives on a farm in Ohio, enjoys riding horses as her service dog monitors her and helps keep her safe. (Channing Seideman )
On the family’s 100-acre farm, while Seideman is caring for her horses, Bishop may suddenly come running to check on her, seeming to sense that something is amiss.
“He has this instinct, and will stop whatever he is doing to check on me.”
Bishop alerts Seideman by jumping up and placing his paws on her — “It’s almost like he’s standing, so we’re face to face.”
“It’s as if he’s saying, ‘Something’s going on. Pay attention to me.’”
She said, “I may not be having any seizures that I know about, but I could be having subclinical seizures that are only detected by a machine. So I always take Bishop’s word, because Bishop knows — he doesn’t make mistakes.”
Although the wait list for service dogs is long, Arnold of Canine Assistants encourages people to apply.
“He has this instinct, and will stop whatever he is doing to check on me.”
“It’s not just first come, first serve,” she said. “Every applicant is evaluated based on how much the dog can do physically, socially, emotionally and medically, and how appropriate the placement is for the dog.”
She added, “Those factors are equally weighted with how much the dog can do to help.”
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Canine Assistants has also started testing a new in-home education program, called Handle With Care, that helps people raise and train their own service dogs.
“We’ve cracked the code and we know how to do this, so it’s crazy for people not to have the help they need.”
“The need is just tremendous,” Arnold emphasized. “And I can’t imagine being a mother whose child needs a dog but isn’t able to get one.”
The best part of Arnold’s job, she said, is when she gets to call a family and tell them they’ve been selected.
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“As soon as the people answer, I start crying because I’m so excited for them,” she said.
“Those are wonderful calls to make, and I wish we could make a lot more of them.”
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Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. New research shows one group getting hit the hardest – those without a college degree.
A recent study from the American Cancer Society analyzed data from over 101,000 adults aged 25 to 49 who died from colorectal cancer between 1994 and 2023.
While death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed.
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For young adults with a high school education or less, the mortality rate rose from 4.0 to 5.2 per 100,000 people, while the rate for those with at least a bachelor’s degree stayed flat, at approximately 2.7 per 100,000.
This does not mean that a degree offers some kind of biological protection, researchers cautioned.
Colorectal cancer, once considered a disease of older age, is becoming a crisis for younger adults. (iStock)
The difference is likely driven by the conditions in which people live and work, which often correlate with education levels, the researchers noted.
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The study suggests that the higher death rates are likely driven by differences in the prevalence of risk factors, including obesity, physical inactivity, smoking and diet, which are “known to be elevated among children and young adults with lower [socioeconomic status].”
Because the study relied on death certificates, researchers couldn’t say exactly why college graduates had better outcomes.
Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes. (iStock)
Certificates typically list the cause of death, age, race and education level, but they do not include a person’s full medical history.
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Because the researchers didn’t have the patients’ actual medical records, they couldn’t see things like frequency of screenings or treatment options, which would impact survival outcomes.
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Colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer death for men under 50 and the second leading cause for women in the same age group, according to recent statistics.
While colorectal cancer death rates remained stable for college graduates, they climbed significantly for those without a bachelor’s degree, the findings showed. (iStock)
Because the disease is highly treatable when caught early, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) lowered the recommended screening age from 50 to 45 in 2021.
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Common signs and symptoms of colorectal cancer can include a change in bowel habits, such as diarrhea, constipation or narrowing of the stool, that lasts for more than a few days, according to the American Cancer Society.
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Other signs that warrant seeing a doctor include blood in the stool or a persistent feeling of needing to go to the bathroom but being unable to go.
The research was published in JAMA Oncology.
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A young woman who started vaping at the age of 15 has been given just 18 months to live — after being diagnosed with lung cancer in her early 20s.
Kayley Boda, 22, of Manchester, in the United Kingdom, was engaging in heavy vaping on a regular basis when she started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in it in January 2025, news agency SWNS reported.
The retail assistant said doctors turned her away eight times, telling her she had a chest infection — until she began coughing up blood.
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After seven biopsies, Boda was diagnosed with lung cancer. She underwent surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy — and in February 2026, got the all-clear, the same source reported.
Two months later, though, doctors said the cancer had come back in the pleural lining. Now she’s been given 18 months to live.
Kayley Boda, 22, is shown in the hospital. She started coughing up a brown substance with “grainy bits” in January 2025, she said. She had been vaping since the age of 15. (SWNS)
The young woman has now issued a warning to others to be aware of the dangers of vaping.
Boda said she smoked a bit as a young teenager. She took up vaping after that.
Then, “a few months after I switched from reusable vapes to disposable ones, I started coughing up brown, grainy mucus,” as SWNS reported.
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“Doctors turned me away eight times with a chest infection. … Then I started coughing up blood, so they did an X-ray and found a shadow on my lung,” she added.
“They told me they were 99% sure, [since I was] so young, that it wasn’t cancer, so not to worry about it. When I got the results back, and they told me it was lung cancer, it felt so surreal.”
Boda said she was “very naive” before her diagnosis and thought that “something like this would never happen to me.”
She said that she had surgery to remove half of her right lung.
“After the surgery, I started chemo and I had a terrible reaction to it. I couldn’t lift my head up. I was throwing up blood. I was urinating blood. I couldn’t eat. I couldn’t sleep.”
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She said that when she got the “all clear [in Feb. 2026], it felt amazing, but just two months later I was told the cancer had come back, and I have 18 months to live.”
She added, “I’m 22. This isn’t meant to happen to somebody my age.”
“Stay off the vapes because they will catch up with you.”
She blames her cancer on vaping, she said.
“My symptoms started a few months after I started disposable vapes, and there’s no lung cancer in my family,” she said. “I haven’t vaped for three months, I’ve made my partner stop, I’ve made my mom stop, I’m urging all my friends to stop. Stay off the vapes,” she continued, “because they will catch up with you.”
When doctors did an X-ray, they found a shadow on Boda’s right lung. She was later diagnosed with lung cancer and has undergone surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
She said she’d been using reusable vapes since the age of 15 and began using disposable vapes a few months before her cancer symptoms started.
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In November 2024, when she developed a rash all over her body, doctors said it could have been due to shingles, chicken pox or scabies, she told SWNS.
‘Nothing worked’
“I got treated for all three, and nothing worked,” Boda said. “It got to the point where I was cutting myself from scratching so hard.”
A few months after that, she began coughing up a dark brown mucus, with “grainy bits, the consistency of sugar, in it,” she said. When the coughing continued, she visited the doctor’s office, but was told it could be scarring from pneumonia or a chest infection, she also said.
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It wasn’t until March 2025 that she began coughing up bright red blood. At that point, doctors gave her a chest X-ray and told her they’d found a shadow on her lower right lung.
Over the next four months, she had seven biopsies as doctors took samples from the “shadow.” In August, when she went to get the results, she was told she had stage one lung cancer.
Boda is shown in the hospital. She was diagnosed with lung cancer and had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, as well as chemotherapy. (SWNS)
In September 2025, she had surgery to remove the lower lobe of her right lung, and the surrounding lymph nodes. During the surgery, doctors upstaged her cancer from stage one to stage three after finding cancer in six surrounding lymph nodes, she said.
Following the surgery, Boda was unable to breathe properly and had to learn to walk all over again.
“The oncologist said this is so rare.”
After finishing chemotherapy in February 2026, Kayley was given the all clear, leaving her feeling elated.
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However, just a month after that, she began experiencing extreme chest pains and was told by doctors she had a pleural effusion — a build-up of fluid in the lungs. She had the fluid removed, but when doctors tested it, they discovered her cancer had returned to the pleural lining of her lungs, giving her 18 months to live.
“The oncologist said this is so rare, and usually something they see in patients that are 80 years old,” she said, as SWNS reported.
Increasingly, vacation hot spots are enforcing strict bans on the use of e-cigarettes in public venues. (iStock)
Boda claimed that doctors were unable to pin her cancer to a specific cause — but told her that smoking and vaping definitely didn’t help.
Since her diagnosis, she has stopped and is urging others to stop, too.
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She’s hoping to raise the thousands of dollars needed for treatment to try to prolong her life, she said.
Last year, Fox News Digital reported on the case of a Pennsylvania woman, 26, who said she vaped for just one year before her lungs collapsed. She was 22 when she took up the habit, she said in an interview.
“Everybody warned me about it, but I didn’t listen — I wish that I did,” she said.
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Dr. David Campbell, clinical director and program director at Recover Together Bend in Oregon, told Fox News Digital at that time that signs of collapsed lungs include sharp chest or shoulder pain, shortness of breath and difficulty breathing.
Lung issues are just one of the many health issues linked to vaping, he warned. The habit can also increase the risk of heart disease and stroke, as well as exposure to harmful heavy metals.
Melissa Rudy of Fox News Digital contributed reporting.
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The key to feeling better in a fast, overstimulated world might be surprisingly simple: Live a little more like your grandparents.
A growing social media trend, dubbed “nonnamaxxing,” draws inspiration from the slower, more intentional rhythms associated with an Italian grandmother.
The lifestyle is often linked to activities like preparing home-cooked meals, spending time outdoors and making meaningful connections.
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“Nonnamaxxing is a 2026 trend that embraces the slower, more intentional lifestyle of an Italian grandmother (a Nonna). Think cooking from scratch, long family meals, daily walks, gardening and less screen time,” Erin Palinski-Wade, a New Jersey-based registered dietitian, told Fox News Digital.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
Stepping away from screens and toward real-world interaction can have measurable benefits, according to California-based psychotherapist Laurie Singer.
“We know that interacting with others in person, rather than spending time on screens, significantly improves mental health,” she told Fox News Digital, adding that social media often fuels comparison and lowers self-esteem.
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Living more like previous generations isn’t purely driven by nostalgia. Cooking meals from scratch, for example, has been linked to better nutrition and more mindful eating patterns.
Adopting traditional mealtime habits can improve diet quality and support both physical and mental health, especially when meals are shared regularly with others, Palinski-Wade noted.
One longevity expert stresses that staying healthy isn’t just about food — it’s also about joy and community. (iStock)
There’s also a psychological benefit to slowing down and focusing on one task at a time. Anxiety often stems from unfinished or avoided tasks, Singer noted, and engaging in hands-on activities can counteract that.
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“Nonnamaxxing encourages us to be present around a task, like gardening, baking or knitting, or just taking a mindful walk, that delivers something ‘real,’” she said.
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Palinski-Wade cautions against turning the trend into another source of pressure, noting that a traditional “nonna” lifestyle often assumes a different pace of life.
The key, she said, is adapting the mindset, not replicating it perfectly.
Nonnamaxxing, derived from the name for an Italian grandmother, is a trend that incorporates lifestyle habits hundreds of years in the making. (iStock)
The goal is to reintroduce small, intentional moments that make you feel better.
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That might mean prioritizing a few shared meals each week, taking a walk without your phone or setting aside time for a simple hobby, the expert recommended.
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Singer added, “Having a positive place to escape to, through whatever activities speak to us and make us happy, isn’t generational – it’s human.”
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