LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

Seizures / Epilepsy

Brain Supplements for Brain Power: Use This Type of Magnesium

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Brain power. We want to preserve it as we age, but are there brain supplements that can protect our brain?  One form of magnesium may be able to do just that.

Magnesium is one of those minerals that never seems to get the press it deserves.  It’s not as glamorous as CoQ10, doesn’t sound as fancy as N-acetylcysteine and isn’t found in high concentrations in milk like calcium.  Worse, if you take too much, you get the wonderful side effect of loose stools (which isn’t such a bad thing if you suffer from chronic constipation).

On the other side, magnesium is required in over 300 critical enzymes in the human body and is absolutely essential to our survival and to optimal health.  The problem is that many of us are deficient in magnesium.  Good food sources include:

  1. Nuts and seeds
  2. Whole grains
  3. Legumes
  4. Cocoa
  5. Halibut

Overall the number of Americans getting less than the recommended daily intake of magnesium is quite high.  Looking at the list above, you can imagine that these types of foods may not be commonplace on the average American dinner plate.

But the story gets more interesting.

Magnesium is very, very important for your brain power and should be on the list of important brain supplements.  But it’s just not easy to get most forms of magnesium to the brain because it just doesn’t cross the blood brain barrier very easily to enter the cerebral spinal fluid (CSF).  CSF is the fluid the brain floats in and the source of much of the nutrients the brain needs.  Even if you ramp up the magnesium levels in the blood to much higher levels, only a small percentage of this makes it to the brain.

Under normal circumstances, for good brain power, this is enough.  Magnesium can work alongside of phytonutrients and vitamins from our diet to counteract life’s daily stresses.  But what about those with more challenged brain power, like…

All of these groups may benefit from higher levels of brain supplements like magnesium in the brain.  What about someone with concerns over memory such as Alzheimer’s dementia?  You bet.  And maybe more so than the others on the list.

So how might we get more magnesium to the brain for these people who may benefit greatly from higher concentrations of magnesium for better brain power?

Turns out some researchers may have developed an answer in a specific form of magnesium called magnesium-L-threonate.  In this particular article,  researchers looked at the ability of magnesium threonate to increase magnesium levels in the CSF of rats.

Once they had established that it was effective, they looked at the ability of magnesium threonate to improve brain plasticity.  What is brain plasticity?  Remember how you thought you killed off all those brain cells in college, never to be replaced?  Sure, you’re liver and stomach lining can replace itself, but not the brain.

Wrong.  The brain has the ability to replace old, worn out cells.  This process is called plasticity and it is generally a good thing in the brain.

Overall, the researchers found that magnesium threonate had a strong ability to improve plasticity in the brains of these rats.  While this does not necessarily mean the same thing would happen in humans, I wouldn’t bet against it.

If you think you may fit into one of the categories that may benefit from some extra brain supplements, magnesium threonate may be for you.  The form is a little more expensive, but it might make the difference.

If you have tried magnesium threonate yourself, what kind of changes did you experience?

Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Can Sleep Disturbance Cause Seizures?

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Recent studies have linked sleep apnea and chronic headaches. Since migraines and seizures have similarities, can obstructive sleep apnea cause seizures?

Sleep is absolutely vital to the health of your brain.  During sleep, while our conscious mind may not be alert, this does not mean that our brain is inactive during this time. Far from it.

But sleep is not important because it allows your brain to relax, but rather because processing and healing occurs during sleep that we do not yet fully understand.  It is clear that lack of sleep is a strong trigger for those suffering from migraines and seizures.  For this reason, getting a good night’s sleep is essential for good brain health.

This task is not always as easy as it sounds for several reasons:

  1. In today’s stressed out world, chronic stress throws off normal cortisol rhythms, leading to higher cortisol levels at night, making sleep nearly impossible.
  2. Sleep apnea, both obstructive and central, make restorative sleep impossible.
  3. Our use of medications to help us sleep disrupts normal sleep patterns, potentially being linked to over half of a MILLION deaths per year.

As mentioned earlier, sleep problems have already been linked to chronic headaches and this particular study follows along these same lines as it relates to seizures.  Researchers looked at an epilepsy center and evaluated those patients with seizures for the presence of obstructive sleep apnea and found:

  1. Patients with epilepsy had a much higher incidence of OSA compared to the general population (15.2% vs. 4.41%)
  2. If patient’s seizures were well controlled, then older men with a higher seizure frequency were even more likely to suffer from obstructive sleep apnea.
  3. In those who did not have good seizure control (medically refractory), those with diabetes and snoring had a higher risk of obstructive sleep apnea.
  4. Treatment of obstructive sleep apnea with a CPAP machine in refractory epilepsy patients improved their seizure control.

Clearly there is a link between sleep problems and seizure control.  I would not be surprised at all if the hormone melatonin plays a pivotal role here.  Numerous studies over the years have linked melatonin with protecting the brain and helping with seizure control.  Sleep disturbances can be caused by a problem with melatonin production (or the timing of melatonin production) and, conversely, sleep problems can lead to altered production of melatonin in the brain.

The bottom line is that sleep is critical for normal brain health.  Whether you suffer from chronic headaches or uncontrolled seizures, sleeping has to be brought under control naturally.

The long term solution to sleep problems is stress management and exercise. Few things will restore a healthy sleep pattern as well as these two. In the short term, natural compounds like valerian root may be effective on an individual basis to calm the brain enough to allow sleep to occur naturally.

Melatonin, the hormone mentioned earlier, may also help to restore normal sleep patterns. Typical starting dosages are .5 mg an hour or so before the desired bedtime.

If you have had sleep disturbances in the past, how did you manage them?

DYSFUNCTION AND STRESS CAUSE OF EPILEPTIC SEIZURES – (12-09-04)

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MITOCHONDRIAL DYSFUNCTION AND OXIDATIVE STRESS: CAUSE AND CONSEQUENCE OF EPILEPTIC SEIZURES

Regular readers of the Updates know that I feel oxidative stress and subsequent oxidative stress (or vice versa) is an underlying mechanism for many chronic conditions.

The research supporting the link between mitochondrial dysfunction and seizures is getting stronger, and yet most physicians (neurologists included) are blissfully unaware and still say diet and vitamins have no impact on seizures. That statement alone proves they have not cracked a medical journal in at least the past year.

Here’s the scenario I envision…picture the state of a neuron with poor cellular health. Mitochondria under oxidative stress unable to produce sufficient ATP or too much free radical damage to its own DNA (with poorer repair mechanisms than cellular DNA). We lose ATP in the cell or even loss of the number of mitochondria within the neuron. Couple this with poor quality fats in the cellular membrane and it is not hard to envision a state where the neuron may spontaneously depolarize–the capacitance of the cellular membrane is much reduced and just can’t hold a charge. Seizure activity results. ScienceDirect – Free Radical Biology and Medicine : Mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress: cause and consequence of ..

Read entire article here

STATINS WORSEN ABSENCE SEIZURES- (10-20-04)

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Lovastatin exacerbates atypical absence seizures with only minimal effects on brain sterols

I was not aware that one of the side effects of the statin drugs was a certain type of seizure in humans. But, considering that the statins lower the production of CoQ10 along with the cholesterol it was supposed to lower, this really is not a surprise. CoQ10 is an important component of energy production, so in tissues like muscle, brain and liver, a drop in CoQ10 levels can have disastrous results.

Lovastatin exacerbates atypical absence seizures with only minimal effects on brain sterols — Serbanescu et al. 45 (11): 203 –

Read entire article here

MELATONIN USAGE MAY AID NEURODEGENRATIVE DISORDERS – (12-29-04)

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Pro-oxidant activity of aluminum in the rat hippocampus: gene expression of antioxidant enzymes after melatonin administration

Maybe I’m just looking, but it seems like there’s been an awful lot of research on melatonin lately. I had previously just considered melatonin as a sleep aid, and did not consider it as an antioxidant. However, with the current literature supporting an oxidative stress/mitochondrial dysfunction etiology for seizures, Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative disorders, I have begun to look at melatonin in a much different light with great therapeutic potential.

Read entire article here

Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy: Lower Your Risk

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While just dealing with seizures is bad enough, the mind of every epileptic there looms the fear of sudden unexplained death in epilepsy, also known as SUDEP.

The exact cause of SUDEP has not been identified, although cardiac problems are very high on the list of likely suspects.

This should not come as a surprise since, at the cellular level, the way our heart cell develops the rhythm of our heartbeat is similar to the way our brain cells fire.  It all has to do with boring topics like cellular membrane potential and voltage gated channels.  (I usually save these topics for blogs focusing on insomnia…)

There are risk factors for sudden unexplained death in epilepsy that we already know and understand.  Some risk factors, such as living alone will increase the risk of SUDEP.  Some studies have suggested that the anti-epileptic drugs themselves affect heart rhythm and increase the risk of SUDEP.

Obviously, doing everything you can to improve brain health in epilepsy should be the most important factor in management of seizures.  Without appropriate lifestyle changes targeted towards brain health, even seizures successfully controlled with medication are missing the real problem.

Chronic epilepsy and seizures are the result of something being wrong in the brain.  Most evidence points to the mitochondria and the ability of brain cells to generate the energy they need to function properly as causative in seizures.

Overall, because of this, SUDEP is a valid concern, but the incidence still remains low.  The progression of damage to the brain, however, is occurring in every epileptic.  This is why the concern should be on brain health rather than concern over sudden unexplained death.

Should you STILL be worried, this particular study provides some additional help.

Get a pet.

Yup.  It can be that simple.  Researchers looked at the rate of SUDEP in a group of 1092 epileptics and looked at those who had succumbed to SUDEP.  1% (11) were classified as SUDEP.  Not a single one of these were pet owners.

On the other hand, in the remaining epileptics, 61% were-pet owners.

While this is not conclusive by any means, it fits with what we’ve seen in other studies on the heart protection that occurs with pet owners who have chronic conditions.

As an avid dog lover, it would seem a simple tool to add to the toolbox of improving your brain health and improving your chances of a long and healthy life.

What  have you done to help heal your brain today?

History of Epilepsy? What Helps Migraines May Help As Well

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3 million in the US have a history of epilepsy. Few link migraines and epilepsy, but the connections are clear. Because of this, what helps migraines may help with seizures.

I can honestly say that few doctors link these two conditions together, but it is clear that migraines share very similar characteristics to seizures.  A few very astute researchers have coined the term “migralepsy,” but this is usually to describe a condition where a migraine headache is followed by seizure within a specified period of time.

I would suggest, however, that this term can help people understand that what happens in the brain in both conditions is the same.  What similarities do these share?  Just to name a few…

  1. Both seizures and migraine headaches induce a “post-ictal state” that results from the beating the brain just took.
  2. Both conditions have been linked to problems in the part of the cell called the mitochondria not working optimally.
  3. Anti-seizure medications like Topamax and Depakote have been used increasingly for migraines.

So what about headaches that are present in epileptics?  These are actually very common, although not all would be classified as a migraine.  Many times the headache may be part of the post-ictal period–the time after a seizure when there has been so much activity in the brain that the protective mechanisms in place to deal with oxidative stress are overwhelmed.

This particular study looks at the presence of both a migraine headache and seizures in epileptic children and found that the presence of migraines were much higher (25% vs as low as 3%) in these children than in children who did not have seizures.

The authors then mistakenly conclude that “It is imperative to address comorbid migraine in treating children with epilepsy.”  This means that medication should be considered to address the migraine as a separate condition.

However, I contend that it is not.  These are multiple manifestations of the same problem.  Much like depression and epilepsy being closely linked, these conditions develop as a result of the brain not being able to produce the energy it needs to function properly.

The best approach to migraines, epilepsy and depression is to focus on healing the brain.  Merely controlling the symptoms is NOT good enough.

So what positive lifestyle changes have you made to improve your migraine headaches or seizures?

Ketogenic Diet Plan for Seizures in Children and Adults

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Medicine thinks in terms of drugs. Thoughts on diet & supplements are rare & incomplete. A ketogenic diet plan for seizures in children & adults is powerful.

The ketogenic diet is similar to the Atkins’ diet, in that it is very high in proteins and fat. The argument against the ketogenic diet is that it is hard to remain compliant with, because apparently having your brain damaged by aberrant firing of neurons is not as important as that slice of bread.

When it comes to seizure control, the ketogenic diet is amazingly powerful. Consistently across studies, 1/3 of those on a ketogenic diet have >90% seizure reduction and another 1/3 have >50% reduction. This is an amazing response rate. Far, far more effective than any anti-seizure medication available, and yet it is considered as a last line of approach to seizure control (especially in children) instead of the first line.

The question of compliance has already been worked out.  In a long term follow up study of the ketogenic diet in children over 20 years, 65% of the patients remained on the diet. I can tell you that, in terms of medication, to get 64% of patients to be compliant with taking a medication for TWENTY years is practically unheard of.

I’ve recently had an opportunity to talk to a mother of a 6 year old epileptic child.  Her epileptologists (neurologists that specialize in seizures) have told her that the ketogenic diet would not work for her daughter because she has a rare form of epilepsy.  Of course, the medications are not working either, but that doesn’t seem to phase the physicians.

Here’s the rub that many would not agree with.  Regardless of how rare or common or distinct a form of epilepsy may be, the brain cells all still work the same.  Sure, there may be an enzyme system running slow or not working at all.  The number of mitochondria may be reduced.  There may be more activity in one area of the brain than another.  But I would think that even epileptologists would find it hard to disagree that the overall physiology of the neurons in every form of epilepsy is different.

Although we do not fully understand how the ketogenic diet plan works yet (there are some suggestions that gluten avoidance may be important) you can be sure the benefits are non-specific.  Rather, it’s benefits probably lie in the way it improves the overall functioning of the brain cell, rather than blocking receptor X or stimulating receptor Z.  So it makes absolutely no sense to suggest that the ketogenic diet plan may not be successful for this child.  It clearly does not work in everyone, but when it does, it works well.

To demonstrate just how important the ketogenic diet plan is to seizure control, I am not providing a link to a particular article as I normally do.

Rather, the entire July 2012 issue of the journal Epilepsy Research is dedicated to diet in the control of epilepsy and certain other neurological disorders.  By now, if you suffer from epileptic seizures and your doctor has not discussed the ketogenic diet with you, you can be sure he or she has not cracked a medical journal in some time now.

I would like to share with you 3 stories in this journal written by the parents of children with seizures who tried the ketogenic diet plan:

  1. Carson, who with infantile spasms, was able to access the diet as her first line treatment without any medication being taken. Carson is the inspiration behind the Carson Harris Foundation and her family promote dietary awareness in USA.
  2. Matthew, with Dravet Syndrome, was refused for the diet for years, suffered brain damage and was put on a whole host of unsuitable medications before finally managing to get the diet. The diet proved his saving but what could have been the outcome if the family had got the diet when it was first asked for? Matthew is the inspiration behind the Matthew’s Friends – Dietary Treatments for Epilepsy organization
  3. Charlie, suffered with intractable epilepsy, was put on a whole host of medications that did not work and underwent brain surgery before finally getting to the diet that cured him of his epilepsy. He is the inspiration behind The Charlie Foundation in the USA and his father, Jim Abrahams made the film ‘First Do No Harm’ which told the true story of a child who was cured of his epilepsy using the Ketogenic Diet, just like Charlie and thousands upon thousands of other children around the world.

So, I would ask the neurologists of the child I have recently come across, if the ketogenic diet plan can work for Dravet Syndrome (1 in 30,000 births), then why on Earth would we not recommend it as a trial for all children with seizures, especially intractable ones.

If your child has seizures, have you tried the ketogenic diet plan?