This is not the first time I’ve pointed out the links between migraines and seizures (as if my book, Migraines and Epilepsy wasn’t hint enough…) and it won’t be the last.
The reason I need to keep pointing it out is that mainstream medicine (neurologists included) don’t seem to see the association and consider them “comorbidities.” Comorbidities mean that they are occurring simultaneously and not necessarily related. Usually, comorbidities are medicated separately (because that’s how we “treat” everything in this country). Take diabetes and high blood pressure. Medicated separately. Heart disease and colon cancer. Separately.
In so many cases, these are not really separate conditions, but rather two conditions created by the same upstream event. The prediabetic state increases blood pressure and high cholesterol. The smart approach would be to make changes to address the prediabetes rather than medicating each of them.
Back to the migraine and epilepsy association.
There is strong evidence that both of these conditions are caused or greatly contributed to by a fundamental problem with the way the cells of the brain generate energy at the mitochondrial level. You can read more about this in a previous article by clicking here.
This particular study looked at 304 epileptic patients to see just how many have headaches associated with the condition. Here’s what they found:
- Those with more frequent seizures were 60% more likely to also experience headaches.
- Headaches were present in 66.1% of these epileptics.
- Chronic migraine headaches were experienced by 32.9% of the patients,
- Tension-type headaches were present in 9.2%.
- 6.6% had migraines that led into seizures.
- 10.2% had seizures that ended with migraines.
These are numbers that should make even the most skeptical neurologist sit up and take notice. Worse, either condition, by themselves, is bad enough. The amount of strain and oxidative damage to the brain that occurs during either a migraine or seizure is bad enough—the combination of the two is devastating. And all the more reason to take up the mantle of protecting your brain and begin to make some serious lifestyle changes.