LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

epilepsy

MOST POWERFUL WAYS TO PREDICT PAINFUL SEIZURES

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Seizure and migraine management consists almost entirely of medication use.  The list of anti-seizure medications has expanded over the years, but outcomes have not improved much.  Patients still suffer from migraines and seizures and can have their entire lives shut down during an attack and even up to days afterwards.  But is there a better way to manage migraine headaches and seizures?

Clearly exercise, dietary changes and targeted supplementation are powerful additions to every patient’s approach to migraines and seizures.  The research is strongly in support of using these tools.  The ketogenic diet alone is an approach with better outcomes than every medication on the planet.

Regardless of the condition affecting the brain, whether migraines, seizures, Alzheimer’s or dementia, stress is unquestionably a key trigger to symptoms flaring. Management or, better avoidance, of stress is critical.

But what if the patient cannot manage their stress?  Are there other tools that can be brought into play that might be able to abort a migraine or seizure before it starts? Turns out there are indeed very powerful tools available.

Behavioral psychology may yet turn out to be THE most powerful tool for managing epilepsy and migraines. Neurologists and psychologists will both agree that aberrant brain firing results in migraines and seizures.  The similarities stop there.  Neurologists traditionally believe that the problem is one of brain chemistry.  This brain chemistry needs to be “fixed” with medications.  The belief that patients can influence the condition is not propagated.

The view from the psychology side of things is different.  Extrinsic factors that are absolutely within control of the patient are more critical than internal factors. Teaching the patient to identify feelings and patterns of emotions and using successful tools to positively affect thought patterns is a powerful tool that has been around for more than 50 years.

The medical literature is filled with case studies and clinical studies of patients who are able to abort the onset of a seizure through a variety of interventions, all within control of the patient.

This particular study is a more recent example of just how incredibly powerful these techniques can be. This was a study looking at these techniques at aborting a seizure that was about to start.  Researchers found some interesting results:

  1. Half the patients (30/60) experienced at least a 50% reduction in seizures.
  2. 37% of the patients became seizure free by the end of the program.

Wow!  This wasn’t with medications.  No lifestyle changes.  No restricted diet.  Just the identification of a trigger or warning sign and the implementation of a behavioral action to abort the seizures.

There is a single, strong caveat here. The patient has to accept that the condition that he or she has has a strong intrinsic etiology, and an internal locus of control is required for the best management of the condition.  Not enough patients share this view of their problem.

The question I seem to be perpetually asking is, why, after 50+ years, is this type of approach a part of every seizure and migraine patient’s treatment plan???

CALORIE RESTRICTION HAS A POSITIVE EFFECT ON THE MITOCHONDRIA FUNCTION – (08-13-07)

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Calorie restriction up-regulates the plasma membrane redox system in brain cells and suppresses oxidative stress during aging.

Calorie restriction has a definite, positive effect on the functioning of mitochondria.

This study adds to our understanding, and finds that CR also helps to increase the efficiency of the enzymes in the cell well of neurons that recycle antioxidants such as CoQ10 and Vit E. CR or alternate day CR needs to be a tool in the treatment box of neurodegenerative disorders such as epilepsy, Alzheimer’s and Parkinsons.

Read entire article here

Another Supplement Tied to 20% Less Seizures?

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In those who suffer from migraine headaches and seizures, anything that can help to reduce the number of attacks they have is a welcome addition.  Clearly lifestyle and supplementation play a strong (if not stronger) role in the management of both migraine headaches and seizures along with the mainstream medical approach of pharmacological management.  For many sufferers, this information is rarely shared by their physicians.

Before we illuminate today’s brain protecting nutrient, we need to cover a little basic physiology.  Those of you with very good memories will undoubtably recall that the cells of our organs are made up of a lipid bilayer.  Consider our membranes as sort of a fatty moat made up of bunches of molecules that look like a head with legs.  On the outsides of both sides of the moat we have the heads, which are soluble in water.  The legs that dangle from the heads face toward the center of the moat, meeting each other in the center.  These legs are made up of fats that do not dissolve in water.

All by itself, not much can pass through this moat.  Things that dissolve in water can make it past the heads, but not the legs in the center.  Things that are fat soluble can’t make it past the heads to get into the moat at all.  A relatively impenetrable moat.

But things still need to get in and out of the cell.  The cell needs to get messages in and out,  it needs nutrients in and out and things manufactured inside the cell need to get outside of the cell.

The cell does this through the use of pores embedded in the membrane.  Some go all the way through the moat, some only go partway.  An important factor of how well messages are transmitted, or NOT transmitted, is the health of the cell membrane.  Lower quality fats (such as trans fats) will impede healthy cell communication.

On the flip side, higher amounts of healthier fats in the cell membrane ensure that messages that are supposed to be passed along are passed along.  Overall, it just makes for a healthier, happier cell.

What does this mean for a condition like epilepsy?  Seizures and migraine headaches can occur when a cell is not healthy enough to communicate effectively with its neighbor.  This can mean that an inhibitory neuron (that shuts down its neighboring cell) may not be effective at calming a connecting cell.  Or, it could mean that an individual brain cell fires before it is supposed to fire, beginning a cascade of wild messages that trigger a headache or a seizure.

A recent study in the March issue of Epilepsy and Behavior demonstrated that the fish oil DHA was able to lower seizure rates.  The study was small and non-randomized, but is consistent with our understanding of what triggers seizures as well as prior studies.

Of the ten people in the study receiving 1,000 mg of DHA, 6 had a reduction in the number of seizures.  One patient had a marked reduction in seizure activity.  Overall, the reduction in seizure activity was 16%.  Quite an accomplishment for something as safe and inexpensive as fish oils.

Of course, the big question is, why had fish oils not been a recommendation prior to this study?  Even that one patient with marked reduction in seizure activity could’ve had a massive impact in his or her quality of life by such a simple intervention long before this study.

Read the study here http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S152550501100686X

Depression In Epilepsy – 6 Tips to Heal Your Brain

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As if seizures were not bad enough, there is a high number of epileptics that also suffer from depression.  This becomes a problem for a multitude of reasons, from medication compliance to maintaining a positive outlook with an internal locus of control (yes–those who believe that they have control over their seizures have better overall seizure control and a high quality of life).

Read the entire article here

HEALTH FOCUS OF CONTROL IN PATIENTS WITH EPILEPSY – (08-04-08)

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Health focus of control in patients with epilepsy and its relationship to anxiety, depression, and seizure control.

This article gets into some touchy, but very important, aspects of health. The bottom line, regardless of all other factors, is that we are in control of our own health. With a very few purely genetic associations, whatever happens to us is a result of the decisions that we make. Period. We and not anyone else, are responsible for our health. Many disease states will never be managed effectively until that patient “buys into” the fact that their health outcomes depend NOT on their doctor giving them the right medication or surgical procedure, but rather on their own choices.

This article found that epileptic patients who had a higher internal focus of control had better seizure control. Keep in mind that much of mainstream medicine does not foster this independent thinking, but rather that your disease is a result of “bad luck” of the gene draw and there really isn’t anything you can do for it but take this pill.

Read entire article here

HAVE NEW SEIZURE DRUGS IMPROVED OUTCOMES?

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There is no doubt that some new, fancy and expensive anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) have been developed and marketed.  It seems like neurologists actually prefer to use these new drugs over the older drugs that have had decades of use.

These new drugs can include sodium valproate (Depakote), lamotrigine (Lamictal), carbamazepine (Tegratol), levetiracetam (Keppra) or topiramate (Topamax).  Compare these with some of the older mainstays like phenytoin (Dilantin). 

These drugs are also being used increasingly to treat migraines and bipolar depression.

Read the entire article here

Seizure, Epileptic Drugs Not Working? 4 Places to Start Healing Your Brain

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From the traditional medical approach to seizures and epilepsy, the foundation of the approach is anti-epileptic drug therapy (AED).  This foundation is added to by brain surgery or the use of a vagal nerve stimulator implanted in the chest.  That’s pretty much the armamentarium.  And pretty much disappointing when you look at just how effective these approaches are.  But they all leave one important thing out.

Read the entire article here

CAN A SIMPLE AMINO ACID STOP SEIZURES?

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CAN A SIMPLE AMINO ACID STOP SEIZURES?  I’ve always been very saddened by our approach to conditions like epilepsy and migraines in this country.  We feel that if the events are halted with medications (or, horrifyingly, by surgical removal or parts of the brain) then the treatment is a success.

However, all we have done is stop one sick brain cell from transmitting it’s message to the next.  The brain cell is still sick, and in many instances, is made sicker still by the meds. Instead, control of seizures is merely the first stage to healing the sickened brain cells.  While I do not advocate withdrawal of seizure medication (a VERY bad idea!!), the augmentation of seizure control has been shown with progesterone (allopregnonalone is the most potent anti-seizure compound o the planet) and some other natural compounds.

This study is the beginning of looking at the amino acid glutamine to increase GABA levels, which is one of the brain’s neurotransmitter “brakes.”