Seizure Disorder herbs, supplements, vitamins, diet and food by Ray Sahelian, M.D. - natural ways to prevent or treat seizures

A seizure is the response to an abnormal electrical discharge in the brain. Anything that irritates the brain can produce a seizure. Two thirds of people who experience a seizure never have another. One third go on to have recurring seizures (a condition called epilepsy).
   Precisely what happens during a seizure depends on what part of the brain is affected by the abnormal electrical discharge. The seizure discharge may involve a tiny area of the brain and lead only to the person noticing an odd smell or taste, or it may involve large areas and lead to a convulsion--jerking and spasms of muscles throughout the body. The person may also have brief attacks of altered consciousness; lose consciousness, muscle control, or bladder control; and become confused.

Cause of seizure disorders
High fever due to infections. Most of the time, these types of febrile seizure are temporary. Brain infections from a number of viruses and bacteria are a cause of seizure. Antibiotic or antiviral therapy can treat the infection and hence prevent the seizure from reoccurring.
Seizure can occur due to heatstroke.
Exposure to toxic drugs and substances such as excess alcohol, amphetamines, and cocaine can certainly lead to seizures. Even certain substances not thought of to be a causative agent may be responsible, for instance camphor.
Withdrawal after heavy use of alcohol, sleep aids, tranquilizers.
Adverse reaction to prescription drugs.
Metabolic disturbances such as high levels of sugar or sodium in the blood, low levels of sugar, calcium, magnesium, or sodium in the blood, kidney or liver failure.
Insufficient oxygen to the brain from strokes or carbon monoxide poisoning.
Destruction of brain tissue form head injury or brain tumor.
In rare cases, excessively high doses of certain nutrients and herbs may cause a seizure or make it more likely to occur.
A severe brain injury puts people at high risk of seizures for more than a decade after they are first hurt

Natural therapy for seizures
The ketogenic diet may be helpful in reducing the frequency of seizures.
Improvement of sleep patterns can help reduce the frequency of seizures.
Improvement in diet. A high-fat, low carbohydrate diet can drastically cut seizures in children with severe epilepsy and could reduce the need for medication.
Fish oils may be helpful, see study below.
Melatonin has been found to be helpful in children taking valproate (see study below)
Add calcium mineral and vitamin D since patients on medications often lose bone mass.
Bacopa has been used in India for epilepsy however research on this herb regarding seizures is very limited.
Carnosine has been looked into, see study below, but no human studies are available.
Scutellariae radix water extract has anticonvulsant activity against tonic seizures in mice. Its role in humans is not clear.
Yoga is helpful.

Fish oils and seizure prevention
Fish oils help reduce the risk of cardiac arrhythmias by helping stabilize neuronal excitability in heart tissue. I wonder if fish oils or eating fish could have the same benefits in brain tissue, helping reduce neuronal excitability and thus reducing the occurrence of seizures. I would be interested in getting feedback from neurologists or other experts would have studied this topic.

Q. In the May 2008 newsletter you ask for feedback on seizures and Omega-3s. I sometimes work as a locum pharmacist in and around Dublin and have experienced a case of this type. Largely driven by the research in the UK, Omega-3s are becoming very popular for all paediatric neurological complaints. One parent who came to our pharmacy described how his daughter’s liquid Omega3 supplement is now covered (i.e. no payment required by the patient) by Ireland’s General Medical Services (GMS) based on the outcome of a brief trial which he initiated himself.
(GMS is the Irish equivalent of the British NHS; but with more limited access - available to over 70s and those on below-average incomes), but with no charges to patients. OTC products are generally not covered, but Regional Health Service Executive offices have discretionary systems for special or hardship cases,) This man’s daughter’s (aged about 7) seizures had been refractory to therapy – resulting in several seizures per week. After several months on Omega 3s, seizures became much less frequent (down to one every few months). The brands she had been receiving are Eskimo and EyeQ.

Carnosine and Seizures
Carnosine, a precursor of histidine, ameliorates pentylenetetrazole-induced kindled seizures in rat.
Neurosci Lett. 2006 May 29;400(1-2):146-9. Wu XH, Ding MP, Zhu-Ge ZB, Zhu YY, Jin CL, Chen Z.
Department of Pharmacology, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310031, China.
Carnosine (beta-alanyl-l-histidine) has been characterized as a putative neurotransmitter. However, so far, understanding of the role of carnosine in the brain is very limited. The objective of this study was to examine the effects of carnosine on the development of pentylenetetrazol (PTZ) kindling seizures and protection against the PTZ kindled seizures in rats. Injection of carnosine (200, 500 mg/kg, i.p.) significantly decreased seizure stage, and prolonged the latencies for myoclonic jerks, in a dose- and time-dependent manner. In the seizure development process, 500 mg/kg carnosine also significantly delayed the onset of PTZ kindled seizures. In addition, carnosine significantly reversed decreased histamine levels induced by PTZ kindled seizure in the hippocampus. These results indicate that carnosine can protect against PTZ-induced seizures in both the development of kindling and the challenge process in rats. The results suggest that carnosine might be an endogenous anticonvulsant factor in the brain and can be used as a new antiepileptic drug in future. 

Supplements that may have an adverse effect on seizure
Reduce or eliminate any kind of  supplements that have a stimulant effect such as tyrosine, ephedra, caffeine, guarana, citrus aurantium, ginkgo, sexual herbs such as horny goat weed and tongkat ali, and teas that have caffeine.

Anti Seizure medication warning
As of December 2008, the US Food and Drug Administration is requiring that the label of all anti seizure medications include a warning about the increased risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors.

Type of seizure
Absence seizure - During an absence seizure it can appear to others that the person is daydreaming, something we all do when we are bored or distracted. However, during the absence seizure the person cannot be woken up since they are temporarily unconscious.
Complex partial seizure
Focal seizure
Grand mall
Myoclonic
Partial seizure
Petit mal seizure - some people misspell this as petite mal seizure
Tonic clonic

Seizure symptom
Symptoms of seizures depend on the type of seizure, ranging from a hardly noticed few second mental distraction to a total full blown epileptic seizure involving all extremities and muscle groups leading to loss of consciousness. A diabetic seizure can occur due to a sudden drop in blood sugar from insulin overdose.

Seizure Research Update
After a seizure, early intervention with anticonvulsant drugs appears to have little effect on the long-term prognosis of epilepsy. When to begin treatment with antiepileptic drugs in patients with few or infrequent seizures is a difficult decision. Doctors and patients must weigh the risk of seizure recurrence against the risk of medication side effects. Researchers evaluated the outcomes of patients who had single seizures and early epilepsy whose doctors were uncertain whether to proceed with treatment. The researchers randomly assigned 722 patients to start treatment immediately and 721 to defer treatment until the doctors and patient agreed that seixure treatment was necessary. In the deferred-treatment group, 332 started treatment during the course of the trial.
Patients who deferred treatment had a shorter time until the first or second recurrent seizure. However, the two groups did not differ in time to a fifth seizure. By the two-year follow-up, 32 percent of those in the immediate-treatment group had a recurrent seizure versus 39 percent of those in the deferred-treatment group. There was no greater improvement in quality of life among those assigned to immediate treatment versus deferred treatment. Immediate treatment was associated with more adverse events that were believed to be treatment related. After three years, 74 percent of the immediate-treatment group and 71 percent of the deferred-treatment group were seizure-free. At 5 years, 76 percent and 77 percent were seizure free.

Screening of plants used in Danish folk medicine to treat epilepsy and convulsions.
J Ethnopharmacol. 2005 Nov 14;
Department of Medicinal Chemistry, The Danish University of Pharmaceutical Sciences, 2 Universitetsparken, 2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark.
Aqueous and ethanolic extracts of 42 plants used in Danish folk medicine for the treatment of epilepsy and convulsions, or for inducing sedation, were tested for affinity to the GABA(A)-benzodiazepine receptor in the flumazenil-binding assay. Ethanolic extracts of leaves of Primula elatior and Primula veris and aerial parts of Tanacetum parthenium exhibited good, dose-dependent affinity.

Vaccination with the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine appears to increase a child's risk of having a seizure from a high fever -- a usually harmless event. However, the increased risk appears to be small and short-lived, Danish researchers report. Moreover, like other febrile seizures, those arising after vaccination were not associated with an increased risk of developing epilepsy.