Seizure convulsions epilepsy Short circuit in brain

Short circuit in brain – Seizure / convulsions / epilepsy

NERVOUS SYSTEM – Short circuit in brain – Seizure / convulsions / epilepsy

Brain – the main switch of our body, controls all parts of our body through the wired network

(nerves). Brain cells send signals as electrical impulses to the periphery for every action. Any spark or voltage fluctuations or interruptions or flickering (abnormal brain signals or activity) can cause short circuit (i.e., tic / twitch / spasm / seizure / convulsions / epilepsy complaints) in connections and communications – seizure disorders. It is just like an error code transmitted in brain cells (neurons). It can also go for fuse off the brain (death) when there is persistent spark or flickering (sustained twitching or seizure / status epilepticus) when care is not taken / given properly to control it.

Generally, brain dysfunction can cause loss or lack of conscious / memory level, poor concentration, drowsiness, tic, twitch, spasm, sleepiness / sleeplessness, seizure, epilepsy, coma, etc. Any injury or disturbances to brain or its coverings can cause or trigger abnormal signals / functions which can lead one to seizures, so one needs to take care more of the head to avoid spreading infections / diseases and head injury .

Seizure disorder is one of the most feared diseases or dysfunctions of brain since it can occur on any occasion, on any day, any time and under any circumstances. Also, it can occur in any part / side of the body or the whole body. Here, the sufferer will not know about the suffered activity, but bystanders or family members fear more on seeing the violent nature of the seizure.

Even though no one could guarantee for the cure, seizure sufferers can surely lead a comfortable normal life with out any difficulty with proper treatment. They can all enjoy life with some precautions (avoiding alcohol, driving, swimming, and working in machineries which can endanger life). They also need not fear about day-to-day activities, marriage, reproductive health, children health status, etc. In fact, sleeplessness, fever, anxiety and panic / fear, worries, tension, etc., can enter error coding then and there in the brain to trigger seizures / epilepsy.

Embarrassment and annoying disappointment causes more complaints than the real suffering, i.e., constant weakness, mental upset / depression, etc. Like wise, even though most of the time, children can outgrow the tendency, it is often feared for disturbance in the intelligence of children, brain problems like tumours in future, etc. It is not true scientifically. But one needs to take more care while selecting appropriate medicines and dosage, since overdose of anticonvulsant medicines usually suppress the brain altogether. In this case, the sufferer will always feel dullness, sleepiness and lacks interest, concentration and learning skills.

Seizure Seize generally means a sudden action taken for possessing something or to hold

suddenly. Seizure spells often paralyse the function (of brain) temporarily or of a sudden. Here one can feel altered sensations or functions or both. Seizure disorders can cause a variety of involuntary symptoms, i.e., varying from simple black out / momentary loss of consciousness, strange look, a sharp and short twitch, muscle spasms, imbalance in gait, involuntary movements / jerks / chorea / dyskinesia / convulsions, fainting, frothy saliva due to spasm in lungs and throat, incontinence of bowels and bladder, etc., to coma. Here brain reacts to the sharp and short signals (These abnormal signals – spikes and waves can be read in EEG – Electroencephalography).

Spark (abnormal signal or foci), which remains in the start-up itself and goes off after a period, will reflect externally as localised seizure i.e., concerned with connecting area of brain. Sometimes, spark can spread to adjacent area to cause a mighty flame and can cause generalised seizure (whole body suffering).

Seizure disorders are of many varieties / types, i.e., simple seizure to chronic epilepsy. It may be with single or multiple attacks with or without consciousness. Seizure occurrence during sustained high temperature (febrile fits / convulsions) is one among them. It is common in children, since developing or child brain is more susceptible to abnormal signals. Here proper care should be given or otherwise later epilepsy gets roots here. Commonly, seizure complaints do not cause any brain damage , but can cause when it occurs very severely and in a sustained manner.

Epilepsy – is again an umbrella term used for a group of disorders arising in the brain (especially in cerebral cortex) – Epilepsy is a type of seizure disorder which has recurrent episode of seizures. It just means a chronic seizure tendency (which comes / recurs recurrently or repeatedly). Having seizure for the first time or during high temperature (febrile fits) should not be diagnosed as epilepsy.

In epilepsy, recurrent episode of conduction error occurs in the brain causing momentary loss / disturbance in consciousness, paroxysmal hyper synchronous jerky movements, violent contractions, drowsiness, headache and confusion. The abnormality may be noted in motor or psychic or sensory plane. It may be idiopathic (with unknown cause) or symptomatic (with known cause). As seizures, epilepsy can also be focal or generlised. Its nature, character, symptom presentation and intensity varies from person to person and triggering foci in the brain. Usually, it has 3 phases, i.e. Aura (starting phase), Ictus phase (attack) and Post ictus phase (exhausted ending phase).

• Aura – It is an altered (subjective / notion) feeling which alarms or warns the arrival of epilepsy. It can last for a minute to a day. It may be felt as altered sensation in hearing, vision, taste, smell, feeling, sensations, etc. Its presentation of feeling may vary from person to person. Aura signals commonly arise in the temporal lobe.
• Ictus – means the suffering period or attack of epilepsy. The suffering nature may also differ in different individuals with symptoms of loss of conscious, jerky movements (tonic / clonic contractions), sustained contractions / rigidity / spasms, catch / gasp in breath, drooling and frothing saliva, etc.
• Post Ictus – It is the ending phase of suffering. Sufferer may feel exhausted, tiredness, body pain, (due to violent jerky movements) confusion, sleepiness, lack of concentration, etc., for a day or two.

Incidences – Seizures can occur in any one, irrespective of age and sex when the brain gets disturbed or injured. More than 3 per cent of people suffer from one or other type of seizure / epilepsy disorders. Most of the seizure complaints set in in infantile period or childhood and get tapered in adolescent age with adaptability (?). Its occurrence seems to be more common in autism and mentally retarded children and in persons who have developmental or genetic errors. Infants suffer chiefly after oxygen deficiency / asphyxia (developed due to delay in conduction of delivery)

or head injury (forceps delivery) or after violent crying (due to panic or fear) or after very high temperature or after serious illnesses. It is also more pronounced in persons who suffer from hormonal imbalance. Old people commonly suffer from seizure or epilepsy when they have cerebral palsy, tuberculosis, parasite infection (hydatid cyst), emotional upset, sleeplessness, brain atrophy, poor nutrition and as a reflection of tumours and other serious diseases.

Causes and symptoms of seizure / epilepsy

Seizure is identified as the effect or activity of sparking brain .

• Why do these sparks occur in an insulated (covered) brain?
• How does it occur?
• What is the reason?
• Why does it spread?
• Why doesn’t it spread in some focal seizures ?
• How does it resume normalcy after a period without any trace?
• Why can’t even MRI or EEG pin point the foci/cause in every case?

Why???
WHY???WHY????………………

Still more questions ‘spark’ in our brain… which have not been answered till now. Anyhow, advancement in medicine easily controls (even though it cannot guarantee cure) and maintains it with tablets. It helps the sufferer lead a good challenging life (with some restrictions) and avoid being disabled.

Causes for seizure or epilepsy disorders – More often, causes will be idiopathic (unknown). Sometimes it may be symptomatic, i.e., having base for the suffering – suspected cause/disease. Commonly, seizure or twitching occurs when the brain/nerves lack essentials like oxygen, glucose, sodium, calcium, etc. Medical science has also identified innumerable causative factors for the occurrence of seizure disorders. The most common causes are:

Hereditary – Chromosomal abnormalities, autism, genetic predisposition, etc.
Attained during birth – Asphyxia developed as a complication of delivery, i.e., delay in conduction of delivery or due to cord around the neck or by ingestion of amniotic fluid, etc.
Physiological – Sleeplessness, overtime job, poor nutrition, poor growth, excess alcohol, sexual excesses, heat stroke , etc.
Psychological – Mental trauma /shock, fear, getting upset, anxiety, tension, depression, emotional conflicts, anger, loss, loneliness, etc.
Pathological – High fever, viral or bacterial infections (meningitis or encephalitis), ischaemia, high blood pressure, increased ventricular pressure, heart arrythmias, high sugar levels, metabolic disorders, vascular disorders/tumours, brain tumours, neurofibroma, parasite infections, etc.
Injury/trauma – Head injury from being hit while playing or due to surgical procedures to remove tumours or clots or druing forceps delivery, etc.
Drug induced – Seizures can also arise as a drug reaction during development (pregnancy period) or from drug dependency or from drug withdrawal which was held suddenly after having developed drug dependency (epilepsy or migraine), or from drugs poisoning with toxic doses, etc.

Generally in

• Childhood – genetic predisposition, chromosomal abnormality, high fever, head injury , forceps delivery, asphyxia during delivery, bacterial or viral encephalitis, parasite infection, etc., come as common causes.
• Adult – Alcohol, brain tumours, stroke, sleeplessness, metabolic disorders, head injury, meningitis, encephalitis, high fever, parasite infection, sclerosis, ageing atrophy, degenerative disorders, hypertension, diabetes , renal failure, etc., are common causes.

Triggers – Triggers vary from person to person. Sufferers often correlate innumerous triggers as

the precursor of the attack. The most common among them are anxiety, fear, tension, fever, exhaustion, sleeplessness, alcohol, drugs, flashing lights (including flickering of TV/computer monitor), seeing fast moving objects, thunderstorms, violent headache, high bass and treble sounds, oily foods, indigestion, etc.

Symptoms – also usually vary from person to person. It can occur anywhere in the body and can present symptoms as altered sensations or functions or feelings. Seizures/epilepsy can be of different types with different sets of symptom presentation depending upon the root and progress of the disease. Mainly, it is categorised as localised / focal seizures and generalised seizures depending upon the parts and sides of the body involved. Nowadays, seizures are named after the parts involved and activities during the attack.

For example

Localised seizure (Petitmal)

• Focal seizure – symptom will be restricted to a part / side. This type of seizure is most common (more than 60 per cent).
• Absence seizure – just a momentary loss of consciousness or staring
• Akinetic seizure – loss of posture (due to loss of muscle tone) to fall down without any jerks or spasms.

These focal, absence and akinetic seizure commonly originates from the pre-central gyrus of the brain.

• Generalised seizure (Grandmal) – occurs due to involvement of a larger area of the brain. Here the symptom presentation can be noted in most of the parts or all over the body.

Commonly, seizure has the following movements and they are also named accordingly:

• Tonic movements – with high muscle tone – i.e., muscle become rigid
• Clonic movements – oscillatory movements
• Myoclonic movements – jerks/twitching of the parts/body
• Tonic clonic movements – mixture of tonic and clonic movements

Symptoms of seizure/epilepsy usually vary in intensity and are strange in presentations from simple blackout/stare for a second to total loss of consciousness with or without sudden violent

shaking or jerky movements. That is, some persons will just faint, while some others will have twitching alone with or without consciousness and some others would have violent jerky movements with loss of consciousness. Simple seizures have no warning signs whereas chronic seizures (i.e., epilepsy) can have warning or alarm signs i.e. aura. In the case of those suffering from jerky movements, commonly the opposite side of the body suffers for the sparks on one side of the brain.

Aura – It is an altered (subjective/notion) feeling which alerts or alarms or warns the sufferer about the arrival of epilepsy. It can last for a minute to a day. It may be felt as altered sensation in hearing, vision, taste, smell, feeling, sensations, etc. It may also make one uneasy/uncomfortable and be in an irritable mood. Its presentation (feelings) differs from person to person. Aura signals commonly arise in the temporal lobe.

During attack – Presenting complaints commonly differ from person to person. Sufferers can have

a few or all the below symptoms

• Staring
• Blinking/twitching of eyelids and other parts
• Imbalance with dizziness and drowsiness/fainting
• Loss of consciousness/memory
• Deviation of mouth angle with movements
• Stiff face/painful facial expression
• Clenched teeth
• Tongue or cheek can get bitten between clenched teeth
• Drooling and frothy saliva due to severe gasping
• Catch in breath, gasping for air/choking felt due to obstruction in larynx due to accumulated sputum/phlegm and spasms of lung muscles
• Rigidity and spasms in the parts involved – commonly arms flexed and legs extended or stretched
• Rythmic jerky movements in parts with alternate tightness (spasm) and relaxation – eyes, mouth, neck, shoulder, arm, forearm, fingers, legs, etc. – which usually lasts from 30 secs to 3 minutes or more.
• In severe cases, violent attack follows without any relaxation status – epilepticus (dangerous) – where there will be sustained contraction in all parts (including lung muscles – which commonly causes death)
• Bladder and bowel can go out of control with leaking or emptying
• Sufferer often gets injured when he faints and falls down against the wall or floor. They also get injured while having violent jerks against nearby objects.

After seizure – mild symptoms will last for a day or two with dullness

After attack –

• Coma or loss of consciousness continues (or deep sleep follows) for minutes to hours depending upon the intensity of the suffering and exhaution of the sufferer. All muscles become flaccid and weak after the attack

On getting up

• Unaware of activities/happenings during seizure
• Anxiety, fear and tension
• Drowsiness/dizziness/confusion/lack of concentration due to brain fag
• Sleepiness, dullness, headache, giddiness may last for a day to two days
• Nausea and vomiting
• Stomach discomfort with or without irregular bowel movements
• Tiredness/exhaution/severe body pain due to violent jerky activities
• Tremor, numbness of the parts and sleeplessness may follow

Diagnosis and management of seizure

The most feared disease, seizure (or epilepsy ), can spark at any time and the sufferer can fall and suffer any time. No one can predict the attack because of external health. Seizure/epilepsy is very difficult to diagnose since there is no single certain test to ascertain it. Also, even though the doctor will evaluate seizure/epilepsy with quite a lot of tests and investigations, nothing could pinpoint the cause for the complaint unless otherwise there is focal structural abnormality.

Anyhow, detailed case taking, incidences, patient and family member’s narration (about the family history, suffering and personality, behaviour and habit of person especially related to anxiety, tension, smoking, drinking and drugging, etc.), lab investigations, etc. can shape the plan and compulsion for the treatment.

Also, as the sufferer is not aware of the suffering or way of suffering, family members have the sole responsibility to note the nature and course of seizure (i.e. how it began and how it looks like, etc.) to tell the doctor, to treat accordingly. They should analyse the sufferer in the following way:

• How seizure gets started
• How many minutes it lasted
  
• Whether the sufferer lost conscious from the beginning or not
• Which part or side of the body suffers or suffers more?
• Is there any trigger or not?
• How about the time, food, incidences, emotions, reactions, activity of the sufferer just before the suffering?
• How many minutes the sufferer takes to regain consciousness
• Whether the sufferer had suffered incontinence of urine or stool during seizure?

During examination, doctors analyse the sufferer for brain dysfunctions with weakness, coordination of movement(s), reflexes, spasticity, alteration in sensations and functions, etc.

Diagnostic techniques – The common tests followed to frame seizure disorders are:

• Routine blood tests and urine tests (to rule out any infection, anaemia, low or high sugar levels, metabolic disorders, poisoning, hormonal imbalance, etc.)
• X-ray skull (in AP view and lateral view) / CT / MRI scan (to identify any bleeding spots / clots / brain tumours / cysts)
• Electroencephalography (EEG) – to find out abnormal brain functions. Here brain functions are graphed through the current measured through electrodes placed on the scalp. The waves and spikes produced can indicate the place of abnormal foci in brain or flickering or spark. In seizure case, it may show abnormality in waves / spikes till 24 hours of the suffering and in epilepsy, unusual waves can be even read when the sufferer is normal and not having any seizures. Most often, EEG readings happen to remain normal (in seizure and epilepsy cases) confusing diagnosis.
• Behaviourial (personality, mood swings, emotional changes, etc.) and neurological analysis (with muscle control, coordination, movements, reflexes)

Prevention – Since the cause remains unknown, no known preventive measures have been made out as of now. Anyway, for seizures – getting enough sleep, eating a proper nutritious diet and abstaining from alcohol and drugs, caring head against any injury reduces the chance of seizures or epilepsy. Also one needs to monitor stress sleep, diet, medications and stimulants for preventing as well as managing seizure.

Be

• Open minded and share your feelings or fears
• Active and do physical exercises regularly
• Regular with medications

Do’s

• Physical as well as mental exercises (reading, thinking, solving puzzles / problems)
• Wear helmet while involved in risk factors
• Proceed for treatment as early as possible in case of any complaints

Avoid

• Racing against time
• Circumstances which favour anxiety and tension
• Overloading brain / mind anticipating trouble
• Addictives – alcohol / coffee, smoking and drugs
• Unnecessary medicines

Precautions

• Don’t have any fear about the disease (mostly it is not life-threatening) – learn well about the disease
• Good sleep is first and foremost good medicine. Have good sleep at least seven hours a day
• Avoid triggers, especially tension, over exertion, dehydration, lowered sugar level, highly fluctuating lights and bass sounds, etc., to avoid attacks
• Treat fever at the early stage itself and if necessary take sponge bath to reduce or control temperature
• Get medicines from qualified doctors stating everything, i.e. complaints suffered before / during / after seizure
• Take medicines regularly and never miss doses
• Don’t drink, drive and swim alone
• Be aware of the drug’s adverse effects and cope up with that
• Avoid pregnancy unless otherwise medicine doses have been altered or reduced under the supervision of physician – since most commonly anti-epileptic drugs cause congenital anomalies or birth defects
• Pre-natal and post-natal care should be given in the right way under the supervision of physician and gynaecologists.

Management

Caring for persons during seizure

• Protect the sufferer from any injury by supporting and cushioning during fall or fainting or violent jerks of seizure
• Try to remove objects / furniture away from the sufferer during jerks or suffering period
• Do not try to stop or hold the sufferer as you cannot stop it or make it off all of a sudden – allow the seizure to run its natural course.
• Do not give anything (iron rod or keys or any thing) in the hand to seizure patients (even though their activity looks like they are trying to grab or hold something) – It will also injure supporter (or you) or sufferer himself. So, don’t provide anything.
• Do not give anything through the mouth – even water or medicines as they cannot swallow at that time.
• Also, avoid putting any objects in the mouth to avoid tongue biting – This type of activity can cause choking or can also break teeth
• Try to extend the head (stretching backwards) so that breathing will be easier for the sufferer
• Roll over the suffer to lie sidewards so that frothy saliva can drool out (avoiding choking / avoiding entering into lungs causing bronchitis or pneumonia) If possible, loosen their dress and keep the area aerated. Don’t crowd around the sufferer
• Hospitalise if sufferer suffers eh seizure violently and continuously or when the person has not regained consciousness in a short span of time. Hospitalisation can clear airways, provide oxygen, intravenous fluids and medicines to comfort the sufferer at the earliest.

Caring for persons after seizure

• Give reassurance with hope for future
• Make them get investigated all the way and make them proceed to proper treatment
• Help them keep regular with medicines / food / habits

Complications – In case of seizure disorders, complications reflect in all facets (education, employment, quality of life, etc.) i.e., by the disease itself, due to progress of disease, by psychological upset or by medicines, etc.

First and foremost

• Getting injured due to fainting / fall / seizure
  
• Mental agony about the disease, life-time medicines, cure, fate, etc.
• Feeling disabled to drive / high-skilled task (where attention is more precious or life is in danger) in spite of having all the parts in good condition or functions make one more worried and depressed
• Bronchitis or pneumonia due to ingestion of saliva
• Side-effects of regular life time anti-epileptic medicines, i.e.,
• Dullness and poor concentration
• Children cannot cope with study as before
• Miscarriages during pregnancy
• Can cause birth defects or congenital anomalies like cleft palate, autism, holes in heart
• Impotency and low sperm count
• Kidney and liver can suffer damage

Finally

• Lack of treatment / care can lead one to emergency situation i.e., violent continuous seizure (Status epilepticus) / death

Treatment of seizure/epilepsy disorders

First and foremost line of management of seizure/epilepsy is getting good sleep. Secondly, stress reduction. Without these two, no medicine / treatment will be useful. Children usually outgrow seizures (or seizure itself will eventually go off) while growing or after a period of time. Many

adolescent people would have fears about leading a married life and the future.Actually, it is in no way related to marital life or sex. So it is not advisable to hide the suffering from anyone since they could get help from known / near ones in case of emergency. One should also develop hope and confidence that seizure and epilepsy will go off eventually by gaining a strong body and mind.

In general, treatment for any disease in any system will get tough and complicated when the causative/triggering factor is not known. Most often this happens in seizure/epilepsy cases and the sufferers are most commonly compelled to get treated for suppression or for presentation of complaints. Anyhow, prognosis always remains good here, calling them preventable seizures.

Although treatment can control and possibly avoid/delay the seizure episode or emergency situations, there is no promise for cure in all systems of medicines (since it cannot be shown with evidence, even after 2-3 years of absence of complaints, it could not be claimed as cured). Also

one should be aware that without treatment, the disease often progresses and causes cognitive dysfunctions/life threatening severe seizure episode or status epilepticus. So, it is important to begin treatment right away from the start-up of the complaint and to continue medication until attaining at the least two years of complaints-free period (in all systems of medicine). Also, it is always advised to use prescribed medicines regularly and not to miss doses even though one may fear the side-effects of anti epileptic drugs (especially in children, since they often become dull, cannot cope with studies and get depressed).

Emergency care – During the natural course of attack, support and preventing injury (especially the head) is vital. Also reviving breathing by extending head backwards, clearing airways, providing oxygen and intravenous fluids / medicines as early as possible will make the sufferer comfortable at the earliest. Usually, a tranquiller or anti convulsive drugs along with vitamins (vitamin B1 – thiamine and vitamin K) supplementation are given intravenously to help the sufferer recover from violent jerks. After recovering from seizure, it is always advisable to treat seizure accordingly analysing the complaints in all the way with all sorts of investigations. The sufferer needs to opt for a prolonged course of medicines (in all systems of medicine) regularly with good nutritious diet and sleep to prevent attack in future.

General treatment – One cannot deny the remarkable way of switching off the seizure or epilepsy by allopathic – anti-epileptic – drugs. Even though they do not cure the disorder ultimately, the way it controls seizures is a miracle and boon for the sufferer. Taking medicines immediately after the first attack usually prevents further episodes. Generally, in addition to anti-epileptic drugs, vitamin supplements and antioxidants are prescribed to support the brain and its functions. Pregnant women will be provided folic acid and vitamin K to avoid congenital abnormalities.

The common anti-epileptic drugs are sodium valproate, carbamazapine, Phenobarbitone, Phnytoin, Primidone, Clonazepam, etc. Mostly 90 per cent of seizure/epilepsy disorders gets shut down immediately on starting the medicines. Sometimes, it would recur even while the sufferer is following medication. In this case, the alternative choice of drugs will be tried.

Generally Allopathic drugs need to be continued for life or till the sufferer is free from complaint for more than 2-3 years. If the complaint seems to be under control or eventually goes off, tapering of medicines can be considered and this should be implemented in a course of six months to one year. Medicine should never be stopped without the advice of a doctor and before analysing EEG again for epileptic wave patterns (even though EEG is not a strong indicator). Also, it should not be stopped all of a sudden since seizure would rebound with its crescendo at any time shortly after stoppage of medicines.

Mostly 60 per cent of the sufferers can withdraw from drugs slowly without the complaints recurring. If complaints seem to rebound again, they need to follow the medicines for three more years or for life. In uncontrollable cases, where structural complaints (tumours) are there, surgery is advised.

Drug side-effects – usually vary from person to person. Commonly, patients suffer a few or many of these following characteristics – dullness, confusion, irritability, lack of memory, drowsiness, dizziness, tremor, rashes, nausea, vomiting, sleepiness/ sleeplessness, fatigue , depression, blurred vision, double vision, nystagmus (rapid movement of eye ball), liver, stomach, kidney problems, hormonal imbalance, BP variations, weight loss/gain, miscarriage/congenital anomalies while taken during pregnancy, early diabetes , etc. In spite of all these, the memory and experience of past seizure compel every sufferer to depend on the drugs.

Dependency on the drugs also compels one to look for an alternative solution. Homeopathy comes first here as gateway to cure.

Homeopathic approach – Modern system of medicines claims that seizure cannot be cured altogether with medicines and only can be maintained with anti-convulsants, but Homeopathy can challenge and calm one’s brain from these terrible jerks or blackouts with out any side-effects. Homeopathy claims that it is always wise to treat the condition than to suppress it with anti-convulsants.

Normally, fear of dependency on drugs and the side-effects of long-term medication bring sufferers to Homeopathy. Homeopathy can really do wonders for these patients. Homeopathy medicines acts not on the superficial plane but deep down to root out the complaint. So it may need some time to show response or result. Patients may need patience and tolerance (more of this is needed) to enjoy its fruitful results. To make brain spark proof and to have the confidence to win over the disease and its effects, Homeopathy can help. Also, for some persons, the given restriction (no swimming, driving, etc.) will make them feel bad. Here, counseling and treatment according to symptoms works fine. Homeopathy can work excellently for insulating the brain in a good way.

Homeopathy can treat seizure disorders very well by simply riding on the waves of the brain and mind of the person. Homeopathy gives more importance to the patient’s feelings / notions / moods, timing of attack, lunar phases and causative or tiggering factors like tension, sleeplessness, watching TV / playing video games for a prolonged time, etc., than for presentation and nature of

complaint for selecting the right remedy. For example, some will get seizure only during sleep, some others will suffer only during the day and never at night, some will suffer during the Full Moon or New Moon phases, some others will suffer after over excitement or after overeating or after they feel afraid of something. Likewise, one’s nature / course of suffering will differ. Homeopathy works out individualisation here and treats person as a whole to root out the disease.

To have good response, it is first the duty of the physician to educate the sufferer about the disease, need for good rest, sleep and diet. In Homeopathy, the response will be quick and good in persons who opt for this treatment in the start-up of the condition and the response will be slow in persons who came for treatment late with dependence on Allopathic drugs. People who depend on Allopathic drugs should not stop them all of a sudden, since if they do so, they would often meet a

crescendoof rebounding jerks or blackouts. So, Allopathic medicines / anti seizure medicines used for suppressing seizures should be tapered off in a slow manner after gaining / feeling betterment with homeopathic medicines . First they should increase the duration between medications along with administration of Homeopathy medicines, then they should reduce the anti-epileptic drugs’ dosage levels slowly. One need not worry about going in for two systems of medicine simultaneously since there won’t be any side-effects or interaction.

Homeopathic medicines commonly used in cases of seizure/epilepsy disorders are Aconite, Agaricus, Ambra grisea, Apis mel, Arg nit, Ars alb, Artemisia V, Belladonna, Bufo, Calc carb, Calc phos, Cannabis indica, Causticum, Cicuta, Cuprum met, Gelsemium, Hyosyamus, Ignatia, Kali brom, Kali phos, Lachesis, Lycopodium, Natrum mur, Nux vom, Opium, Passiflora, Plumbum met, Pulsatilla, Rhus tox, Silicea, Strychinum, Tarentula, Valeriana, Zinc met, Zinc phos, etc, These Medicines should be taken under the advice and diagnosis of a qualified Homeopath. The results of Homeopathy treatment are not drowsy but will be a very peaceful refreshment.

for new hope

Dr. S. Chidambaranathan, BHMS, MD (Homeo)

Laxmi Homeo Clinic

24 E. New Mahalipatti Road

Madurai, TN 625 001

India

Tel:  +91-452-233-8833 | +91-984-319-1011 (Mob)

Fax: +91-452-233-0196

E-mail:  drcheena@yahoo.com

www.drcheena.com  / www.drcheena.in

(Disclaimer - The contents of this column are for informational purpose only. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional healthcare advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of healthcare professional for any health problem or medical condition.)