PrepperMed 101: Epilepsy Management Prepping

Seizures can happen for a lot of reasons (which you can read more about here). When they recur, it’s called epilepsy. About 1 in 26 Americans have epilepsy, so it’s not that uncommon. Some have it from birth; others develop it later in life. Traumatic brain injury, stroke, drug toxicity, and infections can all bring on epilepsy.

For the majority of people with epilepsy, the disease is managed with medication. Unless the medication isn’t available. What then? Is there any way to prep to handle this problem? Well, there are no guarantees in life, but there are some things that might work. I relay them from the medical literature, since I myself am not a physician and don’t give medical advice.

Ketogenic diets reduce seizure frequency in people with epilepsy

The good news is, there’s widespread agreement that ketogenic diets reduce seizures in people with epilepsy.(1) In fact, it’s the only treatment commonly used that helps the 30% or so of folks whose epilepsy resists the usual medications. Johns Hopkins has a pediatric unit that puts kids with epilepsy on ketogenic diets and teaches their parents to keep it up. One of their nurses helped write a very helpful, practical book on the topic. (1)

Is this the same as the keto diet so many people are trying today for weight loss? No, but it’s related. The classical epilepsy diet has a ton of fat, right at the daily recommended amount of protein, and very little carbohydrate. So, like the common ‘keto diet’ but supersized.

The good news is this diet helps most people with epilepsy. It helps some of them a lot. About 20% see seizure frequency drop my more than 50%, even compared to when they were taking several prescription meds. The bad news is it’s hard to follow at the best of times; and some people can’t take eating that much fat. (2)

Would the ketogenic diet work for a prepper?

The classical keto diet for people with epilepsy won’t work with prepper foods. It relies too much on heavy cream. You could maybe do it if you owned a dairy.

However, modified Atkins diets work pretty well too. (1) That diet uses more normal foods and doesn’t require such close management. It could be done with long-term storage foods. The prepping will be pricey though. None of those lovely cheap carbs. You’d need lots of canned butter and canned high-fat meat. Also lots of egg powder, and as much mayo and oil as could be used up before it went bad. You might check out that book in the references below (2) and noodle on how to make it work. 

Cannabis products as epilepsy defense

Cannabis (marijuana) does have some medicinal properties; and inhibiting seizure development seems to be one of them. (3) There are two main active classes of compounds in the cannabis plant. When it’s smoked, the user gets both of them. When you buy supplements, you can get one without the other. Both of them inhibit seizures in animal models. (4)

One of those compounds causes the ‘recreational’ mind-altering effects of weed. That’s the THC, delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol. The other compound, CBD (cannabidiol) also suppresses seizures, but doesn’t make one stoned. CBD can be bought as an oil and is reported to have minimal side effects. (I’m not completely comfortable with that assessment, since we don’t really know how the stuff works; but as I said I’m not a physician.)

The biggest problem with CBD oil is likely to be shelf life. I couldn’t find reliable information on it; but complex ring structures such as those do not generally last very well. Cool and dark would probably help, though.

You may note I said these compounds inhibit seizures in animal models. Human trials are hard to do with such compounds. The trails so far are pretty skimpy, and their results are mixed. Some showed CBC reducing seizure frequency; others saw nothing of significance. Reported side effects were mild, though.

Melatonin promotes sleep, and maybe reduces epilepsy

Melatonin is a naturally occurring hormone. It can be bought as a supplement. It’s main effect in people is to promote sleep. It generally reduces brain excitability, so it seems like it would reduce epilepsy.

But does it? Trials are mixed. (5) Some people had fewer seizures; some got worse. Three things that do seem clear: 1. Melatonin does promote sleep. 2. People with epilepsy often have disturbed sleep. 3. The sleep disturbance makes the epilepsy worse. (6)

Exercise to reduce epilepsy?

For a long time, people with epilepsy were cautioned not to exercise. This was because physical stressors like dehydration and hypoxia (which can occur in exercise) can trigger seizures. Turns out that exercise itself has very little or no effects along that line, though. Now people prone to seizures are being encouraged to exercise, since it’s at least as good for them as it is everyone else. (7)

Animal models show fewer seizures when the animals are encouraged to do aerobic exercise. (8) Does that work in people? Unclear.

Herbal remedies for epilepsy

There are a lot of herbal remedies that purport to reduce seizures. One summary I read mentioned 18 different herbs. (9) Most of them were somewhat effective in small animal models. None of them had good clinical trials behind them. Blast it, there’s just so little money out there to run trials on herbs! So do they work in people? I couldn’t tell.

The most well-supported finding was pretty depressing. A guy (10) tested the blood of a bunch of people who’d bought ‘herbal remedies for epilepsy’. Essentially all actually had varying doses and kinds of prescription meds for epilepsy in their systems. In other words, the herbal remedies were not what they were sold to be. Buyer beware.

References

1) Mackenzie C. Cervenka, Sarah Doerrer, Bobbie J. Henry, Eric H. Kossoff, & Zahava Turner. (2016). The Ketogenic and Modified Atkins Diets, 6th Edition : Treatments for Epilepsy and Other Disorders (Vol. Sixth edition). New York, NY: Demos Health. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=e000xna&AN=1194515&site=ehost-live

2)Elizabeth G. Neal, Hannah Chaffe, Ruby H. Schwartz, Margaret S. Lawson, Nicole Edwards, Georgiana Fitzsimmons, Andrea Whitney,J. Helen Cross. 2009.  A randomized trial of classical and medium‐chain triglyceride ketogenic diets in the treatment of childhood epilepsy. 50(5):1109-1117. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1528-1167.2008.01870.x

3) Reddy, D. S., & Golub, V. M. (2016). The pharmacological basis of cannabis therapy for epilepsy. The Journal of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics, 357(1), 45-55. doi:10.1124/jpet.115.230151

4) Wallace MJ, Wiley JL, Martin BR, DeLorenzo RJ.(2001) Assessment of the role of CB1 receptors in cannabinoid anticonvulsant effects. Eur J Pharmacol 428:51–57.

5) Sweis D. THE USES OF MELATONIN. Archives of Disease in Childhood – Education and Practice 2005;90:ep74-ep77.

6) Paprocka, Justyna, et al. “Melatonin in epilepsy: a new mathematical model of diurnal secretion.” International Journal of Endocrinology, 2016. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A509160461/AONE?u=north1010&sid=AONE&xid=962d608d. Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.

7) Pimentel J, Tojal R, Morgado J. Epilepsy and physical exercise. Seizure 2015;25:87–94.

8) Arida RM, Scorza FA, dos Santos NF, et al. Effect of physical exercise on seizure occurrence in a model of temporal lobe epilepsy in rats. Epilepsy Res 1999;37:45–52.

9) Manchishi S. M. (2018). Recent Advances in Antiepileptic Herbal Medicine. Current neuropharmacology, 16(1), 79-83.

10) Sharma, Sangeeta, et al. “Quackery masquerading as complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) in patients with epilepsy.” Complementary Health Practice Review, Apr. 2007, p. 139+. Academic OneFile, http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A165765135/AONE?u=north1010&sid=AONE&xid=0db5e6cf. Accessed 19 Mar. 2019.

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