I am an epileptic, was first diagnosed around 15 years ago and take medication twice daily for this. I was never an epileptic who had seizures daily, in fact I rarely had them once diagnosed because my epilepsy is and was completely controlled through medication. With that being said, if I dont take my medication I know that I haven't - I need it, I can feel my mind acting slightly different. It is one of the hardest things to describe but if you are epileptic I am sure that you can relate to what I am saying, my mind feels kind of distant. Before I was diagnosed and my epilepsy was not yet controlled I was having an 'episode' each day. I have the petit mal form of epilepsy if you are wondering.
After a conversation with my friend about the dangers of sugar I began to look into the effect it could possibly have on epilepsy. I knew that sugar causes and accelerates so many of todays diseases so thought it must be logical that epilepsy might also be affected from a high sugar diet. After a lot of research I discovered that there have been remarkable tests and studies in recent years that strongly suggest that a high sugar intake will increase your likelyhood of a seizure. When I first started to look into this I was shocked to say the least, the more I read the more I wanted to find out.
The strongest article that I found was here. This test goes to show a young girl who had seizures up to twice a day over a 15 year period. The Doctor put the patient through a 6 hour glucose tolerance test, during the 4th hour her blood sugar level dropped considerably and she had a seizure. This then showed that her seizures were triggered when her blood sugar level dropped considerably. From that day she was put on balanced diet keeping her blood sugar level controlled, this involved eating the correct low sugar foods and eating at the same time. Since that time (2 years ago) she has only had 1 seizure whereas before she would have had over 700!!! The one time she did have a seizure was after she drank a large quantity of orange juice (massively high in sugar).
Could epilepsy be linked to a with levels of sugar in our diet? After further research I found studies to suggest that epilepsy is not caused by a high sugar diet and nor can it be cured by it, but it certainly makes it far far worse. Have you ever heard or read about children having too much sugar that it makes them hyperactive? Well this is same the situation here, very basically - have too much sugar and your brain becomes hyperactive, your brain short circuits and causes you to fit. An epileptic is not able to deal with this rise in hyperactivty.
To add weight to this sugar and epilepsy argument; I recently read a of a study where 5 epileptic individuals fasted for 5 days drinking nothing but water. During this time not one of them had a seizure, when food was slowly re-introduced their seizures returned. This is further evidence that eliminating sugar does not cure your eplipesy but it can massively reduce any attacks.
I myself have taken a different approach to my diet and found amazing results. I stopped eating sugary puddings, sweets, I carefully watched what fruit I ate, for example I only ate low sugar fruits, I no longer ate refined carbohydrates - for example, changing white bread for brown. I make sure that I eat 3 meals a day, even if I am not hungry. The results have to be seen to be believed, I feel 100 times better and anyone who is affected by epilepsy or knows of someone that is then I would look at your diet and the amount of sugar you consume. Lets not forget there are so many hidden sugars in food now you are probably eating more than you know. I think that basically eating too much sugar is having a massive effect on epilepsy, we need a level blood sugar level, a healthy diet and a steady 3 meals.
As with any change of diet you obviously should consult your doctor. I am not a doctor I am just publishing my experience and thoughts, I hope it helps. For further help and advice on Epilepsy I have added a couple of links to epilepsy forums. Check them out, it is a good place to exchange experiences and discussions in the forum. Many people here also have had a similar experience relating to sugar and epilpesy.
No comments:
Post a Comment