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Why you may be more at risk of seizures this time of year, and what to do about it
Jo Knight • February 28, 2021
Why you may be more at risk of seizures this time of year, and what to do about it
As so often happens with our health, something has to happen quite a number of times before we go “hey hang on this has happened before when…”
This was the case for me and my seizures. It took many years before I suddenly saw the pattern…
Most of my seizures happened in the spring, often between February and May!
I asked the doctor about when my childhood seizures first happened – and when they dug out my case notes there it was again, spring time.
Well as a nutritionist I know that I see many more clients at this time of year with health problems, particularly autoimmune problems. And the less sunshine we have had the previous year the earlier the flare-ups start in people’s health.
So you might have seen the word sunshine and made the connection – yes it’s the sunshine vitamin, Vitamin D.
Studies have shown that vitamin D levels are lower in groups diagnosed with epilepsy than in non-epileptic control groups. This is the case even in those just diagnosed who have not yet started any medications, so it’s not a side-effect of the medications.
Vitamin D levels can be affected by how much sunshine we get, but also by genetics and how good our bodies are at producing active forms of vitamin D in the body.
The trouble is vitamin D plays so many roles in our body, that it can affect our health in many ways when we don’t have enough. To name but a few - Vitamin D acts as a hormone in the body, is needed to absorb magnesium from our diet (which helps calm the body, relax muscles and supports GABA receptors), and it acts as an anti-inflammatory. When inflammation has been associated with the origin and continuation of seizures this is one nutrient we don’t want to risk being without.
So why does this suddenly show up in spring time? Well, our bodies make vitamin D in the summer months, and because it is a fat-soluble vitamin we store it in our liver for our body to use later. The trouble is we stop making much vitamin D from about September onwards. Then come November/December time we have used up most of our stored supplies of vitamin D. This is one of the reasons why in the New Year through to about May time there is always an increase in general ill-health and hospital admissions for conditions such as the flu and pneumonia.
For those of us with a predisposition towards seizures, lower vitamin D levels may be just one extra risk factor too many and we might see an increase in seizure frequency during this time of the year.
What to do about this – Check with your pharmacist first as there may be interactions with your medications that affect what dose you can take, or when you take any supplementation. But taking 2000 IU a day of vitamin D as a supplement from September to May can be a really good way to ensure sufficient vitamin D at this time of year. This may also be written as 50mcg or 50mg, which is the same dose as 2000 IU (International Units). Another option you can discuss with your pharmacist is taking a larger dose once a week, instead of daily, if this makes it easier to fit in around multiple medications.
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The bacteria in the digestive system are known as the microbiome. This microbiome has been shown to produce bi-products (or metabolites) that can influence inflammatory pathways for good or for bad.
When someone is diagnosed with epilepsy the first thing they commonly want to know is “what caused this”. The majority of epilepsy is actually idiopathic – of unknown cause. And this can be one of the hardest things to deal with emotionally when receiving an epilepsy diagnosis. As human beings we like logic and to understand the why of something, especially when it comes to our health. But a neurologist will also look for causes of brain injury or inflammation. And even if we never know the specific cause of brain inflammation, it can be useful to think of seizures as being a sign of inflammation. Allowing us to take an approach to health focused around reducing inflammation and providing nutrients for brain healing and repairing. One thing I have come to realise though is that the body is brilliant at disguising and coping with inflammation, especially if we have lived with it for a long time that it has become our norm. Below is Part 1 in our discussion of reasons for brain inflammation that may surprise you.
As so often happens with our health, something has to happen quite a number of times before we go “hey hang on this has happened before when…”
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Set great goals for 2021 by asking these 3 questions. Start your year off the way you want it to continue, and use your energy to work towards the right goals for you.
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