Living Naturally
10/15/2006 06:30 PM
Courtesy of Alternative Medicine http://www.alternativemedicine.com
Heal Thyself—Spotlight on Epilepsy By Wendy Meyeroff Donna Andrews was an 18-year-old college freshman the day her life twisted out of control. “It was St. Patrick’s Day, March 17,” she says. “I’d been feeling weak and exhausted all morning, and I thought I had the flu.” Beyond that, her memories of the day are blurry. She knows that she fell, and vaguely remembers “being jostled around by paramedics.” Then she slipped into a coma and stayed there for six weeks. When she awoke, doctors said she had been ill with viral encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain that left her with damaged neural pathways. “It was as if I had holes in my brain,” she says. An enormous chunk of her memory (including her ability to read and write) was gone, and she’d developed epilepsy, experiencing up to ten seizures a day. Her doctors doubted she could make a full recovery. And indeed, after nearly two years, she’d regained only about 40 percent of the abilities she’d lost. She couldn’t even leave the house alone, in case a seizure struck. Still, her neurologist said there was nothing else to be done. Fast-forward to today. Believe it or not, it’s been more than three decades since Andrews’s last seizure. During that time, she was able to earn not only her college degree, but also a Ph.D. in clinical psychology. Along with Joel Reiter, a Harvard-trained neurologist, she directs the Andrews-Reiter Epilepsy Research Program in Santa Rosa, California, where she works to help other epilepsy sufferers like herself. Most people who control their epilepsy do so with medication, but the key to Andrews’s recovery was quite different. Two years after her diagnosis, she realized that her seizures came in response to certain stressful triggers. So she decided to change the way she responded to stress, in the hope that she’d be better able to manage her disease. As she learned to unhook from stress—taking breaks when she felt her frustration level mounting, for instance, or breathing slowly and deeply—the frequency of her seizures diminished. Seven years after she developed epilepsy, doctors took her off all her medications. That was back in the 1970s, when nondrug treatments for epilepsy were almost unheard of. But these days, people with epilepsy—often with the blessing of their physicians—are increasingly turning to alternative therapies to help themselves lead more normal lives, by reducing both the frequency of their seizures and the amount of medication they take. “We’ve come a long way in a generation,” says Jeffrey Cohen, a physician who is director of the adult epilepsy program at New York’s Beth Israel Medical Center. For the 2.5 million Americans who suffer from the disorder, the shift is a welcome one. Most standard anti-seizure drugs bring numerous troublesome side effects, including grogginess, balance problems, and the potential for long-term liver damage. As Andrews discovered, getting stress under control is a crucial element for patients who hope to reduce their dependence on these drugs. “We have numerous studies in which stress is cited as the leading cause of seizures,” says Steven Pacia, a neurologist at New York University’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center. “Patients say, ‘I was seizure-free for three months; then my boss yelled at me and I had a cluster of seizures.’” http://www.alternativemedicine.com/common/news/printable.asp?tas…ews&SID_store_news=666&storeID=02AD61F001A74B5887D3BD11F6C28169
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Living Naturally
10/15/2006 06:30 PM
Here are a few of the most promising ways people with epilepsy are gaining more control over their disease. Whatever techniques you decide to try, let your neurologist know what you’re doing, and don’t abandon your medicines. (The extent of Andrews’s recovery was unusual.) Find the triggers The center where Donna Andrews and Joel Reiter teach tends to attract people whose seizures have been classified by their conventional doctors as uncontrollable. But, Andrews says, “Eightythree percent of patients who complete our training not only control their seizures but work their way down to only one medication.” The core of the program is a five-day on-site regimen designed to help patients identify seizure triggers and learn to avoid them. They examine all aspects of their lives, including sleep, diet, and relationships, looking for telltale patterns. As part of the process, patients take two days of psychological tests, to help them recognize particular situations—contentious family interactions, for instance—that might bring up strong emotions. To defuse such triggers, the program trains patients to shift their focus away from volatile emotions via deep breathing and other techniques. The program also teaches patients to tune in to the subtle physiological changes that tend to precede seizures. When a seizure is imminent, people often respond with fear, which can make things worse. If they can learn to tamp down this reflexive reaction they may be able to avert the seizure. But the on-site sessions are just the beginning; after their time at the center, patients check back in regularly to get help applying what they’ve learned to their daily lives. This approach doesn’t work for all forms of epilepsy; those prone to what are called complexpartial seizures are most likely to benefit. To learn more, go to www.andrewsreiter.com, call 707.578.8985, or take a look at Epilepsy: A New Approach, by Joel Reiter and Adrienne Richard. Practice quiet There’s no universal cure for stress, so it’s worth experimenting to find a relaxation technique that works for you. By the time “Susan,” a 44-year-old woman with epilepsy, sought help at NYU’s Comprehensive Epilepsy Center, she was at her wit’s end. For ten years she’d been averaging eight seizures a month. The experts there suggested something she wasn’t expecting: yoga. After about six months of weekly sessions, her seizures dropped to just two per month. The vigorous forms of yoga, says Pacia, aren’t a good choice for people with epilepsy; gentler versions, like hatha, are better. Start off slow, and tell the teacher about your condition. If formal yoga classes sound like more than you can handle, meditation—which can be done just about anytime—is worth a try, too. Melatonin Shows Promise A hormone secreted by the pineal gland, melatonin offers help in controlling epilepsy, though researchers don’t understand exactly how. Some studies indicate that it enhances the production of a neurochemical called GABA that inhibits seizures. It may also block another brain chemical, glutamate, that promotes them. Or it may simply help patients sleep, which is a crucial part of keeping seizures at bay. Experts emphasize that doctor and patient need to work together to establish the right dosage, which can be anywhere from 3 to 9 milligrams. Also, since this supplement is not regulated by the FDA, it’s a good idea to check the listings at ConsumerLab.com to find a manufacturer rated as reliable.
http://www.alternativemedicine.com/common/news/printable.asp?tas…ews&SID_store_news=666&storeID=02AD61F001A74B5887D3BD11F6C28169
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