Epilepsy and heat!

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Helen

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Hello everyone,

I'm new on here and the reason for posting is to try and find out some information. I was diagnosed in the summer last year and touch wood have only had 3 seizures, all whilst asleep.

However we are having a relatively warm summer here in the uk with temperatures in the high 20's degrees C. And I am really struggling with the heat more so than ever before. I don't seem to be able to walk ten minutes without breaking into a major sweat. I can't sleep at night as I just don't feel right. Now I know it's hot but I've never felt like this before.

Is there any link to epilepsy and heat intolerance or excessive sweating or heat stroke?

Helen
 
I really need to watch here to see if anyone has a good knowledge of this or knows a good place to link to. While I for the most part do not know too much about it, in 5 weeks from now I will be in southern california for 10 days. The last time I was there in SoCal, where I am basically from - spent most of my life, it was just a year or two after my last surgery... back when i thought my seizure problems were "gone" in the past. Only to learn everything isn't always so... 8)

Helen, more so I hope you get good info or a good link.
 
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Just came across this link:
coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/extreme-heat-epilepsy-6833/

plus a couple other links below at Similar Threads
 
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Seems to be mixed views on this, I'm seeing my doctor next week so am going to ask him as I'm sure there is a link for me as I just feel horrendous!
 
I'm feeling it the same, Helen. Heat = discomfort, difficulty in sleeping, and the longer days in the summer means one is awake more. All of these things increase my seizures - I need sleep, to be comfortable and shorter days. If one suffers from depression and or anxiety, the longer days don't help. :)
 
Hi Helen,
Welcome to CWE.
I'm from Australia so it's winter here at the moment & we had our summer at the beginning of the year. I used to like summer when I was younger but can't tolerate it much anymore. We had a real hot summer this year which I had trouble coping with, I found it really hard to sleep at night, in the day time I had no energy & pretty sure I got more headaches.
 
I agree with CQ. I use to love the summer - I tan easily and that alone made me feel good. Now I look for the shade. I live in a mobile home that has a tin roof so it gets very hot inside. It's either very cold or piping hot - this is not good for my epilepsy. It seems this summer is exceptionally hot - late in arriving I must admit :)
 
A few summers ago I was in the city walking through the parking lot going to a concert with pants on. It was so hot though that I should have had on shorts and a tank top. I started sweating like crazy and had a seizure. Luckily there was a restaurant close by with air conditioning that I went into and got some water to drink and then I came out of the seizure.

I always watch how hot I get now because I don't want it to happen again.
 
Heat is a trigger for me.. When its hot out side I do my best to avoid it. If I get over heated its almost guaranteed I'll have a seizure.
 
I don't have any scientific info to post but I live in the high desert region of Southern California where our mid to late afternoons reach 105-115 each day in the summer. To sum it up in a nutshell.... IT SUCKS!!
My meds make me feel like I'm going into heat exhaustion mode earlier than I should (body has a hard time regulating itself) around 95 degrees and the Topamax I'm on prevents me from sweating.
I'm not one to sit still, so it's hard for me to stay indoors but at the same time I have seizures when I go outside in the heat.
 
Hmmm... I am going to be in Disneyland for 5 days... Excess people... Lots of walking thru the day... Not a ton of places to hang out with a/c... Hmmm.

Being out of SoCal for 9 years now, I sure hope I can deal with the heat same as I did when I lived in LA for 22 years (4 years in deep desert). Well, may be best to look in the positive direction and know just how much fun I can have with my son and 6 year old grand daughter :p
 
I think anything that stresses our systems can potentially be a seizure trigger. That includes things like excessive heat, excessive cold, temperature changes, and barometric pressure changes. Often these climate stresses bring secondary effects like dehydration and fatigue, which can also be triggering. Our meds can sometimes make us more sensitive to heat or to sunlight, just to make things worse...
 
It's warm in the UK at the mo, and I didn't sleep last night, couldn't nap (or as I prefer to term them take a horizontal life pause before work this afternoon) and consequently had a spectacular myclonic seizure on the loo and wacked my head on the window sill.

So not sure if it's heat or sleep deprivation but did manage to get an ice cream out of it. Purely medicinal you understand!

But based purely on unverifiable personal gnosis I think everything can trigger a seizure.

Q
 
Me too!
I have always been really sensitive to heat and started having seizures 10 years ago. I feel like they are related
 
Somehow I missed this thread. I've been wondering about the influence of heat on seizures. I live in the Pacific Northwest area, and we are having atypically hot days and sunshine that has gone on and on. I also live in an apartment building, and everyone who does knows how these can get hot! Through all this I have discovered that I seem to be heat sensitive, and if I become overheated in this warm weather I think I more prone to seizures. It's the only thing I can think of to explain the increase in nocturnal seizures (from 1-2 per week to 3-4 per week) I've been having. I am getting sufficient sleep, since it cools down at night, so it's not lack of sleep that's the cause.
 
The days are longer in the summer, this with the heat has caused my worst seizure of the year. I thought they were 'controlled' but this one came to remind me I have epilepsy.
:)
 
So sleep deprived and the clobazam is making me a little slower with the cognitive functioning. We had a doozy of an lightening storm on Tuesday night, woke my husband up utterly convinced I was having a seizure 'outside my head'. As he could see it too and it was thundering and raining quite hard at this point he managed to convince me it was just a storm and manage to convince me to go back to sleep.

Stupid hot weather is stupid.

Q
 
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