Seizures and blood pressure

[Endless]

Hey, everybody.

I've discovered that when I have seizures, my blood pressure goes way up. Like 145/107. (Normally I'm about 110/70).

I don't know if it is a part of the seizure itself, whether the seizures upset me and that makes my blood pressure go up, or whether the headache that follows is what's making it go up. I'm on blood pressure medicine now to try to minimize it.

• Does anybody else have their blood pressure go up after seizures?
• Have you heard any explanations of why this happens?
• Have you done anything other than blood pressure meds that helped? I'm on a very low salt diet anyway just because that's the way I eat (don't add salt to anything, eat very few processed foods). Have you tried biofeedback and did it work?

[epileric]

I know that during a seizure one tends to hyperventilate & heart rate increases so I would assume that blood pressure goes up.

If it is an effect of seizures & don't see how B.P. medicine would help them, especially if high B.P. isn't causing the seizures.

[RobinN]

I am always told that an increase in blood glucose is a stress response. I guess the BP #'s would also be explained away with that answer. For us.... the differences in blood glucose was not acceptable because Rebecca has a problem with her glucose balance.

Keep track and make notes. Lay the tests and numbers out on the table the next time you have an appointment and expect answers.

[Endless]

A stress response would make sense. Some of my seizures really upset me, not during so much, but afterwards. Especially the ones where I don't recognize someone I should. I'm going to quit worring about it. It seems the path to all good things is seizure control. And not letting the ones I have get to me.

Speaking of seizures, about 15 seconds ago a kaleidoscope of light started in front of my eyes. Migraine? Or seizure aura? I've been 2 days seizure free, was hoping for more. Hmmph. Normal random variation stinks (how many seizures of what kind, when). I'd rather have predictable. Come to think of it, most of my migraines are postictal, so I'm voting aura. Annnd, they stopped. Under one minute. No seizure. Huh.

[RobinN]

It isn't just a "stress" response that would be an emotional response, but also a "stress" that would be a physical response. As many body reactions to illness can cause stress to the system.

I know when Rebecca was having a lot of neurological responses to the medication she was on, it was interesting to learn that there were so many different types of seizures. We know what ever they are called, they are not normal brain function. So do whatever you can to raise your seizure threshold.

You might be finding ways to raise that threshold, if the activity is stopping short of seizure.

[Endless]

I think I"m learning somewhat to sometimes head things off at the pass, but it's always temporary. Either I have the seizure now, or I have it later. I'm a long time meditator and have some experience going for calm brain waves, but I'm not a master by any means. I may have avoided a seizure before, but a doozy woke me up about a half hour ago. Fear seizure. Ugh. And now I have an aura again... the one I hate most. This weird almost physical feeling in my head that is hard to describe - I guess the closest way to say it is something is horribly wrong, but that's not it. And my stomach rising... Ugh. Maybe someday I'll learn to shut them off for good.

[Endless]

Well, it's about 3:00 in the morning. The bad news is after my nightime seizure I haven't been able to go back to sleep. The good news is I had hours and hours to research the blood pressure thing. And here's what I finally found on emedicine:

Autonomic symptoms accompany all GTC seizures and one third of simple partial seizures

Included in autonomic phenomena were changes in ECG, blood pressure (both hyper and hypotension), respiratory movements, skin temperature and resistance, esophageal pressure, and gastric pressure.

Symptoms and Signs Remarks - Cardiac/thoracic
Palpitations, chest pain, tachycardia, bradycardia, arrhythmia, hypotension, hypertension More common in right temporal mesial foci; potential Sudden Unexplained Death in Epilepsy with arrhythmia

Epilepsy and the Autonomic Nervous System

I found it interesting that autonomic symptoms are most common in Right temporal lobe epilepsy.

So there IS an explanation. It seems seizures are sometimes not very good for our cardiovascular system.

[Zoofemme]

My husband told me that when I was in the ER in status that each time I went into a seizure my blood pressure and heart rate shot through the roof and I would set the alarm off on the machine they had me hooked up to. When the seizure was over everything dropped right back down in the normal range again.

[Endless]

not good your bp and heart rate shot up. makes me wonder what our bodies do when not hooked up to something.

[dz54]

My son's heart rate seems to be high all the time. We have been concerned about this by our doctor said that the high heart rate is not a seizure. AS he seems to have seizure activity all the time we are so concerned because his rate is almost always in the 90's. We are on alert at all times.

[Endless]

Welcome, dz.

I'm sorry your son is going through this. It must be so hard for you.

My doc says lots of things aren't seizures, too. But there they are, and when I bounce it off the forum group I find lots of people who have the same thing.

Maybe print out the article for your doc? Or switch docs. Is he an epileptologist? It's rough educating a doctor - they don't take to it very well. One has to become a very careful diplomat. Even my epileptologist, who is a recognized specialist in epilepsy, doesn't know everything. I bounce things off the group and sometimes I hear very different things from what he tells me, especially when it comes to the drugs and their side effects.

I was told by my pcp the blood pressure isn't seizures, either. But there it is in print from a pretty reliable source. I'm on blood pressure meds now to keep the overall blood pressure down, so that when it spikes it won't matter so much. I hope I'm going to have a chance to talk it over with my epileptologist at my next appointment.

Keep at it with your son's doctors. The path to correct treatment is a long one sometimes. Just hang in there.

[Cint]

from Epilepsia:

Autonomic alterations and cardiac changes in epilepsy

Cristian Sevcencu and Johannes J. Struijk
Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction (SMI), Department of Health Science and Technology, Aalborg University, Denmark

Studies with heart rate variability have revealed interictal autonomic alterations in patients with epilepsy. In addition, epilepsy is frequently associated with ictal tachycardia or bradycardia, which sometimes precedes the onset of seizures. Ictal tachycardia is sometimes associated with electrocardiography (ECG) morphologic changes and ictal bradycardia often progresses to asystole. Such cardiac manifestations of seizures have been hypothesized as possible causes for sudden unexplained death in epilepsy (SUPEP). The present review relates to interictal and ictal cardiac manifestations of epilepsy with focus on heart rate, heart rate variability, and ECG changes. Aspects of the supporting mechanisms are discussed and attention is drawn to the interaction between central and peripheral effects, interictal autonomic conditions, ictal autonomic discharges, and administration of antiepileptic drugs in shaping the ictal cardiac changes. Because these interactions are complex and not totally understood, closer surveillance of patients and more experimental work is necessary to elucidate the mechanistic support of autonomic and cardiac changes in epilepsy, and to design better strategies to avoid their undesirable effects. It is also suggested that some of these changes could be used as predictors or markers for the onset of seizures.

[dz54]

The information you have given is helpful. We get so worried when my son is having an episode which can sometimes last hours. He gets really worked up for a long time and then he has some sort of seizure activity (it varies). We try monitoring the heartrate at this time. When he finally settles down it goes down some.

[petero]

this is an old thread - but found it via google
last time I had a tonic clonic and woke up to the paramedics again they had my BP at 140/50 or so: 90mmHg whatever
and I'm usually at an ideal healthy range
140/50 was pretty startling for me to hear
I guess I hadn't really paid attention to that with previous ones
now I've been much more concerned to pay attention to certain things with my medical records when I get them

so to answer your question: heck ya. Mine apparently does.
I hope I didn't post in this thread before and just make a duplicate.
doncha hate when that happens?



>>added>>
I've always associated seizures with an extraordinary physical strain, which raises the BP right?