My Personal N=1

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Great. And go back for seconds on the sweet potatoes with extra butter. Yumm.
But seriously, if you are hoping to conceive, you need to start bringing your total body fat percentage up a bit. The human body is pretty smart. When times are hard and the hunting is not good, it's not a good time to be having a baby so the chances of conception go way down when you are very thin. You need to convince your body that the hunting and gathering is good and is going to stay that way and that now would be a great time to add another member to the tribe.
 
Nicely put !

About the butter - sounds tempting but I cut out all dairy - isn't that part of paleo ? I really have no guide to follow - just up in the air w/ this for a while until my books come in.
 
Yes, I've given up dairy too but what I use is ghee, that's the indian word for clarified butter. You can buy it but it is cheaper to make your own.

Ghee is just pure animal fat. It doesn't have any of the milk solids left in it. That is the part that is the problem according to the GARD. The milk solids have the casein which has the glutamate.

Most paleo sites, even the really strict ones like the Whole9 crew, approve of ghee.
 
Thanks. A friend of mine was telling me about ghee just the other day. Her daughter is doing paleo b/c of her alergies.
I'll look into it.
 
I have nothing against coconut oil, in fact I use a lot of it, but it is nice to have a variety of fat/oil sources just for flavor. The ones I use (roughly in order of preference) are:

ghee
coconut oil
macadamia nut oil
red palm oil
avocado oil
moringa tree oil
olive oil (but only cold, not for cooking)
sesame oil (reserved for making ahi poke and a few other asian dishes)
 
I use cocconut oil and extra virgin olive oil.

I use the olive oil both cold and for cooking.

Where do you find all of these specialty oils? I've never seen any of the other ones you listed in stores.
 
Well macadamia nut oil is made here but there is a brand called "Oils of Aloha" that is available on Amazon as is the moringa oil. The other I get at the grocery store.

On this little island in mid Pacific, there is a large asian population several of whom run all the local food distribution so the stores are well stocked with asian spices, oils, sauces, etc. Red palm oil is a staple of south east asian cuisine.

While I miss the Mexican stores I used to shop in in San Diego, the asians know a thing or two about hot peppers too.

Poke around the "gourmet groceries and foods" section of Amazon.

Careful cooking with the olive oil. It has a fairly low smoke point and can oxidize if heated too high.
 
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Thanks - I've been cooking w/ olive oil for at least a year now.
 
I honestly can't find a reason to avoid dairy for me personally. I eat a high fat, high protein diet, with a lot of full fat dairy. I don't drink milk, but use half and half, lots of hard cheeses and greek yogurt and butter. I've noticed the higher fat, lower carb my diet the more weight I lost (I'm at high school weight now, square in the middle of healthy weight). I don't fully avoid carbs, I just don't eat a lot. Dairy doesn't upset my digestion at all or seem to inspire any kind of seizure activity (it's mostly women things that seem to do that now, as well as a couple of other dietary bad guys). I use only organic, hormone-free, grass-fed dairy products. Unless I can find a reason I can FEEL that says dairy doesn't work, I'm sticking with it, though I know it doesn't work for a lot of people.
 
Thanks. I just thought I'd try maybe a couple of months of cutting out everything - sugar, dairy, grains, legumes ... and then gradually start re-introducing things one at a time to see how I do. The problem w/ doing this, however is that my seizures only come a few times a month(yes, at that woman time) so it's kind of hard to tell if this is working or not.
 
lindsayschu2 said:
I honestly can't find a reason to avoid dairy for me personally. I eat a high fat, high protein diet, with a lot of full fat dairy. I don't drink milk, but use half and half, lots of hard cheeses and greek yogurt and butter. I've noticed the higher fat, lower carb my diet the more weight I lost (I'm at high school weight now, square in the middle of healthy weight). I don't fully avoid carbs, I just don't eat a lot. Dairy doesn't upset my digestion at all or seem to inspire any kind of seizure activity (it's mostly women things that seem to do that now, as well as a couple of other dietary bad guys). I use only organic, hormone-free, grass-fed dairy products. Unless I can find a reason I can FEEL that says dairy doesn't work, I'm sticking with it, though I know it doesn't work for a lot of people.
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I felt this way for a long time too. I changed my mind after finding out how much glutamate is in cow dairy protein. If I'm avoiding glutamate in gluten and things like MSG, it seems like I should be consistent and give this a try.
Since you are only eating the higher fat dairy alternatives, you are probably not getting too much of a glutamate overload. When they take the fat out of things like milk and yoghurt, they would taste like chalk if they didn't add extra milk solids to make up for it so the non-fat versions are a concentrated whammy of casein.

I didn't have any overt 'symptoms" of dairy intolerance either, none that i noticed. But I have noticed two things since giving up the dairy. My nose/sinus are clear all the time even when first waking up. The other is that I am losing weight without really trying.

The Whole9 site has a term for foods that are hard to do any portion control on. They call them "foods with no brakes". Cheese is like that for me. Now I am wondering if perhaps it is the excitotoxin glutamate that makes this happen. Because i don't feel the urge to overeat on goat dairy products. (I found a place called "The Surfing Goat Dairy" on Maui that sells its cheese here.)
 
Thanks for this info, Aloha. I didn't know about glutamate being in cow dairy protien. I have alot of research to do.
I'm going to try and see what other info. I can find on this.
 
Thanks Aloha! Yeah I don't eat anything with any additives (including my dairy), and cook everything I eat unless forced to go out. I seem to do OK with limited quantities of foods naturally higher in glutamates--it's the additive forms I have a problem with. And I don't want to lose any more weight so I'm not worried about that. No sinus issues anymore either since I cut out additives and food allergens. Food allergens cause sinus congestion for me--so I'm pretty sure I don't have dairy allergy. So for me it just still seems to be working, but I dont blame anyone for taking it out for a whole list of reasons!
 
Oh yeah, the additive forms such as MSG are super concentrated hits. Dr. Symes calls MSG and aspartame sweetener the "crack cocaine" of excitotoxins.

Joy, give the site dogtorj.com a google for lots of info about glutamate and more.
 
I know everyone is different and exercise can be a problem for some people, but if it works for you keep at it. I am convinced that it has helped me tremendously. My longest stretch of being seizure free coincided with my beginning to run and do weight training 10 years ago.

I really think it just makes everything more efficient, and I noticed less partial seizures and no generalized seizures once I started the exercise. Plus, it makes me feel like I am taking an active role in my seizure health and overall health, so it is empowering in that way.

Mr.21T said:
To piggyback off what Naka said...I personally fasted (sun up to sun down, one meal a day, no meats sweets or alcoholic treats) during my trial these past two months I my overall health was greatly improved. I am a huge advocate of coconut water and oil because of the potassium and monosaturated fats.

Also great look on killing the fake sugar, I've read it causes health problems beyond epilepsy. This picture I see on social media says it all.

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I also began weight-bearing exercises and swimming (in front of a lifeguard) to train my central nervous system to handle a greater load. Your CNS helps prepare your body for rigorous training and I used to train it a ton to help fight off partial seizures from turning into tonic-clonics when I was a teenager. I'm not certain how much it helps, but I will say that I slept better after 30 minutes of lap swimming, which definitely helps a person with TLE
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Yep, Dignan, I feel the same way:agree:

The best seizure control I ever had was a few years back when I was training to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. I was doing exercises specifically to increase my lung capacity and function then because of the altitude. Having read a lot recently about one causal factor in epilepsy being inadequate oxygen getting to the brain, I think there might be a connection there.

I was running windsprints and hiking a lot. Mr.21T is doing laps in the pool for time. I think both are good for lung capacity and building the body's efficiency at getting oxygen out of each breath.
 
I do sprints of fast walking for several minutes, slow down for a minute then increase the incline on treadmill to 6-7% and do that for several minutes. I do this for 30-60 minutes. Every other workout I do chest and upper back workout. I can't do ab or lower body work because of a fusion and fixation from the S1 to T5. I do this several times a week plus climbing stairs and walking outside whenever possible. I also do some gentle bouncing on a rebounder. I have reconditioned my lungs from years of smoking from a DX of severe COPD to mild COPD. I saw my doctor in Dec. and he has changed his opinion on the severity. Although I am not happy to have COPD, I'm very happy to know I increased my lung capacity. I quit smoking over 9 years ago. I also lost over 30 pounds in the last 2 years so I have really increased my breathing capacity and no longer need an inhaler to climb 3 flights of steps.

It hasn't helped with the seizure control but avoiding strong odors has helped tremendously.
 
Here's to the exercisers!

I may not be able to choose my condition, but I feel like I may be able to out work it for awhile..
 
Yes. I must admit that I don't excercise as much as I should - hardly at all, actually. But I'm going to start. The longest I have ever gone w/o a seizure was about a year ago when I went 8 weeks seizure free. That was amazing. It just so happened to coincide w/ the time when I had decided we would cut down on the gluten. This was originally done for my son's benefit - I just joined him to make it easier on him.
Well, he got fed up and complained so much that my husband said it wasn't worth the trouble - just let him eat what he wants. So, we stopped eating healthy and the seizures returned.
I hadn't even thought of cutting out gluten for seizure control. It wasn't until very recently that I started paleo. I'll have to include excrcise along w/ it.
 
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