Exploring the Gut-Brain Connection and Photosensitivity

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

Status
Not open for further replies.
I'm glad I found this thread.
I am interested in the brain gut connection, but when I saw the question about hearts and epilepsy, I felt I had to learn more.
My heart has been doing some weird flutters and my BP is all over the place.
When this happens, I take another pill, as if for a seizure. But can there be another reason?
 
kirsten, please help me elucidate (and I never say elucidate) how betaine which is a microbial metabolite of lecithin in food associated with heart disease and epilepsy affects seizure threshold. Janus has talked about lecithin as seizure trigger and I've recently learned about how microbes make choline, TMAO and betaine from lecithin.

In the case of betaine, there is the betaine-GABA transporter studied in epilepsy, predominantly expressed in the liver:
http://ajprenal.physiology.org/content/302/3/F316

Note: the liver receives 80% of its blood flow from the small intestine via the portal vein. I tend to believe all health begins in the small intestine which is directly between the pancreas and liver. Small intestinal microbial overgrowth may be construed as the malady of our time.

I don't have access to this full paper about the betaine-GABA transporter in epilepsy:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014299904007411

Here's a brand new paper about it including discussion about seizure:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2014.00159/full

One of the references in above study about betaine and seizure:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0091305785902874

Do you think scientists consider the fact that betaine is a microbial metabolite when they attempt to develop anticonvulsants targeting the betaine-GABA transporter? I sincerely doubt they're even aware of that fact, thoroughly disconnected from the web of life.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000629521300378X
 
Last edited:
I'd like to know where you learned 70% of epilepsy treatment is successful and how this success is defined.

In adults with epilepsy:
47% become seizure free with the first AED tried
another 13% become seizure free with 2nd AED
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2730009/

30% of adults with epilepsy do not gain seizure freedom from AEDs.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001022/

In children with epilepsy:
66% of children became seizure free on the first AED tried . The first drug tried was usually Depakote, Tegretol, or Topamax.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19520269

Among children who do NOT respond to AEDs, the Ketogenic Diet has been helpful for about 2/3 of those with intractible epilepsy:
37% have >90% reduction in Seizures
30% more have 50 to 90% reduction in seizures
http://www.matthewsfriends.org/jh/CurrentNNKossoff.pdf
 
I'm glad I found this thread.
I am interested in the brain gut connection, but when I saw the question about hearts and epilepsy, I felt I had to learn more.
My heart has been doing some weird flutters and my BP is all over the place.
When this happens, I take another pill, as if for a seizure. But can there be another reason?

Shelley, this is something you must take to you doctor. Those 'weird flutters' may only feel uncomfortable but they might be very serious. And they might be a side effect of your medication. In other words taking another AED is probably not the best solution.
 
This is putting words in my mouth:
People, perhaps including yourself, have resigned themselves to apathetic treatment of only anticonvulsant therapy. In your own treatment, kirsten, do you pay attention to your gut? In all of our communication, you've yet to budge one inch and give an ounce of credit to any of these thoughts or add anything much more than negativity and tangents to the conversation. And I can do without the personal attacks.

Please don't confuse personal attacks with attacks on your argument.

Saying that 'people' who don't do it your way are choosing apathetic treatments is, however, a deeply personal and insulting attack. It's also an ignorant one. None of us resigns ourselves to AEDs alone. We go through a slew of evidence-based treatments, from VNS to resections to lobectomies to deep brain stimulation. I beg you to look into every aspect of the process of a resection, every effect during recovery, and every risk we take, and then reconsider whether you think we are apathetic. We can choose to follow what you, as a layperson has 'just learned' or we can follow a century's worth of expertise, developed around thousands of professionals' decades of personal studies, experience, and development. I have said this before: we choose evidence based treatments because we are not apathetic, because we want to give ourselves the best chance possible.

Let me explain it this way. When you have scar tissue on your muscles, it causes pain that radiates into other areas. The pain is only a symptom of the problem. Nothing you eat is going to get rid of that scar tissue. If you have any scars on your skin, I would love you to try your methods, and show us whether that scar disappears. The only potential solutions are pain killers or surgery to cut the scar tissue out. Epilepsy is the same. Seizures are only a symptom of tissue that is something like (or often is) a scar. Cutting that tissue out usually fixes the problem. I outline this because you've yet to address my question about what you believe a neurosurgeon sees when he opens up a brain and takes out or isolates the tissue responsible for the epilepsy?

Either neurosurgeons are all crazy, and their patients are crazy, or epilepsy originates in the brain.
Either all these MRIs don't exist or epilepsy originates in the brain.
https://www.google.co.za/search?hl=.....1ac.1.46.img..17.9.1553.h4IAscK8h-4&qscrl=1

Either those 70% who stop having seizures after a temporal lobe resection without changing their diet and those extra 20% who stop having seizures on less medication after a resection don't exist or epilepsy originates in the brain.
 
Last edited:
The reason I haven't budged an inch is because you haven't produced any compelling evidence to support your case. In this thread, I haven't seen a single controlled, randomised, double blind human trial of a thousand or more over a year or more (or any meta-studies) that directly said what you wanted it to say. According to memory, I don't think you've produced one. Yet this is the series and design of the trials expected of a treatment before it is allowed on the market in the allopathic world. I can choose to treat my life threatening illness with methods that have proven themselves in four or more trials consisting of human sample groups of 3000 or more, with blinds, controls, and randomised selection, taking place over three or more years, or I can choose to treat it according to your single trial without controls or blinds or randomisation, using sample groups of 7 rats or 10 rabbits. I can treat it with evidence-based solutions or I can treat it based on one layperson's guess that

I sincerely doubt they're even aware of that fact, thoroughly disconnected from the web of life.

Assumptions such as these are really nothing more than guesses--how many doctors and scientists do you know, and what do you know about how they make up their days and what they have studied? If you know a good number of scientists, and you know how their days work and what their general sphere of knowledge looks like, then your sincere doubts might mean something. How many doctors' routines have you personally observed in order to express this sincere doubt? Also, if scientists are so unaware and detached, who are these scientists running all these trials you've been citing for 24 pages? You see, I'm just not going to budge on assumed concepts that have been put across in this manner--with sincere doubts that have been snatched from the ether.

Here's an animal trial that says betaine/GABA transporters play no role in seizure control, yet, in context, we can be pretty certain that they do. I can pull a trial that says the opposite of every trial you've published here, because these studies are not conclusive. Do you see how pulling out raw data to illustrate a point does no good except for those deciding which trials are worth running in the future?
http://pubmedcentralcanada.ca/pmcc/articles/PMC3376448/
Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence. But I've only wanted to see the kind of evidence that the medical community functions around.

As for your proclamations that my posts have been filled with negativity, let me offer you their motivation: it takes very little time for hypotheses such as your own to travel around the web, particularly with the girth at which you are posting them on various forums and pages. Typical readers struggling with epilepsy are desperate, broke, and dying to drop their medications in favour of something easier to endure. They also may not have the background to appreciate the difference between meta-analysis and a small animal study, or to understand that every trial needs to be contextualised in terms of why it wasn't repeated, why it was last done in 1920, whether it was later redacted, whether it was peer reviewed, how it compares to relevant trials, or, indeed, whether the physiology even makes sense. At best, patients might choose to spend money they don't have on your lay suggestions. At worst, they may choose to drop their medication in favour of your suggested diet, go into status, and die. I write here not out of negativity, but in the hope that I will add some clarification to readers that 24 pages of Google results do not a scientist make. No, you aren't asking or directly suggesting that readers drop their treatments, but that is what many people do. No, you aren't pretending to be a medical professional, but you are offering medical advice for critical disorders. I've given this allegory to you before, but I'll offer it again. If I am unable to drive a car, there is nothing unethical about me not driving a car, or about me studying all kinds of things about driving and cars. If I am unable to drive a car, but get into the driver's seat and take passengers from A to B, there is an ethical problem.

I'll be stepping away now.
 
Last edited:
Well, if I may chip in -- and yes, I realize this is anecdotal.

We tried the purely AED route for years, working our way through Keppra, Topamax, Trileptal, Lamictal, Depakote, Diazapam, Zonegran, Clonazapam, Clonapin, etc.

Only 2 of these drugs had even a slight effect on the seizures (Topamax, Zonegran). None worked to completely stop the seizures.

What they did do was create speech issues, liver damage, gut issues, metabolic acidosis, cognitive decline, blood platelet issues, violence & self harming, hand tremors, and lots of other undesirable side effects.

Adding in the Ketogenic diet was more effective than a single drug or any drug combination.

And the final key to seizure freedom was fixing his gut (Inflammatory bowel disease -- chronic diarrhea and malabsorbtion). Our pediatrician (who specializes in nutrition) put Jon on a regime of zinc, pancreatic enzymes, a round of probiotics, MCT oil. We got the gut issues cured in Dec. 2012, with only occasional flareups (when they happen, we go right back on the regime). His last seizure was Jan. 2013. He continues on the Keto diet (with a reduced ratio), and off all meds except a very low dose of Zonegran.

So, the point I'd like to make is that all the drugs that were meant to treat Jonathan's brain were (mostly) ineffective. The nutritional approach of the Ketogenic Diet was highly successful (which, yes, does change brain chemistry, but also effects a number of other changes in the body, including the gut). And we didn't achieve final seizure freedom until we addressed his chronic Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Thus, for at least one child, a healthy gut equals seizure freedom.
 
Last edited:
Medical Evidence?

A host of medical evidence indicates that individuals with chronic and acute intestinal disease DO have a higher chance of seizures and other neurological diseases.

15% of patients with Crohn's Disease present with neurological symptoms -- the most common being seizures.
http://www.epilepsy.com/information...sorders/inflammatory-disorders/crohns-disease

Up to 10% of patients with Celiac Disease also have epilepsy, believed to be caused by focal white-matter brain lesions, which may be the result of vasculitis or inflammatory demyelination.

"In a general neurology clinic outpatient, Hadjivassiliou et al. found positive antigliadin antibodies as a marker of gluten sensitivity in a high proportion (57%) of patients with undiagnosed neurologic diseases, especially patients with ataxia and peripheral neuropathy (38). The frequency of proven celiac disease in this group was 16%. It was suggested that gluten sensitivity should be considered as a state of heightened immunologic T- and B-lymphocyte–based responsiveness to ingested gluten proteins in genetically predisposed individuals. The brain seems to be particularly vulnerable"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7337/

Even acute intestinal infections, such as rotavirus, have triggered seizures in children --even when the course of their disease was mild, and their electrolytes remained normal.
http://jcn.sagepub.com/content/22/12/1367.short

Multiple Sclerosis is now suspected to be associated with Inflammatory Bowel Disease
http://msj.sagepub.com/content/early/2012/09/26/1352458512461393.abstract

Peripheral neuropathy was found in almost 1/3 of patients with Crohns or Ulcerative Colitis.
http://brain.oxfordjournals.org/content/128/4/867.abstract
 
In this thread, I haven't seen a single controlled, randomised, double blind human trial of a thousand or more over a year or more (or any meta-studies) that directly said what you wanted it to say.

That's the reason gut origin of seizure is worth exploring, because it hasn't yet been explored. It may not apply to everyone, but I'd bet it applies to a large percentage of epileptics including Infantile Spasm. Brain abnormalities may also be of gut origin for many such that when the gut is healed, brain plasticity heals the brain.

Shelley, I saw this article in the news today about heart health and bacterial infection. The type of microbe discussed in known for translocation from the gut:
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/jason-tetro/bacteria-heart-attack_b_5494974.html

And you might appreciate this page/video:
http://www.liveto110.com/naturally-reverse-hardened-arteries/
(sugar and carbs in diet implicated in heart disease also associated with infection)
 
Cholesterol is an important biomarker. I've read over 80% of the cholesterol in our bodies is not dietary, but manufactured in the liver. How ironic that a high fat diet like the ketogenic diet can actually lower cholesterol. But where is it going? Out of plasma and into cells where it's doing good? Are we only measuring blood levels in disregard of intracellular cholesterol? Here's an article about the ketogenic diet reducing cholesterol:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826190948.htm

A few intersections I've been considering:
1) How the sodium-potassium pump regulates intracellular cholesterol
2) How intracellular microbial enzymes affect the sodium-potassium pump
3) How sodium lowers intracellular pH where both increased intracellular sodium and lowered pH are associated with halting seizure
4) There is no 4
5) How microbes alter potassium currents
6) How the ketogenic diet may shift flora in the right direction
7) How lowered salt intake raises cholesterol
8 ) How chlorine is known to raise cholesterol where salt is sodium chloride (chlorine) and chloride ions are known to be regulated by cholesterol

What's the purpose of cholesterol inside of cells? "Triglycerides function primarily in energy storage, as a form of insulation, and to protect and cushion cells and organs" while "Cholesterol Plays Key Role In Cell Signaling"
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/254504.php

Microbes also have ATPase (sodium-potassium pump) which regulates intracellular cholesterol:
http://www.jbc.org/content/284/22/14881.long


I've been wondering about sodium lowering intracellular pH to healthy acidic levels as we know the brain halts seizure by raising acid: "low intracellular pH induced by sodium ions" via "inhibition of proton excretion" http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9227130

"there may be an optimum membrane cholesterol content for sodium pump function."
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1878199

It appears the sodium-potassium pump relationship with cholesterol is a two-way street, "reciprocal regulation": http://www.jbc.org/content/286/17/15517.long

So, there's this rich interplay between intracellular pH, sodium, potassium and cholesterol.

"Ordinarily, intracellular (inside the cell) sodium concentration is low compared to extracellular sodium (the reverse is true of potassium). During seizure, however, there is a buildup of intracellular sodium, with sodium ions moving into neurons from the extracellular space, and potassium ions doing the opposite. ... it is this accumulation of intracellular sodium that leads to the termination of the seizure." I've read anticonvulsants may slow down sodium uptake, contributing to longer and more severe seizures.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/06/110621131330.htm
 
This is very good to see. Please fill me in on the lecithin connection. will my seizures spike (will betaine have the neuro transmiter effect as lecithin)? Or just for liver aid? I also have a cholesterol problem; interestingly enough, i know that lecithin is used as a very effective, natural, food source, cholesterol lowering treatment. And aiding in memory enhancement, am i chronically getting diminishing return on brain activity as a result of vigilantly avoiding all forms of lecithin in the diet, including egg yolks?
And the addition of MSM has been helpful in the said regards and energy levels AND, most of all creative forces (for which i am a passive medium) .



kirsten, please help me elucidate (and I never say elucidate)
how betaine which is a microbial metabolite of lecithin in food associated with heart disease and epilepsy affects seizure threshold. Janus has talked about lecithin as seizure trigger and I've recently learned about how microbes make choline, TMAO and betaine from lecithin.
In the case of betaine, there is the betaine-GABA transporter studied in epilepsy, predominantly expressed in the liver:
http://ajprenal.physiology.org/content/302/3/F316

Note: the liver receives 80% of its blood flow from the small intestine via the portal vein. I tend to believe all health begins in the small intestine which is directly between the pancreas and liver. Small intestinal microbial overgrowth may be construed as the malady of our time.

I don't have access to this full paper about the betaine-GABA transporter in epilepsy:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014299904007411

Here's a brand new paper about it including discussion about seizure:
http://journal.frontiersin.org/Journal/10.3389/fphys.2014.00159/full

One of the references in above study about betaine and seizure:
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0091305785902874

Do you think scientists consider the fact that betaine is a microbial metabolite when they attempt to develop anticonvulsants targeting the betaine-GABA transporter? I sincerely doubt they're even aware of that fact, thoroughly disconnected from the web of life.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000629521300378X
 
thought I would share: I haven't read all of the posts on this thread yet....I have just learned about the importance of Vitamin K-2 and how it helps calcium get directed to the bones as opposed to the arteries or elsewhere....I take a lot of magnesium (2 types), Vit D3 and K2 (+ others) but no extra calcium except in my multi and foods. I do not eat dairy. These are all designed and advised by my orthomolecular doctor.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2008...ne-And-Arterial-Health-With-Vitamin-K2_01.htm
 
Keith, I found your thoughts on cholesterol and the Ketogenic diet interesting. We do see cases of children whose cholesterol was high prior to initiating the diet have their cholesterol come down to normal levels within 6 months of being on the diet.

Since the kids in the Johns Hopkins study already had elevated cholesterol levels, my guess has been that they already had a high fat diet, most likely an unhealthy diet of fast foods and junk food -- lots of fried stuff, and unhealthy saturated fats. The diet has to be monitored by a hospital dietician, who approves all meals, so I'm guessing the dieticians have been putting together a high fat diet with healthy fats -- like olive oil and avocado and nuts and flaxseed meal, etc., and of course the nuts and flaxseed are high in fiber, and also we use the lowest carb veggies and fruits, such as leafy greens and broccoli and zucchini, etc., all of which can actually help reduce cholesterol levels. So, perhaps for these kids, it's not actually increasing their fat intake, but changing it from unhealthy fats to healthy fats, and increasing their intake of healthy veggies and fruit.

Also, most children have a lot of sugar in their diet, especially obese children with high cholesterol levels. Sugar is eliminated on the Keto diet, which is a factor in cholesterol and triglyceride levels.

The dieticians also calculate in an appropriate daily calorie level, designed to help obese children slowly lose weight (it's easier to maintain ketosis if one is lean), so simply losing a few pounds could lower the LDL cholesterol levels.

Because the Keto diet eliminates most or all grains, it is essentially gluten free. A study of 132 adults with Celiac Disease who followed a gluten-free diet for about 20 months showed that their LDL levels decreased while their HDL and total cholesterol levels increased.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16945614

Also, simply reducing carbs seems to be beneficial for cholesterol levels. A 2 year study of over 300 adults comparing effects of a low-carb vs. low-fat diet found that while both groups lost about the same amount of weight, the low-carb dieters had better HDL levels. They also had better LDL levels in the first 6 months.
http://www.webmd.com/cholesterol-ma.../low-carb-diets-improve-cholesterol-long-term

One interesting trend that we see in the diet is that the cholesterol levels initially rise, but over time, comes back to near normal levels in almost half of the children on the diet long-term.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/08/080826190948.htm
 
thought I would share: I haven't read all of the posts on this thread yet....I have just learned about the importance of Vitamin K-2 and how it helps calcium get directed to the bones as opposed to the arteries or elsewhere....I take a lot of magnesium (2 types), Vit D3 and K2 (+ others) but no extra calcium except in my multi and foods. I do not eat dairy. These are all designed and advised by my orthomolecular doctor.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/mag2008...ne-And-Arterial-Health-With-Vitamin-K2_01.htm

Vitamin K does play a role in blood clotting & bone growth but that doesn't mean that supplements will make any difference. So far there's no indication that they will.
The primary role of vitamin K in the human body is blood clotting. It is also involved in bone growth and density, but at this time there isn’t great evidence that supplementation is particularly helpful in preventing osteoporosis or fractures..
http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/separating-fact-from-fiction-in-the-not-so-normal-newborn-nursery-vitamin-k-shots/
 
It would be great if there were more studies out there to evaluate OTC supplements. There's a current study looking at Vitamin K in combo with melatonin, D3 and strontium to see they help with osteopenia: http://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT01870115 Results should be available by end of 2015...
 
Janus, that's an interesting connection about decreased lecithin consumption and high cholesterol, but maybe if it really is high, then it's for other reasons.

Maybe choline as metabolite of lecithin is the issue more than betaine. Choline is found beneficial in epilepsy, however, this study found slight increase in seizure frequency:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6779220

I posted something here about cholinergic transmission recently and should review it.

Nicotine is said to raise choline, perhaps by increasing "the disappearance of choline acetyltranferase immunoreactivity":
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00180037

Here's a recent story about a young girl whose seizures were remedied by a nicotine patch:
http://www.wesh.com/news/child-with-epilepsy-finds-relief-with-surprising-treatment/26555562#!0VyV9
Credence for supplementing niacinamide before bed, also known as nicotinamide to raise NAD which fuels cellular metabolism like the Kreb's cycle and is antimicrobial. I recently learned it acts on benzodiazepine receptors to raise GABA. My understanding is the Kreb's cycle which relies on adequate levels of NAD is what makes energy for the cell and also produces CO2 which would raise intracellular acidity to halt seizure activity. People actually become ill and gain weight after they stop smoking because of the flora shift. They've been inhaling a form of vitamin (B3, niacin). Smoking has actually been promoted for use in Alzheimer's!

So, Janus, perhaps niacinamide would be a good supplement for you. It's a natural component of the body, part of tryptophan metabolism which is reliant on gut microbes. Niacinamide is also known to lower cholesterol. It's different than the nicotine patch, niacin and no-flush niacin, but they're all in the same family. It can make you tired, but then adds energy, perhaps best taken before bed, but some use it during the day.

Here's a paper about choline up-regulating nicotinic receptors (I believe these are key parts of the brain, especially brain stem):
http://www.jbc.org/content/285/26/19793.full

If you do try niacinamide or a nicotine patch, be very careful and start with a low dose.
http://www.nature.com/npp/journal/v30/n1/full/1300544a.html
 
Last edited:
People actually become ill and gain weight after they stop smoking because of the flora shift. They've been inhaling a form of vitamin (B3, niacin). Smoking has actually been promoted for use in Alzheimer's!

So, Janus, perhaps niacinamide would be a good supplement for you. It's a natural component of the body, part of tryptophan metabolism which is reliant on gut microbes. Niacinamide is also known to lower cholesterol. It's different than the nicotine patch, niacin and no-flush niacin, but they're all in the same family.
Sorry to say, nicotine and niacin have absolutely not one iota of a thing in common. Nor do nicotinic acid and nicotine. Perhaps you are getting confused because the words sound the same?

Sorry, I'm supposed to have bowed out of this discussion. I just had to point out that one glaring issue before it turned into pages of convolutions.

http://lpi.oregonstate.edu/infocenter/vitamins/niacin/
Niacin is a water-soluble vitamin, which is also known as nicotinic acid or vitamin B3. Nicotinamide is the derivative of niacin and used by the body to form the coenzymes nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NAD) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP). The chemical structures of the various forms of niacin are shown in the figure. None of the forms are related to the nicotine found in tobacco, although their names are similar (1).

I will return to my dark little cave again now.
 
Last edited:
Please dig a little deeper, kirsten.

Of course there are distinctions to be made between niacin (also called nicotinic acid), niacinamide (also called nicotinamide) and nicotine (from tobacco).

"Vitamin B3 (Niacin) is used commonly to refer to two different compounds, nicotinic acid and niacinamide. B3 was first isolated during oxidation of nicotine from tobacco and was thus given the name nicotinic acid vitamin, shortened to niacin."

Here's someone talking about the related molecular structure of nicotine vs. niacin:
http://www.sott.net/article/270514-Nicotine-vs-nicotinic-acid-niacin
"The two molecules are not unrelated. A simple oxidation reaction is all you need to turn nicotine into nicotinic acid. It's not an accident of nomenclature at all."

And here's last year's paper about smoking cessation leading to profound changes in the microbiome:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0059260
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/08/130829093032.htm
 
Last edited:
I've not been aware of illness from quitting smoking other than the typical withdrawal jitters and bad mood, irritability as the poison works its way out of the system.

I've always assumed that the weight gain was due to the need for oral stimulation (thus more eating) and perhaps a desire for comfort food (carbs) to mitigate the mood.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top Bottom