Seizures and Blood Pressure Increases?

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elizzza811

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Is there any relationship?

My blood pressure used to run 100/60 or even lower (sometimes too low), but in recent years it's been registering higher. Not high, but high for me. And just on a whim yesterday evening and again last night before I went to bed, when I was experiencing a dramatic increase in this unrelentless teeth-clenching, I took my blood pressure. It registered 120/72 and 130/77 respectively. Today the teeth-clenching is still there (it always is), but less severe (so far), and it was only 105/66. This unrelentless teeth-clenching was a hallmark seizure-in-the-offing symptom for me.

Also, is there any relationship between seizures and heart disease in general?
 
I'm not able to do the research for you right now. If I feel better later I'll come back and do so. In thee meantime, Pubmed is the National Institute of Health's online database listing medical research. They give abstractds (summaries) of different studies. It is a wonderful resource but you have to slog through a bunch of stuff to get what you are after. Use the search function at the top of the page. Search on "seizure" and "heart" If that doesn't work try different combinations of "seizures" "heart" "epilepsy" and/or "arrythmia" and see if you find what you are looking for. Just keep reading. Sometimes you find what you need on the umpteenth page of the study listings.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
 
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If your severe teeth clenching is an aura preceding your seizue , your bp will go up naturally as an autonomic sympatheetic response to stress.
Autonomic dysfunction is commoner in patients who have long standing epilepsy , as are arrhythmias. It is possible that these factors have caused your BP to rise , though personally i feel that it is more likely due to the seizures themselves. To truly diagnose hypertension you have to check you BP when you're seizure free at least thee times 1 hr apart once in a clinic and twice at home. Avoid electronic BP machines as they have an error of +/- 10- 15 mmHg. You might want to buy/borrow a mercury sphygmomanometer and ask someone else to check your BP (when you check your own BP the apprehension of finding the resullt may increase your BP in itself).
As far as journals go there is little evidence regarding hypertension being caused by epilepsy though there is plenty of evidence of the opposite ( hypertension causing epilepsy in long standing untreated cases).
Hope this helps
Arvind
 
Thank you both for all the info! It was very helpful.

Thing is my doctor doesn't seem to believe that this teeth-clenching has anything to do with my seizures, and somehow I know it does. I feel this sensation constantly, though this sensation increases dramatically in the days preceding a seizure. In fact, at the onset (aura) of one of my seizures, I remember clenching my teeth so hard that I feared I might crack them. My neighbor said I was clenching my fists during this seizure as well.

Since being on Lamictal, I haven't had any seizures that I'm aware of. But with no EEGs being done since the start of this medication, isn't it possible that an EEG done right now (while on Lamictal) might still show some remaining, unaddressed 'seizure potential' or at least some abnormalities?...thus the teeth-clenching continues in the absence of seizures? How would they ever know without doing another EEG (while taking Lamictal)?

As for my blood pressure, thanks, I intend to keep a diary - perhaps having my husband take my blood pressure for several weeks, varying the time of day it's taken?

I posted a thread a while back about 'seizures and pain' though. The reason I mention this is because pain is what prompted me to check my blood pressure yesterday - severe pain in my spine that radiated into the base of my skull and left ribcage, along with this relentless teeth-clenching. I honestly feared I was having a heart attack. But these very symptoms were hallmark seizure predecessors too (spinal pain/pressure at the base of my skull).

Now I have shown multiple doctors some blood vessels that spider over the left side of my chest that appeared several years ago...highly visible, especially when I'm warm, and definitely not a been-there-my-entire-life thing. They seem so unconcerned? But I kind of doubt that high blood pressure is causing my seizures anyway, mostly because I was seizuring even when my BP ran 90/50.
 
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