Vitamin D causing seizures

[jtdds]

I'm not your son's physician so please take what I have to offer as information based on my own experiences and not my advice pertaining to his medication profile.

Ask his neurologist what he/she expects to accomplish with supplemental Vitamin D at this point in his life. Mine said something lame when I asked him..."People with epilepsy are prone to falling and risk breaking their bones." Is your son taking Vitamin D2 or D3? Make your son's physician accountable as to why it's D2 he/she is prescribing. D2 synthetic and considerably more potent than it's natural form, D3.
Magnesium has anticonvulsant properties that are diminished in the presence of high Vitamin D. In the US Vitamin D testing has become the latest designer blood test. In otherwise healthy individuals, ideal Vitamin D levels is mostly a cosmetic number that merely looks good to a physician. Protect yourself from this mentality. My reaction was to take significant amounts of Magnesium in the form of Epsom Salt. It turns out to be 50- 100 times the recommended daily allowance and I'm alright(good kidneys). My rationale is that I'm on an infinity higher amount of Lamotrigine than is recommended to the general public so should I similarly be on a higher amount of Magnesium if that's what it takes to prevent seizures. DO SOME HOMEWORK ON THE PRINCIPLES OF SUPPLEMENTAL MAGNESIUM IN SEIZURE CONTROL. I WISH SOMEONE TOLD ME THAT 30 YEARS AGO. FINALLY my left arm and leg stopped jerking in bed and when at rest. I feel more protected against generalized seizures as well.

 

[Idahoseashell]

Yes, vitamin D may cause seizures if you are deficient in magnesium.

Vitamin D helps your body use collect and use calcium more efficiently, resulting in a calcium increase. Calcium is an excitotory neurotransmitter and can increase seizures in someone who has a low seizure threshhold. Magnesium is what your brain uses to counterbalance calcium. Magnesium is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. Too much magnesium may actually cause the neurons to quit firing often enough to remain conscious. It is necessary to keep a balance of these two minerals in your body to prevent the calcium from becoming a excitotoxin or the magnesium from causing deep depression and fatigue.

 

[Idahoseashell]

Correction

Vitamin D helps your body use collect and use calcium more efficiently, resulting in a calcium increase. Calcium is an excitatory neurotransmitter and can increase seizures in someone who has a low seizure threshhold. Magnesium is what your brain uses to counterbalance calcium. Magnesium is an inhibitory neurotransmitter. Too much magnesium may actually cause the neurons to quit firing often enough to remain conscious. It is necessary to keep a balance of these two minerals in your body to prevent the calcium from becoming a excitotoxin or the magnesium from causing deep depression and fatigue.

I have to correct myself, Magnesium and Calcium are not neurotransmitters but they assist excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters and they do counter balance each other both in the brain and in the contraction and relaxation of muscles.

 

[darsey]

Vitamen D 50,000 iu

this is very interesting to me my son who has down syndrome had a brain bleed at 7 day's old it was in the vision area with that said he has had puberty since 9 year old but in may of last year doctors put him on vitamen D 1000 iu he had his first head jerk eyes blinking seizer in june of last year. the doctor said they belive he has the puberty seizers (cant remmember the name) and due to the bleed they said the eeg shows its in the same area . we have had him on gabepitin bad for him took off, then tried clonazapame got real bad anxiety took off then triptal he was not able to see was dizzy all day long got red bumps all over, bumping his head everywhere he went he would put his hand out to feel where he was going so tapered him off hasnt been on anything since 26th just went to gi they ran a blood test to see where his levels where said D was low didnt tell me anything else prescibed 50,000 ui once a week well i gave it to him last night and the next day he had a seizer it was alot longer than his normal 2-4 second head boppin it was 2 mins. now im wondering is it the vitamins?

 

[jtdds]

No one, particularly a stranger, is in a position to say definitively if your son's seizures are secondary to swallowing mega dose Vitamin D. However, I have my doubts that physicians have a clue what danger they are putting seizure patients in with this deluge of Vitamin D2. Common sense dictates that the last thing a seizure patient needs is a sudden attack on their neurological homeostasis. What do they hope to accomplish as it pertains to seizure control? I HAD A MASSIVE SEIZURE WITHIN 1-2 DAYS OF TAKING ONE DOSE OF 50,000 IU of VITAMIN D2. Prior to that I didn't have a seizure for 15 years. At that time, I lost 85 lbs in 4 months on an imbalanced diet which provoked 10 seizures. Prior to that cluster it had been 16 years without a seizure. I found out the hard way I guess that there is definitely a nutritional connection to my seizures.

Please don't hold me responsible for what may happen to your son but based on my experience, it's the Vitamin D doing it.

Please email me directly at jtdds@verizon.net

 

[Keith]

I wouldn't be too surprised if vitamin D caused seizure in the same way that probiotics can. The purpose of vitamin D is intracellular calcium absorption which activates innate immunity. What that means is the body sends out macrophages to balance (kill) microbes and there may easily be reactions, especially in a body already out of balance.

 

[masterjen]

I HAD A MASSIVE SEIZURE WITHIN 1-2 DAYS OF TAKING ONE DOSE OF 50,000 IU of VITAMIN D2. Prior to that I didn't have a seizure for 15 years. At that time, I lost 85 lbs in 4 months on an imbalanced diet which provoked 10 seizures. Prior to that cluster it had been 16 years without a seizure. I found out the hard way I guess that there is definitely a nutritional connection to my seizures.

50,000 IU of Vit. D is an awful lot of vit. D - you probably completely threw the balance of D and other nutrients out of whack and that's what caused the seizure. So not the fact you took D, but the amount you took. The upper limit for daily intake according to health Canada is 4000 IU.
http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/vitamin/vita-d-eng.php#a10

 

[Janus]

I am with Jen on this. I know that vitamin D is fat soluble and easily toxic at too high a dose. I take Calcium/magnesium in a mix because they are absorbed best together and in the right balance. Combined it relaxes me. I know the USRDA which is no real safe gauge to use but THEY say 400mgs of Magnesium a day is best. I do not know how that equates to IU. I also have read repeatedly that in the U.S. Massive Magnesium deficiency is rampant and a social concern now. Personally I believe that people eat bad, is why. Leafy greens have LOADS of Calcium and Magnesium and more! Ans salads are great! trust me..