[Research] Brain Inflammation and Epilepsy

[Nakamova]

Interesting article in the New York Times about new treatments that use anti-inflammatories to treat epilepsy. Still in the early phases of testing on humans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/05/h...-inflammation.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&emc=eta1

 

[Silat]

Very interesting read!
Thank you Nakamova

 

[Bernard]

...
The results?

The investigators found that CRP was significantly higher in patients who had refractory partial epilepsy as compared to patients without epilepsy.

All five patients with an elevated CRP level had temporal lobe epilepsy versus other epilepsy types. They noted that the most important predictor of an increase in the CRP level was having a secondary generalized tonic-clonic seizure. They concluded that the higher baseline level in patients with epilepsy compared with healthy controls show that CRP concentrations are effected in patients with drug resistant epilepsy. It also suggests that a single generalized tonic-clonic seizure stimulates CRP production. These results emphasize the association between inflammation and drug resistant epilepsy.
...

More: http://www.epilepsy.com/newsletter/jun12/inflamation_markers

 

[qtowngirl]

lol Bernard I was just about to post the same link, got it yesterday in my email. Quite exciting info; I'm hoping they find concrete answers sooner than later (not 10 years from now!!), so maybe I can look at that rather than surgery. Doubt my epileptologist will let me wait that long though. C'mon researchers hurry it up!!!!!

 

[KarenB]

Well, I wonder if one could experiment on themselves -- for instance, see if taking aspirin (anti-inflammatory) reduces or eliminates seizures?

Or...going on an "anti-inflammatory" diet? I read this same article a few weeks ago...and then remembered that a website that I use to look up nutrition content of foods also lists their inflammatory values (I think it's based on a combo of glycemic level, antioxident values, and...can't remember what else). Most of the starches -- wheat products, rice, etc. are pretty highly inflammatory -- according to this site. The notable exception is sweet potato. Could this be why the ketogenic diet works?

I decided to experiment with our son, who's already on the ketogenic diet. We removed high fat dairy, and started using canola oil instead of butter, and incorporated more ginger and garlic and other highly anti-inflammatory foods.

He did go for 3 weeks seizure free -- and then we had sleep issues for a couple nights, coupled with diet slips, and he went back into his almost daily pattern.

But...the thing I'm finding confusing is that various people who promote the anti-inflammatory diet seem to disagree on what's inflammatory and what isn't.

 

[KarenB]

Something I found a little confusing in this article -- was the conclusion that inflammation is a seizure trigger (or cause)? Or the other way around -- that seizures cause inflammation?

 

[Nakamova]

It's still somewhat theoretical at this point, but the idea is that at least in some cases, inflammation causes seizures, and seizures cause inflammation. In situations where the seizures are very frequent and don't respond to anti-convulsant meds, the hope is that anti-inflammatories (like steroids) can reduce the inflammation the seizures have caused and thereby protect the brain from seizures the inflammation may cause.