Does tryptophan help prevent seizures?

[Keith]

A couple of points made by Paolo I'd like to address, not correcting, just adding:
1) Fasting works to end seizures, especially temporarily for seizure clusters, is because it allows the intestine to rest and heal.

2) 95% of our body's serotonin is produced in the gut, not the brain. Too much serotonin is implicated in things like spastic colon/irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). I believe spasm can cause seizure due to intestinal irritation associated with nerves in the intestines.

3) The intestinal fat increase Paolo discusses from a ketogenic diet is due to shifting flora which manufacture fats such as butyrate and other short chain fatty acids which promote balance, modulating immunity and reducing inflammation. It's not the actual fat in the diet.

 

[Nakamova]

1) Fasting works to end seizures, especially temporarily for seizure clusters, is because it allows the intestine to rest and heal.

The main aspect of fasting that can contribute to seizure control is ketosis (when the body is forced to burn fats rather than carbohydrates). If there is very little carbohydrate in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. These ketone bodies pass into the brain, where they replace glucose as an energy source. The higher level of ketone bodies in the blood (ketosis) reduces the frequency of epileptic seizures.

It's best to be very careful with fasting, and not to undertake special diets without consulting with your doctor. Among other things, fasting can be a seizure trigger for those who are vulnerable to low blood sugar.

 

[epileric]

There's a lot to learn here, thank you. It seems the missing factor in this thread is gut flora, the friendly and sometimes unfriendly, overgrown microbes. It's the underlying, root problem overlooked in some types of epilepsy. I believe the reason the ketogenic diet works is due to shifting flora. Food changes our intestinal balance, hopefully in the right direction. It's not about ketones. The same mechanism applies to similar diets including gluten-free, low starch diet and specific carbohydrate diet (SCD). Vegan diet also helps many people with digestive issues. The standard American diet feeds the problem: infection of the small intestine, an ulcerative condition where microbial toxins lower seizure threshold while intestinal irritation leads to seizure originating in Peyer's Patches, where the lymphatic system is intimately associated with nerve bundles and fibers directly connected to the brain. The intestines contain the most extensive innervation of the body. Neurology presently treats the problem from the neck up without real regard for gut-brain connection. There are many ways to heal intestines other than diet and it's more art than science these days . . . it's called abdominal epilepsy and there may not be gastrointestinal symptoms making diagnosis difficult.

Actually, despite the numerous functions of gut flora there has been no proven connection to epilepsy yet.
Why would you think the ketogenic diet is not about ketones? Is this your theory or did you read it somewhere? If you did read it online PM me the link & I’ll post it if you like.

On the ketogenic diet, carbohydrates are restricted and so cannot provide for all the metabolic needs of the body. Instead, fatty acids are used as the major source of fuel. These are used through fatty-acid oxidation in the cell's mitochondria (the energy-producing part of the cell). Humans can convert some amino acids into glucose by a process called gluconeogenesis, but cannot do this for fatty acids.[53] Since amino acids are needed to make proteins, which are essential for growth and repair of body tissues, these cannot be used only to produce glucose. This could pose a problem for the brain, since it is normally fuelled solely by glucose, and fatty acids do not cross the blood–brain barrier. Fortunately, the liver can use fatty acids to synthesise the three ketone bodies β-hydroxybutyrate, acetoacetate and acetone. These ketone bodies enter the brain and substitute for glucose.[52]

The ketone bodies are possibly anticonvulsant in themselves; in animal models, acetoacetate and acetone protect against seizures. The ketogenic diet results in adaptive changes to brain energy metabolism that increase the energy reserves; ketone bodies are a more efficient fuel than glucose, and the number of mitochondria is increased. This may help the neurons to remain stable in the face of increased energy demand during a seizure, and may confer a neuroprotective effect.[52]

The ketogenic diet has been studied in at least 14 rodent animal models of seizures. It is protective in many of these models and has a different protection profile than any known anticonvulsant. Conversely, fenofibrate, not used clinically as an antiepileptic, exhibits experimental anticonvulsant properties in adult rats comparable to the ketogenic diet.[54] This, together with studies showing its efficacy in patients who have failed to achieve seizure control on half a dozen drugs, suggests a unique mechanism of action.[52]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ketogenic_diet#Mechanism_of_action

Also, what you claim to be abdominal epilepsy is not accurate. You have to remember that abdominal epilepsy has symptoms in the abdomen, not its cause in the abdomen. Wasn’t it you that said that just because the symptom is in one part of the body, it doesn’t mean that’s where the problem is?

With abdominal epilepsy, it's thought that seizures occur that primarily affect the digestive system. Gastrointestinal symptoms are the result

http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/abdominal-epilepsy-in-children-and-adults
All the medical sites and books will tell you this, those that don’t are misinterpreting or trying to promote their own diets

We know that epileptics constitute about 1% of the population. The statistics for abdominal epilepsy are sooooo low that some doctors even question if it exists

. Abdominal epilepsy is so uncommon that some experts question whether it exists. Abdominal pain is common in people with epilepsy as well as without. So it could be that the abdominal pain is only coincidental, not caused by seizures

http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/abdominal-epilepsy-in-children-and-adults

Little is known about abdominal epilepsy. There have only been 36 cases reported in medical journals in the last forty years

http://www.webmd.com/epilepsy/abdominal-epilepsy-in-children-and-adultsIf it was associated with the American Standard Diet wouldn’t it most likely be more prevalent than 36 cases in 40 years?

 

[Keith]

Nakamova, that's the standard reason people believe fasting helps end seizure activity. I don't buy it because it doesn't take into account how resting the intestines is the more powerful reason. It's a more limited brain-only approach.

Eric, Celiac disease isn't thought to be about imbalanced gut flora either. Experts have their heads in the sand and promote genetics as cause including grossly incomplete biopsies. Welcome to the web of life, Eric, time to start learning about gut flora. This article describes a recent study showing Celiac patients more likely to become epileptics:
epilepsy.com/newsletter/jul12/epilepsy_celiac_disease

My reasons for believing why the ketogenic diet is effective are my own. Also, abdominal epilepsy, in my opinion and others, is that seizures are of gut origin. Famous neurologists disconnected from the web of life still believe the brain controls the gut, just as you do, Eric. Try to consider the gut controlling the brain for a moment. Abdominal epilepsy is vastly underdiagnosed. In fact, it shouldn't even be called epilepsy which is by definition unknown cause, idiopathic. I've taken my dog to 9 vets including a neurologist and not one suggested it may be of gut origin, but take a look at this endoscopy image: facebook .com/photo.php?fbid=10151940595510602&set=o. 191464044230064&type=1&theater

Your doctor is likely oblivious to the possibility and the same is true for most research scientists who still believe the fetal GI tract is sterile without any empirical evidence.

 

[epileric]

Eric, Celiac disease isn't thought to be about imbalanced gut flora either. Experts have their heads in the sand and promote genetics as cause including grossly incomplete biopsies. Welcome to the web of life, Eric, time to start learning about gut flora. This article describes a recent study showing Celiac patients more likely to become epileptics:
epilepsy.com/newsletter/jul12/epilepsy_celiac_disease

Just to re-word, you feel gut flora have to do with Celiac disease & epilepsy despite the fact that experts don't. All your link said what that Dr. Ludvigsson and his colleagues found an increase in the likelihood of having epilepsy if someone has celiac. There is no reason to think that gut flora (or anything else for that matter) is the cause. What you are doing is jumping to conclusions.

My reasons for believing why the ketogenic diet is effective are my own. Also, abdominal epilepsy, in my opinion and others, is that seizures are of gut origin.

Actually, abdominal epilepsy is defined by medical books and professionals as epilepsy with abdominal symptoms. Sadly that is a fact regardless of anyones opinion. You may think it's cause is in the gut but that does not make it abdominal epilepsy. Using such terms only increases the likelihood of miscomunication and confusion.

Famous neurologists disconnected from the web of life still believe the brain controls the gut, just as you do, Eric. Try to consider the gut controlling the brain for a moment. Abdominal epilepsy is vastly underdiagnosed. In fact, it shouldn't even be called epilepsy which is by definition unknown cause, idiopathic. I've taken my dog to 9 vets including a neurologist and not one suggested it may be of gut origin, but take a look at this endoscopy image: facebook .com/photo.php?fbid=10151940595510602&set=o. 191464044230064&type=1&theater

Why would you think that abdominal epilepsy is under diagnosed? Is this also an opinion or do you have any research facts to back that claim? I'm sorry but considering the gut controlling the brain is hard, especially after taking biology & anatomy/physiology courses where we learn how the brain controls the gut as an autonomic function. Also, even though the majority of epilepsy is idiopathic epilepsy is not idiopathic by definition Please look it up. As for your dog, you're saying that 9 vets (experts on animals) and one neurologist said it's not of gut origin but you feel you're expertise is better than theirs? Even if it were relevant, you are comparing the gut of a carnivore (your dog) to that of an omnivore (a human). I don't feel you can expect the 2 to be comparable or we'd all get the nutrition we need from dog food.

If I can ask, what is this "web of life" you keep making reference to?

Sorry your 2nd link didn't work or go anywhere. What were you trying to show us?

 

[paolomainardi]

Gut brain axis

several brain neurotransmitters arise from essential amino acids. Essential amino acids are those not synthesable in our body, then arise only from proteic digestion. I.e.
Serotonin precursor is tryptophan (trp), a dysbiotic intestinal flora decarboxylates trp in indole and skatole. Low plasmatic levels of trp are reported in depression, in multiple sclerosis, in epilepsy and so on.
High urinary skatole levels are reported in epileptic patients, urinary skatole is a marker of dysbiosis (dysbiosis test).
Low plasmatic trp levels correspond to low brain trp uptake, then to low brain synthesis of serotonin and melatonin. These are very important neurotransmitters and without a right amount the brain cannot work correctly.
A serotonin deficit is linked to depression and to epilepsy

Histamine is derived by the decarboxylation of histidine, a dysbiotic intestinal flora increases histamine level, and its excess carry out to migraine in vulnerable subjects.

Tyrosine is the precursor of dopa, norepinephrine and epinephrine. A dysbiotic flora produces tyramine, in this way decreasing dopa (parkinson), norepinephrine (cognitive functions, depression and epilepsy) and epinephrine (asthenia).

The brain is the engime, but the role of intestine is to supply by the right fuel. You can have a Ferrari, too, but if you don't fill the tank you don't move.

The first brain is the enteric brain, the brain was developed to do complex actions. They exchange informations between them, i.e. after 3 days from brain traumatic injure collaps intestinal membrane: a physical damage other than an high intestinal permeability. The amount of stomach ulcers, by cloridric acid, had been reported to be dose depended on the amount of epileptogenic agent directly injected in the brain.
Then a brain damage carry out to gastrointestinal damage. But the 90% of infomation start from intestine to the brain. In fact, intestinal inflammations, by croton oil, decreases epileptogenic threshold and produces anxiety.
An intestinal damage produces a brain damage.

 

[Keith]

Paolo, thanks for detailing intestinal origin of brain damage. I cannot stress enough the missing factor in your understanding: microorganisms. In fact, the essential amino acids such as tryptophan are made by microbes such as bacteria. It's called biosynthesis. Precursor amino acids such as alanine are used by microbes to make our carnosine having very important gut and brain function. Carnosine is known to calm kindling in amygdalas. Because alanine is found in high quantity in gelatin, I believe gelatin is useful for ending seizure clusters. Gelatin also has considerable mechanical effect in the gut, protecting ulcerative areas while absorbing toxins, i.e., clostridium bacteria. Also, it's been proven that gut microbiota affect brain development and behavior.

The Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2005 was for proving H. pylori bacteria cause ulcers, work done in the 1990s by Barry Marshall who, unfortunately, is now promoting genetically-engineered vaccines in food such as yogurt.

I believe serotonin excess, not deficiency, is more the problem with seizure activity. It's known to cause excitation/spasms in the intestines in IBS.

Eric, thanks for trying to get past obsolete textbooks. You're going to need to try harder, please. Science is proving gut flora as root of obesity and diabetes, as well. The second link works just fine if you remove the space. Please correct it for me since I'm not able to post links here yet. It's one of my dog's endoscopy images showing what looks like c-diff, pseudomembranous colitis our "expert" vets were not qualified to diagnose. Here it is again: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151940595510602&set=o.191464044230064&type=1&theater

To clarify regarding supposed expertise, I'm saying that you, your doctor, a famous neurologist and nine (9) vets are oblivious to the possibility of gut-origin of seizure, treating the disorder from the neck up, even exacerbating the problem with things like barbaric phenobarbital known to be a poison in the gut and cause of abdominal pain. Do you think it might be fraudulent promotion by a profit-driven pharmaceutical industry?

 

[paolomainardi]

gut flora and serotonin

gut flora is ten time our cells. Furthermore they are able to bring the same decision in very few time. Our body controls them by Toll Like receptor-5. Mice without TL-5 receptors increases body weights even if in standard diet, furthermore they show dismetabolic symptoms. Without improve gut flora any diet is unable to decrease body weight.

Serotonin has several roles in our body, unfortunatly it is know only as vasoconstrictor and as controller of intestinal peristaltic pump, but by acting on other receptor it has opposite roles, too.

Since it was linked to depression, there are several studies on it. One drawback is that looking only for it, other moleculas could be don't noted, and these, and not serotonin to be responisble of several effects.

For example, tryptophan (trp), the only precursor of serotonin. It's evident that an increasing in trp corresponds to an increase of serotonin.
In my opinion brain serotonin only controls mood and sleep, depression and epilepsy are controlled by other agents. Intestinal trp controls brain NPY synthesis, NPY is named "an endogenous anticonvulsant". To increase trp carry out both to an increase in brain serotonin, then we smile and improve sleep quality, and increase brain synthesis of NPY, then we increase epileptogenic threshold.
In conclusion serotonin is not pro-convulsive or anti-convulsive. Depression is controlled by norepinephrine, its precursor is tyrosine. Improving intestinal absorption of tyr we increase brain neorepinephrine

 

[Keith]

gut flora is ten time our cells. Furthermore they are able to bring the same decision in very few time. Our body controls them

Paolo, I'm not sure what you mean about our body controlling gut flora. It's been shown they maintain our gut lining. In many ways, they control us, especially when they are out of balance and overgrown. For example, clostridium overgrown produce toxins which cause seizure, see here:
ncbi. nlm. nih.gov/pubmed/10913875

This is the same family of bacteria as botulism which is now a chronic global environmental problem of our own making due to poor sanitation. We live in a symbiotic relationship with microbes, yet we disregard this fact in medicine, agriculture and sanitation.

Here's an interesting article I'm just now beginning to read:
scribd. com/doc/48898888/How-Bacterial-Imbalances-May-Predispose-to-Seizure-Disorder

Bacterial tetanus toxins are also known to cause seizure. As well as toxins, the damage to the intestinal lining where we have nerve bundles and fibers directly connected to the brain may cause seizure.

 

[epileric]

The Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2005 was for proving H. pylori bacteria cause ulcers, work done in the 1990s by Barry Marshall who, unfortunately, is now promoting genetically-engineered vaccines in food such as yogurt.

I don’t see the relevance in that has to do with epilepsy. There were a number of studies that showed no association of H. Pylori & epilepsy

CONCLUSION:
The rate of HP infection was not higher in patients with epilepsy compared to healthy individuals. At the moment, there is not enough epidemiological data to support the role of HP infection in patients with either IGE or TLE

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21903421

Eric, thanks for trying to get past obsolete textbooks. You're going to need to try harder, please. Science is proving gut flora as root of obesity and diabetes, as well. The second link works just fine if you remove the space. Please correct it for me since I'm not able to post links here yet. It's one of my dog's endoscopy images showing what looks like c-diff, pseudomembranous colitis our "expert" vets were not qualified to diagnose. Here it is again: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10151940595510602&set=o.191464044230064&type=1&theater

Sorry about the link, I’m still having trouble with it.

I have to admit that your remark about “obsolete textbooks” caught me off guard since I’ve never seen someone condemn literacy before. You should also understand that because something is part of basic biology and has been understood for a long time does not make it obsolete. Actually understanding the basics makes it easier to discriminate between what new information is most likely to be viable. By the same token, something new is not necessarily great just because it’s new (not necessarily bad either). You talk about what science is proving but if you don’t understand the basics then it’s easy for people to fool you when they call something “scientific” like has happened in the 2 links you posted.

To clarify regarding supposed expertise, I'm saying that you, your doctor, a famous neurologist and nine (9) vets are oblivious to the possibility of gut-origin of seizure, treating the disorder from the neck up, even exacerbating the problem with things like barbaric phenobarbital known to be a poison in the gut and cause of abdominal pain. Do you think it might be fraudulent promotion by a profit-driven pharmaceutical industry?

I see, you consider your discoveries online to be more informed than the opinions of those with years of training based on scientific studies. It’s true that all medications have side-effects but sometimes tolerating those side-effects is the price to pay to make certain pathologies manageable. Also remember that herbs & supplements have their side-effects as well. Anything that can make a big enough change in the body to help something had to change something enough to effect the overall balance in the body causing side-effects.

I’m not about to say that any industry is not profit driven (including the supplement industry) but you can only go so far with conspiracy theories, especially when there’s no proof. There have been a few cases of fraudulent promotion in the pharmaceutical industry. I have to say that at least it’s illegal for them to do such things. The supplement industry has much less rigid regulations because they fall under the definition of food. If being profit driven or using fraudulent promotion scares you then you should definitely be more scared of them.

 

[epileric]

Paolo, I'm not sure what you mean about our body controlling gut flora. It's been shown they maintain our gut lining. In many ways, they control us, especially when they are out of balance and overgrown. For example, clostridium overgrown produce toxins which cause seizure, see here:
ncbi. nlm. nih.gov/pubmed/10913875

Your link is very interesting but it only shows how Clostridium toxins effect mice.

Clostridium perfringens epsilon has not been shown to be toxic to humans, at least not yet Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin (ETX) is responsible for a fatal enterotoxemia in different animal species, producing extensive renal damage, neurological disturbance and edema of lungs, heart and kidneys. However, there is no information about the susceptibility of humans to ETX.

http://het.sagepub.com/content/30/4/275.abstract

This is the same family of bacteria as botulism which is now a chronic global environmental problem of our own making due to poor sanitation. We live in a symbiotic relationship with microbes, yet we disregard this fact in medicine, agriculture and sanitation.

Botulism is related in that it belongs to the Clostridium family (Clostridium Botulinum) but that does not mean we are susceptible to all types of Clostridium, especially since most of them live off of dead organic matter like bacteria.

Most of the clostridia are saprophytes, but a few are pathogenic for humans, primarily Clostridium perfringens, C. difficile, C. tetani and C. tetani. Those that are pathogens have primarily a saprophytic existence in nature and, in a sense, are opportunistic pathogens. Clostridium tetani and Clostridium botulinum produce the most potent biological toxins known to affect humans. As pathogens of tetanus and food-borne botulism, they owe their virulence almost entirely to their toxigenicity. Other clostridia, however, are highly invasive under certain circumstances

http://textbookofbacteriology.net/clostridia.html

This method of presenting only isolated facts & not telling people the whole story (i.e. botulism is a clostridium hence it’s as scary as botulism) is exactly how quacks scare people into buying their “cures” and why I find it perturbing when such mis-information is posted online.

Here's an interesting article I'm just now beginning to read:
scribd. com/doc/48898888/How-Bacterial-Imbalances-May-Predispose-to-Seizure-Disorder

Bacterial tetanus toxins are also known to cause seizure. As well as toxins, the damage to the intestinal lining where we have nerve bundles and fibers directly connected to the brain may cause seizure.

I really think you should start reading more books on basic biology and chemistry. Not doing so explains why you would believe someone who uses RNA as a treatment. This treatment has never been proven, it doesn’t even make sense to those familiar with basic biology.

I’m guessing that the idea stems from the fact that RNA aptamers have been shown to bind to various compounds. Or is it that nucleotide triphosphates bind to certain divalent cations? In any case whether RNA can act as a chelator or not is not important. Why? Because RNA is unstable.

http://scienceblogs.com/transcript/2006/11/21/autism-rna/

Also, anyone that has their own personal “cure” for something that they won’t write down its name without a copyright or patent logo means that they’re selling something.

Amy Yasko makes many pseudo-scientific claims but has no studies or data in any peer reviewed literature. Even she says on her site that she doesn’t post any.

I changed the way I shared information—from scientific articles in peer reviewed journals—to books, internet, conferences, videos, and articles.

http://www.dramyyasko.com/resources/autism-pathways-to-recovery/ She says she changed how she shares info but I haven’t found 1 peer reviewed article by her. Also, why would someone only post information where it is not being scrutinized? If it is legitimate then it will hold up to scrutiny. She is even listed in Quackwatch under “unscientific teachings.

 

[Keith]

Eric, as usual, you're missing the point with all your tangential "spaminator" treatment: microbial underlying cause of gut imbalance leading to metabolism prone to seizure.

I suggest doing some additional research so that you might find some support for this as cause rather than knocking it down with meaningless points. By the way, thousands of studies are designed using mice to learn about human health. Please feel free to correct me by stating it may actually be hundreds of studies.

Have you heard the news last month of GSK found guilty of pharmaceutical fraud? GSK was fined fined $3 billion, a slap-on-the-wrist application fee to continue their world onslaught of poor science. They made that much money with just one (1) vaccine product in their cradle-to-grave approach to medicine, i.e., creating a shingles epidemic with a chicken pox vaccine only to create a shingles vaccine.
(Big Pharma wrote the obsolete textbooks, too).
See here: bbc .co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18673220

 

[epileric]

Eric, as usual, you're missing the point with all your tangential "spaminator" treatment: microbial underlying cause of gut imbalance leading to metabolism prone to seizure.

I suggest doing some additional research so that you might find some support for this as cause rather than knocking it down with meaningless points. By the way, thousands of studies are designed using mice to learn about human health. Please feel free to correct me by stating it may actually be hundreds of studies.

I never said studies weren't designed using mice but just because they react a certain way when studied, scientists don't assume humans will react the same way. I think it's you that's missing the point.

I'm sorry but the research I've done has shown it to be untrue & I've shown you how your study was not relevant to humans & even gave more studies showing proof as much.

I'm very aware of the GSK being sued but 3 Billion is more than a slap on the wrist. Actually I believe it proves the FDAs objectivity.

The settlement will cover criminal fines as well as civil settlements with the federal and state governments.

The case concerns 10 drugs, including Paxil, Wellbutrin, Avandia and Advair.

 

[Keith]

Eric, please reread the abstract of the study you posted in attempt to refute clostridium effect in humans. The study demonstrates significant cytotoxicity. You've misinterpreted your own research. Also, do some some research into C-diff and seizure; it's well known. It seems you believe you're doing a service here for people to protect them from spam, but in the process you're also doing a disservice to people who might be helped.

 

[epileric]

Is this what you're talking about? It says very clearly that what effects certain animals does not necessarily effect humans.

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin (ETX) is responsible for a fatal enterotoxemia in different animal species, producing extensive renal damage, neurological disturbance and edema of lungs, heart and kidneys. However, there is no information about the susceptibility of humans to ETX. Here, we report that primary cultures of human renal tubular epithelial cells (HRTEC) exposed to ETX showed a marked swelling with subsequent large blebs surrounding most cells. The incubation of HRTEC with ETX produced a reduction of cell viability in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The CD50 after 1-hour and 24-hour incubation were 3 µg/mL and 0.5 µg/mL, respectively. The pulse with ETX for 3 min was enough to produce a significant cytotoxic effect on HRTEC after 1-hour incubation. ETX binds to HRTEC forming a large complex of about 160 kDa similar to what was found in the Madin-Darby canine kidney (MDCK) cell line. The HRTEC could be a useful cell model to improve the understanding of the mechanisms involved on the cell damage mediated by ETX.

http://het.sagepub.com/content/30/4/275.abstract

 

[Keith]

Yes, Eric, that's the study you continue to misinterpret. They're saying there was no previous information about ETX toxicity in humans. And then they proved it's toxic in humans. Are you reading just one sentence out of the paragraph?

 

[epileric]

They also make no reference to any details that might give their claims substance. Like I said before, many seem to hide the details of their studies which makes their relevance questionable. Even they made no reference to botulism.

My other link shows as much.

 

[Keith]

Eric, that's just the Abstract. The details you seek are in the full study.

 

[epileric]

As I've said before, an abstract summarizes what the goal of the study is, what they did & expected, what they observed & what they think it implies & why.

This is so vague it's hard to know why they think what they do.

 

[epileric]

I've found it hard to find a good abstract but you still might be right re.
Clostridium perfringens epsilon toxin.

C. perfringens is categorized into five serotypes—A, B, C, D, and E—depending on the types of extracellular toxins (alpha-, beta, epsilon-, and iota-toxins) they make and their forms of tropisms [8]. C. perfringens is a pathogen whose primary targets are human and animals.

http://microbewiki.kenyon.edu/index.php/Clostridium_perfringens

I still do question how it is relevant to how gut flora control seizures since I have not seen any research confirming that it effects seizures in humans. So far it's only been shown in mice, hasn't it?