electrolyte drinks and gluten free

[purplepurple]

Hope everyone is doing fine.

My son's teacher told me that one of her friend's daughter has a very serious seizure. Her parents started to let her drink electrolyte drinks.

By reading through lots of article, I think drinking electrolyte drinks/ water makes sense for seizure patient. Has anybody use this way?

Also, gluten free. How do you know if the patient is sensitive to gluten? Or most of seizure patients are sensitive to gluten? We eat rice and bread daily. should I switch to all- gluten-free to my son?

Thank you for sharing your advice and experience.

 

[epileric]

I've never seen a correlation between my electrolyte drinks & my epilepsy.

There is a question as to whether the AED sodium valproate effects the renal tube hence effecting the renal tubes ability to abosorb electrolytes but even if that happens a supplement would probably not help since absorption is the issue.

The only way you'd have to worry about gluten is if your child has celiacs disease and if you're in the US that is less than a 1% chance. They have found that seizures can be caused by untreated celiacs disease but having seizures does not mean one has celiacs or any sort of gluten sensitivity.

Epilepsy also can result from intolerance to wheat gluten (also known as celiac disease), or from a parasitic infection of the brain called neurocysticercosis. Seizures may stop once these disorders are treated successfully. However, the odds of becoming seizure-free after the primary disorder is treated are uncertain and vary depending on the type of disorder, the brain region that is affected, and how much brain damage occurred prior to treatment.

http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/epilepsy/detail_epilepsy.htm

 

[purplepurple]

Thank you.

So in your opion, is is better (no harm at least)to send electrolyte water with him to school comparing with pure water? My son is in junior high now. And lots of activity and pretty tight schedule as well.

I am thinking home-made electrolyte drink with minim sugar may be good for him. How do you think?

For gluten-free, we are in Canada. so like you said, it's unlikely he has problem with gluten. We feed him rice and bread from he was a baby.

Thanks again.

 

[epileric]

My opinion is that water is just as good as any special electrolyte drink.

You only lose electrolytes after extreme exertion/exercise so I think that whoever is giving their child electrolyte drinks for epilepsy is very misinformed. They've also found that electrolyte drinks have no different an effect than drinking water.

Coconut water was compared to a carbohydrate/electrolye beverage, and plain water, in subjects who exercised in the heat. After exercise subjects drank 120% of their fluid loss. There was no significant difference in the amount of hydration achieved, electrolyte levels, or fluid balance.

Another study compared plain water, sports drink, coconut water, and sodium-enriched coconut water. Again, subjects exercised in the heat and then rehydrated with 120% of their fluid losses. Here, sports drink and both coconut waters rehydrated to a similar extent and all were slightly superior to water. The sodium-enriched coconut water was reported as better tolerated than other beverages.

Finally, in an article just published, Comparison of coconut water and a carbohydrate-electrolyte sport drink on measures of hydration and physical performance in exercise-trained men, coconut water was compared with sports drink and plain water, following exercise-induced dehydration. Yet again, no differences were noted between groups.

http://sciencebasedpharmacy.wordpress.com/2012/02/08/coconut-water-rehydrating-with-the-naturalistic-fallacy/

 

[masterjen]

The common and most obvious symptoms of celiac disease are gas, bloating, constipation and/or diarrhea particularly in response to eating wheat, barley and rye, symptoms of poor nutrient absorption in spite of good nutrition (eg. low iron, calcium, vitamin D, etc. on blood tests), reflux, and low energy. Gluten intolerance symptoms are similar but less severe, and do not evoke an autoimmune response like celiac disease does. There are other less obvious symptoms of celiac, such as neurological ones, but USUALLY the intestinal ones are present as well. A proper diagnosis of celiac requires that one be currently eating gluten, so if you are concerned about celiac in your son do not stop the gluten until he has had the testing done. Some people feel they are sensitive to gluten and choose to stop gluten on their own, but it only makes sense to have celiac testing done to determine exactly how strict the gluten free diet needs to be (ex. those with celiac must avoid any and all gluten grains and foods with derivatives of those grains, and ensuring absolutely no cross-contamination with gluten containing foods).

 

[purplepurple]

Thank you, Masterjan and Epileric