I was almost 19 when I had my first seizure. I had it within hours after having a large size packet of Smith's Chicken flavour Potato Chips. The next week I wanted to see if the chips were related to the seizure as I had read something online, so I had another pack. Again, a few hours later I had another seizure. Both were grand mal. Since then I have been diagnosed as epileptic and have been on medication. Do you have any thoughts as to if my epilepsy could have been caused by some flavouring or chemical in the chips? After almost 10 years of tests, my epilepsy is still idiopathic...
epilepsy initiated by diet
- Thread starter rosmol85
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Evamarie91
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Was there msg in the chips? Certain foods can trigger seizures, though I wouldn't necessarily say you got epilepsy from eating chips. Have you talked to your neurologist about this?
I spoke with my first neurologist about it when it all first started. He wasnt worth seeing though. Im not sure if I told my current one? I just did a quick google search and MSG is pretty bad in those chips... so would your opinion be that I had the epilepsy already but maybe dormant, then the MSG brought it out?
Evamarie91
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I can't say so or not for sure, but I do know that for some people msg is something to avoid. I personally try to avoid it even though I'm not entirely sure that it does anything to me personally. I know aspartame is another big one to avoid, and I've only recently been more strick with myself about avoiding anything labled "diet."
AlexC
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My naturalist doctor and I worked together to find food triggers, and one for me is anything with soy in it. I didn't realize how much soy is in our food supply! Once I cut out at least half the soy, my head started feeling less cloudy, and a little more alert. It's worth looking in to food triggers, but they don't really CAUSE your Epilepsy, if that makes sense.
Evamarie91
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Soy can cause excess estrogen. I wonder if that can be part of the problem right there.
KarenB
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The potato chips probably didn't cause your epilepsy, but they may have been a trigger. Not only would there probably be MSG, but also the carb load may have caused a blood sugar surge/drop which could trigger a seizure.
We had a similar experience with our son Jonathan and eggplant. There were 3 times that he had a tonic seizure within an hour or two after eating eggplant. In his case, he already had epilepsy. Eggplant is part of the nightshade family (which also includes potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers), and some folks have an allergy to some or all of these foods. In our case, we removed all the nightshade veggies from his diet for about a year, just to be on the safe side. We've just recently added tomato back in, without incident, but will probably not try eggplant again.
I'm wondering, if you've noticed seizures after eating other forms of potatoes?
We had a similar experience with our son Jonathan and eggplant. There were 3 times that he had a tonic seizure within an hour or two after eating eggplant. In his case, he already had epilepsy. Eggplant is part of the nightshade family (which also includes potatoes, tomatoes, and peppers), and some folks have an allergy to some or all of these foods. In our case, we removed all the nightshade veggies from his diet for about a year, just to be on the safe side. We've just recently added tomato back in, without incident, but will probably not try eggplant again.
I'm wondering, if you've noticed seizures after eating other forms of potatoes?