Seizures and...Solar and Geomagnetic Activity?

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy Forums

Welcome to the Coping With Epilepsy forums - a peer support community for folks dealing (directly or indirectly) with seizure disorders. You can visit the forum page to see the list of forum nodes (categories/rooms) for topics.

Please have a look around and if you like what you see, please consider registering an account and joining the discussions. When you register an account and log in, you may enjoy additional benefits including no ads, access to members only (ie. private) forum nodes and more. Registering an account is free - you have nothing to lose!

Hi again -

It's been since the end of July, and no seizures.

Until Saturday afternoon, 11/12.

Seizures started when he was on his tie-out, outside, at 1:30. He had 3 or 4 then.
And then:
9:30 pm - 1
1:30 am - 2
3:50 am - 2
woke me up at 7 by standing next to my bed and *not* pacing the floor; he'd been pacing the floor since 4-ish; he wanted to go out, so we did, and I'm glad.
8 am - 3 seizures
11 am - 2 seizures
1 pm - 2 or 3
Can hardly walk; stumbling, crashing into things; sprawled out on the bathroom floor, very out of it. Gave him an extra dose of phenobarb at 3 pm.
4:30 - 2 seizures
walked him
7 pm - 2 seizures
walked him
10:10 pm - 2 seizures
walked him
1 am - 2 seizures
walked him
put him in the kennel afterwards, went to bed and I was able to sleep until about 7:30
4:30 am - 2 seizures in the kennel
7:30 am - 2 seizures in the kennel
11:00 - outside -- 2 seizures in the yard, walking around on the leash

and I came here to see how the previous seizure timing worked out...as I was posting this, he had another 2 seizures. So,

3:15, 2 seizures.

And then I tried putting him in the kennel after I cleaned the floor around him and dried him off as best I could; he's very aggressive and banging into the walls, the furniture, running aimlessly around the house, knocking stuff over, not able to see things, and tried to bite me every time I tried to catch him and get hold of his collar to put him in the kennel.

I know he'll eventually settle down and get real worn out and then I can put him there.

No diarrhea this time, and no vomiting, so that's an improvement over the July episode.

elizzza811 Thought I'd post an update...

So sorry to hear you're feeling it too.
 
Thought I'd post an update...

Basically, soaking drenching sweats Friday night into Saturday morning (November 12th), Saturday night into Sunday morning (November 13th), and Sunday night into Monday morning (November 14th)...all 3 nights (and counting?), in perfect sync with the appearance of a large magnetic filament on the sun which remains.

Monday morning, November 14, 2011:
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=14&month=11&year=2011

Sunday morning, November 13, 2011:
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=13&month=11&year=2011

Saturday morning, November 12, 2011:
http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=12&month=11&year=2011


wow - that same time span I've hit some extreme lows except today I've felt pretty good - but for the past week it has been bad for me

also Oklahoma has had a lot of up to 5.0 earthquake activity during this same span I found out - I'm in Dallas
 
I'm not surprised. I truly think we are all affected - it's just that some people aren't aware of this and some people don't take the time to check these websites daily.

But earthquakes there in Dallas? Pretty cool!
 
I'm not surprised. I truly think we are all affected - it's just that some people aren't aware of this and some people don't take the time to check these websites daily.

But earthquakes there in Dallas? Pretty cool!

yeah it is definitely not typical - I remember feeling a 4 or so Richter in Guatemala once - I may have felt some wavery in Dallas with recent quakes, but not noticeable enough to think it was an earthquake

there is some blame going to the "fracking" industry
 
I lost my cat to kidney failure August 22, 2010, and I was just going through some old pictures of him, the last batches taken in the months before he died. I wish I could post some of these so that you could see for yourselves, but out of all of these, the day he looked sickest was in pictures taken on April 30th, 2010. There was a short duration K4 storm on April 29th - maybe that was it? But look at all that was going on 'geomagnetically' in the weeks before (early April)...

April 1-15, 2010
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/archive/archive_01Apr2010.html

April 16-30, 2010
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/archive/archive_16Apr2010.html

Early May was pretty significant too with that 'A-index'...

May 1-15, 2010
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/archive/archive_01May2010.html

He actually seizured seconds before he died.
 
Last edited:
Wow, thanks - you're right. Sometimes I think I should have titled this thread...'the sun is trying to kill us?'

I feel horrible today. My sinuses feel infected since last night. No bowel movement today either, and when that happens, there's usually something going on, usually a K-storm (at least). I have a thick white coating on my tongue, pressure at the base of my skull, and have been clenching my teeth like crazy since yesterday afternoon.

I'm scared to death of solar maximum if this is how I'm feeling already. The symptoms I'm describing usually resulted in a seizure in the past (teeth-clenching, white tongue, pressure at the base of my skull). Nothing yet, but I still worry that Lamictal and Neurontin won't be enough once solar max kicks in. But try telling your neurologist that - she doesn't even believe this teeth-clenching is anything to worry about, that it's unrelated to my seizures. I'm always clenching to some degree, but days like today, when I'm clenching so hard I fear I might crack my teeth and I'm rocking them back and forth in my gums, I think she should be concerned, as this often coincided with a seizure with me. Wish she'd believe me...
 
interestingly, I went 13 months without a seizure, then I had 4 seizures in a 2 day span. I wonder if it's due to the solar storm.....
 
interestingly, I went 13 months without a seizure, then I had 4 seizures in a 2 day span. I wonder if it's due to the solar storm.....

If I hadn't been checking the 4 websites on page 1 of this thread daily for like 7 years, I would say no. But my answer now is an undefiable yes. Seriously...check these websites daily and keep tabs on what the sun is doing, even when it's calm - write it down. You'll likely see that your seizures are somehow related to these solar/geo storms/activity. I know mine were. Here are the 4 websites to check...

Space Weather Now:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/SWN/index.html

Todays Space Weather:
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/today2.html
* Keep your eye on these graphs - all of them. Sometimes things are happening here that don't make it to the other pages, things that could indeed be seizure triggers for you. When the blue line on the Electron Flux graph would tighten up and zig-zag, this was a seizure trigger for me - the blue line hasn't done that in like a year though. What the blue line has been doing on occasion since is very suddenly dropping or dipping, and I'm still apparently sensitive to this blue line even though I'm now on seizure meds. If it drops suddenly or dips suddenly (and it usually does this at night or in the early morning hours when I'm sleeping - I'm on the east coast), I toss and turn and sweat profusely. Be on the lookout too for increases in Proton Flux and red and yellow bars. If you check all 4 of these websites daily, you'll eventually learn what each of these graphs represent (and how they overlap with the Space Weather articles you'll read) and how they affect you.

Space Weather Archives (Click on 'Currently in Effect):
http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/archive.html#2006
*This website can be searched backwards and then compared to your 'seizure diary'.

Space Weather - Sunspot Page:
http://spaceweather.com/
*This website can also be searched backwards and then compared to your 'seizure diary'.
 
Last edited:
It's really strange, but YES!!! I've been following the geomagnetic-human brain connection for a couple years now because I've noticed an increase in my sleep disruption whenever a big event happens.

I haven't been able to sleep well for the past 3 or 4 days, and last night was the most terrible. I woke up dozens of times. I read that there's the biggest geomagnetic storm in 8 years hitting right now.

Obviously it needs a lot of research to prove a link, but I feel there is evidence that suggests solar and geomagnetic activity does affect brain activity. Our brains are electrical and so is the sun, and the earth's atmosphere. Seems simple that some people who are sensitive could be affected.

Sorry for jumping in the conversation so late. :p

EDIT: Many, many people I've talked to who can normally sleep well have also been having sleep disruptions for the past 2 or 3 days.
 
Last edited:
Welcome to the forum, and this thread too:) I'm totally convinced there's a connection to it all. Sleep disruptions, seizures, you name it. As crazy as it sounds, whenever I skip a bowel movement, there's a 'K-storm' in progress. Now I don't skip a bowel movement with every K-storm, but if I do skip, I know when I get on the computer it'll be there.

I can't tell you how many times I've seen personal videos accounts of seizures on YouTube with the dates they occurred included. More times than not these dated seizures seem to coincide with some kind of upsurge in solar/geo activity. I wish more people on there would 'date' their seizures...it would be an interesting experiment to follow.
 
Last edited:
interestingly, I went 13 months without a seizure, then I had 4 seizures in a 2 day span. I wonder if it's due to the solar storm.....

Your last seizure before these recent 4 was in December of 2010? Am I calculating this correctly?

December of 2010 was when I ran my car off the road and first learned that these 'events' I was having were seizures. December 19th to be exact. According to my notes on page one of this thread, my December seizure occurred just prior to a K4 storm. It may have even occurred at its very onset, but it's sometimes hard to figure out its exact onset from the Space Weather Archives page because of the time difference. I'm on the east coast and they use UTC time. A solar windstream was also approaching, due to hit soon - that may have even been the K4 storm.

I wish though that I could look back at what else was going on that day 'magnetically'. I'd almost bet my right arm that the blue line on the Electron Flux graph had tightened and zig-zagged, because that seemed to be the trigger with every seizure around then. Only 2 of the 4 websites allow you to search backwards in time though. This is why I recommended you keep an eye on all 4 websites, and take notes, even the ones you might not understand completely. Then you won't have regrets like I do.

I often wonder too if some of my atonic seizures (my left leg would collapse) occurred in response to a 'sudden impulse' or some other less frequent solar event, because each one of them was sudden - no warning whatsoever - and these atonics were infrequent, occurring only a handful of times each year, sometimes less. I wasn't recording these atonics though because I didn't realize their significance before my epilepsy diagnosis.

If you live on the east coast, here are the conversions for when they do provide you with a 'UTC time' for a solar/geo event:

EST – Eastern Standard Time (winter months)
Time zone offset: UTC - 5 hours
EST is 5 hours behind of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/na/est.html

EDT – Eastern Daylight Time (summer months)
Time zone offset: UTC - 4 hours
EDT is 4 hours behind of Coordinated Universal Time (UTC)
http://www.timeanddate.com/library/abbreviations/timezones/na/edt.html
 
Last edited:
Actually my last seizure prior to the 13 months without was on Thanksgiving day of 2010. Then I went all the way until Jan. 8th and 9th of 2012 without one, when I had 4 late night early morning of those days. Then I didn't have another one until Jan. 19th of 2012 in the grocery store. I do live on the East Coast (Asheville, NC to be exact) so thanks for the conversion info.
 
- Your Thanksgiving 2010 seizure probably was a result of these erupting magnetic filaments on the November 24th, the day before...

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=25&month=11&year=2010

Even when they say the CMEs that come out of them miss earth, my seizures never seemed to somehow care. Filaments were (and still are) a nightmare for me.

- There was a surge of ground currents in Norway (not sure what the time conversion is there) in the late hours of January 7...

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=08&month=01&year=2012

Also a sunspot tripling in size over this time period...

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=09&month=01&year=2012

- Do remember what time your January 19th seizure occurred? This flare was a long duration M class flare that occurred between 15:15 and 16:30 UT. A 'beta gamma' sunspot turning towards earth, too...

http://spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=19&month=01&year=2012

A bunch of radio events, too, on January 19th...actually, for some reason (maybe because this is an older page?) it won't let me click on each red asterisk in the link below (it's giving me an 'error'),

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/archive/archive_16Jan2012.html

...but on 'Currently in Effect' pages, you can actually click on the asterisk and get info about time and duration of each event, like here's today's...(click on anything here, asterisks and so forth, and you'll see what I mean)...

http://www.swpc.noaa.gov/alerts/warnings_timeline.html
 
Last edited:
Dog seizures

Hello!
I'm a new poster, but not new to seizure diaries. My dog Riley has been having cluster seizures since age 3.5 (this is an average onset age) and his is a Vizsla cross (certain breeds are susceptible.) As I looked on my dog's diary as to dates of seizures mentioned by people in the thread of the last 7 pages of messages, there is no correlation between my dates and yours. Riley usually has 8-14 seizures in 24-36 hours, and they almost always occur within a day or two of the full moon (altho once it was the new moon.)
Perhaps the most help that I can offer here is to tell you about the ocular pressure technique that has saved my sanity over the last year-plus. When a seizure begins, you simply press on the outside of the eyelid for 8 seconds on and 8 seconds off...for maybe 4 or 5 cycles. This is said to release the amino acid GABA into the brain, and you can actually feel the darting eyes calm down as you do it. The biggest plus to this technique, however, is in the post-ictal phase. Previous to learning this technique, we had a major issue going on...a one-hundred-pound dog blundering his way around the house--half-blind, stumbling, trying to go through the entertainment center or under the coffee table or trying to walk through a wall. (I also grab the roll of paper towels at this point to wipe his slobbering mouth and the floor...just don't get your fingers in the way of his teeth!) Now he lays still for a few minutes post-seizure, and then, as he attempts to clamber up, I grab his harness and "aim" him toward the door to let him outside. There he pees (thereby emptying the bladder so he won't pee on my floor in the next seizure) while at the same time cooling off and expending some of the energy that has built up. Yes, he is still somewhat stumbly coming back up the stairs...more so as the number of seizures rises, but at least he is not doing the damage in the house that used to occur and I don't have to clean up urinary and bowel messes. What a blessing this technique has been!
I did use to give him ice cream after each seizure, but in my attempt to eliminate dairy as a source of a trigger, I simply give him a small handful of his regular food. I, too, have eliminated as many trigger foods as I could find. Turns out the biggest was turkey, followed by MSG and wheat. You'll have to eliminate most grocery store dog food choices and treats to keep the seizures down to a manageable level.
I recently talked to an herbalist who says that seizures in pets can often be a sign of parasites, and she recommends Black Walnut from Nature's Sunshine as a remedy; I haven't had time to try it yet. I guess that would imply that parasites are affected by the full moon! Riley is on both phenobarb and potassium bromide...and so has aged tremendously in the last 4 years.

I hope that this post will be helpful to those of you who are being beset by the ravages of dog seizures. Joanne
 
Back
Top Bottom