Smoking and Seizures

[fender40]

Hi all,

I'm new here. I wanted to see if anyone has any connection between smoking and seizures. I got sick tonight with a seizure and didn't eat all day and smoked cigs all day. Dumb...I know.....but I wanted to know if anyone had similar experiences. Hope everyone is well.

 

[Nakamova]

Hi fender40 --

Low blood sugar from not eating can trigger a seizure. And nicotine, as a stimulant, can affect the central nervous system in unpredictable ways. You might want to read this thread: http://www.coping-with-epilepsy.com/forums/f23/smoking-2974/

 

[Endless]

Hi, Fender,

Welcome to CWE! Nakamova is right. Nicotine is definitely a stimulant. Many of us in here don't do well with stimulants, whether it is coffee, nicotine, or sudafed. I know quitting smoking would be really hard, but in the long run it may help your seizures.

Low blood sugar is also a trigger for a lot of people in here. I'm sure they'll chime in about it soon.

 

[Loopy Lou]

It was probably more the not eating than the smoking that set it off, especially if smoking doesn't affect you at any other time.

 

[Minkels]

Hello and welcome to the group!

As the others have said, low blood sugar does seem to be a trigger for seizures for a lot of people on here. I've only come close once, and that might have been because I had put off both eating and taking my meds...so kind of hard for me to tell if it was not eating all day or being way late on the meds (or both) that caused me to have that aura which warns me a tonic clonic is coming...

That being said, I am not sure about the smoking. I smoked for years before I developed seizures. I've smoked pretty much steadily since 1984--with the exception of about 2 years due to pregnancies--and did not develop any kind of seizures until June of this year. I still smoke about 1/2 pack a day and had planned to quit this year, although both Chantix and Wellbutrin (which worked GREAT for me in the past) are both pretty much contraindicated now because of my new seizure disorder. I'm going to try the electronic cigarettes since I've seen many of my friends cut down or even give up smoking on these.

If smoking is a habit for you, and you want to quit, taper off slowly--I've read that abruptly quitting can also induce seizures. I don't know if this is true, and really don't want to find out the hard way...lol.

I would guess that if you don't normally smoke or are a social smoker who went a bit overboard, then yes, it could have helped trigger the seizures since nicotine is a stimulant.

I've noticed that cutting out caffiene has helped reduce the number of seizures that I have.