Vitamin D deficiency cause seizure/epilepsy?

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Can Vitamin D deficiency cause seizure/epilepsy? It would be very useful to know of any cases related to the above as my 11 year old son other wise normal and no family history of epilepsy has had 3 seizures in the last three months and his blood results show severe Vitamin D deficiency.
 
Hi Hopeforthebest:)

Welcome to CWE. Sorry you haven't yet gotten a response. Sometimes it's because posts get pushed down the list, sometimes it's because no one has an answer and doesn't want to give any wrong info.

First of all, anyone can have epilepsy, even the otherwise healthy, and those with no family history, but I don't blame you for wanting to try to find answers.

I don't know if there is any link between the two, or if it has even been studied. However, I do have some personal experience with Vit. D and what may be seizure activity. I have a history of simple partial motor seizures that affect my right side though they have been well controlled with Keppra. But for a long time, I still had a problem with what I called foot flaps, usually at night when trying to sleep. They are not restless leg syndrome - I have that too, and this is not the same - nor are they hypnic jerks which can happen to anyone while sleeping. My neuro said that they could be seizures, but since my other issues were controlled he wasn't very interested and only suggested adding another anti-seizure drug which I didn't want to deal with unless we were sure. Stay with me, I'm finally getting to my point :) The last two months I've been taking calcium (1000mg) with vitamin D (1600 IU's) every day and my foot flaps have almost completely disappeared. I don't think it's a coincidence because I had been taking these calcium supplements for a while before and it worked, then I ran out and didn't take any for about a month and the flapping came back. I took another brand of supplement for a while that had more calcium and less Vit D, and I still had flapping. It wasn't until I went back to the calcium with the 1600 IU's of vit D that the flapping went away again.

Now please keep in mind that I'm not sure that what I was experiencing was seizure activity, and this is only my experience taking calcium with D based on the advice of my OBGYN for bone health, it's not anything that was recommended for the purpose of controlling seizures.

I hope someone will come along with more definitive answers for you.

Take care :)
 
Hi Travel Bug,

Many thanks for replying to my e-mail and I am touched by your empathy for some unknown person. We met the Paediatric Neurologist today and he feels the seizures may be a cause of severe Vitamin D deficiency and he is not being put on AED for the moment. IF he does not get any seizures after he get his vitamin D levels sorted he will not need any further medication. Fingers crossed and hope my son makes a complete recovery. Once again, thanks for your kind words.

Take Care,
 
Hello hopeforthebest:)

You are quite welcome. And thank you for the update. I will definitely keep my fingers crossed that the vitamin D works! Let us know how things go:)

Best wishes!
 
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I just posted this on another page, but it bears repeating.

New study released earlier this month-- amazing outcomes. I am new to this site so it won't let me post the link, so I have pasted the info below. Well worth reading!

Epilepsy Behav. 2012 May;24(1):131-3. Epub 2012 Apr 11.
Correction of vitamin D deficiency improves seizure control in epilepsy: A pilot study.
Holló A, Clemens Z, Kamondi A, Lakatos P, seizureűcs A.
Source

National Institute for Medical Rehabilitation, H-1121 Budapest, Szanatórium u. 19, Hungary.
Abstract

There is growing interest concerning the role of vitamin D in various medical conditions such as diabetes and oncological, cardiovascular and central nervous system disorders. Although vitamin D deficiency is known to be highly prevalent among epilepsy patients, only a single study, published nearly forty years ago, assessed the effect of vitamin D on seizure control. Here, we measured serum 25-hydroxy-vitamin D (25(OH)D) levels and normalized it by administration of vitamin D3 in 13 patients with pharmacoresistant epilepsy. To see if vitamin D3 has an impact on seizure frequency, we compared seizure numbers during a 90-day period before and after treatment onset. We found that seizure numbers significantly decreased upon vitamin D3 supplementation. Median seizure reduction was 40%. We conclude that the normalization of serum vitamin 25(OH)D level has an anticonvulsant effect.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22503468
 
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Vit d

How have things been going? Has the vit d helped? My daughter has recently had three seizures and she had previously been diagnosed with sn arachnoid cyst which they say has no effect i demanded labs after eeg showed no epileptic activity and they wanted to say they were pseudo seizures and they scheduled a video 24-72 hour eeg but she hasnt had it. Her eeg showed slowing in left and right temporal waves . Her labs showed vit d at 18. I just want an answer
 
I would love to hear from anyone who has used a vitamin D vitamer(s) over a long period of time - and nothing else - to contol their seizures. As a person who has only used B vitamins (vitamin B6 (Pyridoxine) for over 41 yrs - prescribed) to control my seizures this topic is of intrest to me.

**DO NOT ALTER ANY MEDICATION WITHOUT YOUR DOCTOR'S CONSENT**
 
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My neurologist told me to start taking Vitamin D after bloodwork should that I had low amounts.
 
take with magnesium or Vit D alone will lower magnesium

you need to be sure to take magnesium with vitamin d, or the d will lower magnesium as it uses it up to convert in your body.

lots of tests showing magnesium itself would help seizures too, so take both mag and v. d. liquid (i like carlson drops). :)
 
This is really interesting. After my first seizure I had bloodwork done and was found to have a very sever vitamin d deficiency. My second seizure was 3 days after I started taking vitamin d supplements. I've had no seizures since (that I'm aware of).
 
My wife has had seizures now for almost two years and just recently had vitamin d levels tested and indicates a defficiency. She has never been put on an AED as they have thought her seizures to be metebolic or endocrine related. We started a vitamin d supplement yesterday and praying it stops the seizures. She never had any seizures until she started a stupid "cleansing" diet. And basically jacker her nutrition all up.
 
I had extensive blood work done by holistic neurologist at NYU about two years ago and she found severe vit d depletion. I went on IV vit d treatments since I'd just come out of Status. It was a miracle and I followed it up with 6 months of high dose vitamin d liquid gel capsules. Re-did blood work, levels great, so like an idiot I stopped...now I'm back in the same boat and have to start again. Don't know what it is about epilepsy depleting specific vitamins/minerals/amino acids at an alarming rate. Anyway, the vit D in the right dosage has a huge immediate noticeable effect for my bilateral TLE. Just need to stick with it.
 
I'm curious how much is too much. I was consistently taking 4000 IU a day, and despite that, on my last blood test I was deficient anyway, so I upped it to 8000. I know there is such a thing as TOO much vitamin D, but short of having your D tested every 2 months it's hard to know for those of us lay people with epilepsy how much to take!!
 
Yes, that's the tricky thing! Bloodwork is expensive. I will ask my doc next week about what the body does with too much D...I'm up for my yearly bloodwork. I know with magnesium the body flushes excess on its own.... I had a bad b-complex deficiency then started a year of intermuscular B complex injections and ended up with a slight surplus, so we stopped it and my body depleted within a few months. Glutathione deficiency has been the other major factor for me, and that really can't be taken as a pill.

Honestly, the biochemistry with epilepsy is so volatile and every little change has such huge effects - likewise I've found huge relief by balancing everything - that it's probably worth paying money to get the major culprits tested 4x/year. Shouldn't be too expensive just to run Bs, D, Mag, Calcium, Amino Acids, right?

I will ask my neurologist guru and let you know what she says.
 
Ps my point about pill vs IV vs intramuscular injection is that according to my doc, everybody's stomach:intestines are different ecosystems and very difficult to know how much of an orally injested supplement is actually being fully absorbed by the body. So one person could take 8,000 D and only absorb a fraction, whereas another different person would absorb most of it. Hence the importance of getting targeted bloodwork when on supplements. I remember her doing that for my b vitamins and it not TOO expensive. For whatever reason my body really does not absorb what it needs to via my digestive tract so the injections/IVs have been a lifesaver. It's just sad that they're $300 each and not covered by insurance because if probably be seizure-free if I could get them twice a month.
 
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probiotics may help with some digestion issues.
I started probiotics and did lose a couple pounds of weight, but I started sleeping better.
I increased my intake, and I am no longer losing weight.
I am working nights now, so I hope it helps me adjust with the new sleep patterns.
 
I have severe D deficiency without medication. I'm given a presription vitamin D capsule (50,000 units) 1x per week. Sometimes it's still low. I've never noticed if this correlates to any increased seizures.
 
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