Re: drugs exacerbating seizures -- aja-PVCs & tegretol

[Guest guest]

Irregular heartbeat is an adverse reaction to tegretol and syncope

is the condition most often misdiagnosed as epileptic seizures.

Now that I'm seizure free without drugs, I can look back and see

how much my seizures were being triggered by the drugs supposed to

treat them.

I always jump on the band wagon with tegetol, because I was

chronically toxic on it, too medically debillitated by it to manage

getting off, for a long time, and nearly died several times from

convulsive syncopal spells causing aspiration pneumonia when I was on

the drug. At one point the ER docs called my neuro to tell him I was

highly toxic and having a bronchoscopy to dredge the vomit from my

lungs after a near deadly syncopal episode. They had to admit me for

aspiration pneumonia and the neuro suggested increasing my tegretol

because he thought the " benefits outweighed the risks. " If I had not

managed to literally flee the state, and quit taking the drug, I

doubt I would be alive today.

Zoe

http://www.medhelp.org/forums/cardio/archive/6603.html

http://www.citizen.org/eletter/drugprofiles/carbamazepine.htm

http://www.biologicalunhappiness.com/AskDoc/Tegretol_making_me_ill.htm

[Guest guest]

Hi Zoe,

While I was on Lamictal, I was actually much, much clearer headed. Now, the

only reason why I'm very hesitant about getting off Tegretol & back on

Lamictal is the fact that I had first arrhythmias while on Lamictal, NOT on

Tegretol... Now my arrythmias are worse, sometimes once or twice a minute &

I keep on running into dead ends: IS it the medication? Is it the vitamins?

Is it my food? My tendency towards hypothyriod-ism? My tendency towards

Lupus? Just plain anxiety? The cardilogist didn't help. Basically, he

shrugged & said I had a healthy heart -- except for the PVCs of course.

Yes, I'm bitching. But so many tests & studies later, so much money down the

drain, the only real help wasn't from the pristine doctors with their MDs &

god-complexes, but from my friend on the web -- you suggesting Taurine...

Thanks again.

*sigh*

~Aja

>From: " zoe88025 " <Zll51@...>

>Reply-

>

>Subject: [ ] Re: drugs exacerbating seizures -- aja-PVCs &

>tegretol

>Date: Thu, 06 Jun 2002 00:23:02 -0000

>

> Irregular heartbeat is an adverse reaction to tegretol and syncope

>is the condition most often misdiagnosed as epileptic seizures.

> Now that I'm seizure free without drugs, I can look back and see

>how much my seizures were being triggered by the drugs supposed to

>treat them.

> I always jump on the band wagon with tegetol, because I was

>chronically toxic on it, too medically debillitated by it to manage

>getting off, for a long time, and nearly died several times from

>convulsive syncopal spells causing aspiration pneumonia when I was on

>the drug. At one point the ER docs called my neuro to tell him I was

>highly toxic and having a bronchoscopy to dredge the vomit from my

>lungs after a near deadly syncopal episode. They had to admit me for

>aspiration pneumonia and the neuro suggested increasing my tegretol

>because he thought the " benefits outweighed the risks. " If I had not

>managed to literally flee the state, and quit taking the drug, I

>doubt I would be alive today.

>Zoe

>

>http://www.medhelp.org/forums/cardio/archive/6603.html

>

>http://www.citizen.org/eletter/drugprofiles/carbamazepine.htm

>

>http://www.biologicalunhappiness.com/AskDoc/Tegretol_making_me_ill.htm

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[Guest guest]

Hi Aja,

I have felt that same despair, the same sense of futility with the

doc who doesn't know his\her you-know-what from a hole in the ground.

When you list all the " what can it be " possibilities, it helps to

keep in mind that it may be some combination of all of them. With

seizures, it is much a question of balance. The tegretol will deplete

you of vitamins which can interfere with you minerals, electrolytes,

and your seizure threshold. There are physical changes with the PVCs,

altered blood flow, vasospasms, etc., not to mention the stress,

which further lowers your seizure threshold. A lot of things, like

taurine, may not work if the other related causes are not identified

and treated.

It is much a question of balance. If something is interfering with

you levels of vitamin B6, this can lead to a problem with adequate

levels of taurine, because taurine is synthesized in the body from B6

and other amino acids. All the various factors, vitamins, stress,

injury, don't cause seizures all by themselves. What they do is lower

the seizure threshold, i.e., increase the chance of having a seizure.

Picking away at all the factors contributing to seizures is a means

of raising the seizure threshold, be it through breath training,

diet, vitamins, whatever. Rather than looking for one thing to work

(the drug philosophy), our chances of gaining seizure control is

better if we look at how to restore balance to our health.

Have you looked at trying a few diet changes, or a liquid fast as

an experiment to see if it will decrease your seizures or your PVCs?

I found this helped me at times. Also, can you get more workups done

outside the conventional setting, like maybe through Great Plains

Laboratory, or Carbonbased, Mark Schauss's lab? That might give you

more information on what vitamins and diet changes are likely to

help. Are you using any breathing techniques to learn to regulate

your own heart rate? It is so *() & %%$$##@!! expletive, frustrating!

Did you ever contact Donna s? Even if you didn't go through

the whole program, that might be an option for getting an evaluation

and advice on diets and meds. Maybe it is worth a try. I'm going to

look up some stuff on the rice diet, and old folk treatment for

seizures. I do know some fairly recent studies found that if you soak

brown rice for 22 hours before cooking, its content of the inhibitory

amino acid GABA, increases tenfold. Regarding the lamictal: I had a

bad reaction to even a child's dose. For yourself, if you think it is

an option, why not do a search on it, or write up a bunch of

questions and ask a pharmacist to help you find answers on what ways

it may have an adverse effect and how you can address those if you

choose to use the drug again. Another option would be to write out

your questions and send them to the customer relations officer of the

drug manufacturer. Whatever you do, keep hanging tough and trusting

in your own abilities. ANything that turns up on the diet I will post

for you.

Zoe

> Hi Zoe,

>

> While I was on Lamictal, I was actually much, much clearer headed.

Now, the

> only reason why I'm very hesitant about getting off Tegretol & back

on

> Lamictal is the fact that I had first arrhythmias while on

Lamictal, NOT on

> Tegretol... Now my arrythmias are worse, sometimes once or twice a

minute &

> I keep on running into dead ends: IS it the medication? Is it the

vitamins?

> Is it my food? My tendency towards hypothyriod-ism? My tendency

towards

> Lupus? Just plain anxiety? The cardilogist didn't help. Basically,

he

> shrugged & said I had a healthy heart -- except for the PVCs of

course.

>

> Yes, I'm bitching. But so many tests & studies later, so much money

down the

> drain, the only real help wasn't from the pristine doctors with

their MDs &

> god-complexes, but from my friend on the web -- you suggesting

Taurine...

> Thanks again.

>

> *sigh*

> ~Aja