PREVENTABLE RISK FACTORS FOR EPILEPTIC SEIZURES AMONG ASIANS

(© January, 2013: Dr. V.M.Palaniappan,Ph.D.)

Post-tsunami seizure attacks in Japan appear to have increased significantly. 

The New Straits Times, published in Malaysia has presented the news today (Tues., 22 Jan.,2013, p.32), as reported by Agencies, quoting the source journal Epilepsia.

It seems some 13 patients with seizures were admitted to the hospital during the first eight weeks after tsunami, compared to one during identical time span before the tragedy.

This clearly indicates that something that had happened due to tsunami had triggered the attacks.

What could that be?

Please read this write-up, and you may find the true cause for the increased attacks at the post-tsunami period.
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The information I am presenting here, which I have gathered in the process of treating a few patients during the past three decades, should prove useful for further research, for the prevention of epileptic seizures, for rehabilitation programs, and possibly for a complete cure of the disease.

(It may be of interest to the Readers to know that I have been a Life Member (not as a patient) of the Epileptic Society of Malaysia, since its inception some fifteen years ago.)

The discipline I have been practicing is called “Ecological Healing System”, and that comes under the umbrella of the complementary medicine called "Naturopathy".

My area of research and practice have been further categorized and registered under what is being popularly called “Botanical Medicine”, by the Complementary Society of Malaysia.

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I have personally done some minor research in the area of epileptic seizures in Malaysia and India, and have been offering some help to the sufferers, with reasonable success.

Let me describe what appear to be the most important risk factors that initiate or trigger such seizures.

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Please follow the steps I am describing here, to find the logic in my interpretations:

If we catch our nose and close the mouth tightly, oxygen supply to the brain gets completely cut.

After a brief moment, the oxygen that is in various parts of the body gets totally exhausted.

We then feel dizzy, while at the same time, we shake our head violently, push off the person who is catching our nose and closing our mouth, and do our best to free ourselves so that we can breathe in some air (i.e., oxygen).

In other words, we put up a struggle to breath-in. Failure to do so would result in comma, followed by death.

If oxygen availability does not resume, we faint, enter into a comma stage, and then die.

In the case of an epileptic patient, no one catches the nose or closes the mouth.

However, an incident that can be compared to cessation of oxygen supply to the brain occurs.

The victim breathes-in AIR.  To that extent, it is fine.

Yet, the air, instead of having NORMAL quantity of OXYGEN in it, tends to have OTHER GASES (- if not, it may contain very little oxygen that may NOT be enough for a person to continue living).

When such a situation occurs, the person feels DIZZY initially. Then, faints.

If the same situation continues, the person may enter comma, and then die.

However, the brain, in the process of struggle for existence, puts up a struggle as a last resort.

What happens when we run, say, 100 meters?

We pant. We inhale abundant air to cope up with the emergency need for extra oxygen. In that process of body shivers, and our head may shake as well.

When a person faints, being in a unconscious state, he may not be able to voluntarily inhale well.

Under such circumstances, if the brain can make the body shiver violently - an act that simulates the 100 meter-run, then the body would start panting, and that would enhance rapid oxygen intake.

Once the oxygen supply and its need (i.e., the Biological Oxygen Demand - the BOD) get balanced up, the shivering - in other words, the SEIZURE, stops.

Here, we should consider the act of seizure - the epileptic attack, as HUMAN-FRIENDLY, rather than a disease.

This is very much similar to cough, cold, sneezes, skin itch, and the like.

When our the breathing holes - the alveoli, get blocked by either dust particles or water droplets, our brain induces sneezing, and that removes the blockage, and enhances easy air exchange for continued survival.

Cough does identical ‘service’ to humans.

When a mosquito stings us, it ejects into our cells some poison.

If we leave the poison droplet in a concentrated form at one spot, the white cells in our blood may not be able to fight it out. As a result, the tissues there die, and the whole spot turns dark or blackish, indicating the death of tissues there.

Under normal circumstances, when a mosquito (or any other bee, for instance) bites us, the skin gives us an alarm in the form of an itch.

The itch induces us to scratch the spot. In that process, the poison, instead of being in a concentrated form in one spot, gets dispersed and diluted. This enables the white cells to successfully combat and win. As a result, our tissues at the affected spot would continue living in a health state.

Thus, itches are human-friendly.

Likewise, seizures should be considered human-friendly - and not a disease, as pointed out above.

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Now, the next question arises:

What displaces the oxygen content in the air that is inhaled by the victim?

To understand this, we have to trace the composition of the air in the immediate environment that prevails at the time of a seizure attack, or just before that moment.

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I have traced some of the details.

I have seen many Dispatch Boys (whose job is to ride on motorbikes within the city and deliver letter, parcels, and the like to the addressees) getting this problem.

They often ride motorbikes during peak traffic periods. The often need to stop at every traffic light.

While awaiting for the green light, they have no choice except to inhale the ‘terribly’ polluted air.

Often, such air tends to contain abundant carbon monoxide and several other poisonous emissions.

Such ‘filthy’ air tends to contain much less oxygen, and a lot more of the poisonous gases.

This creates a heavy demand for oxygen (- the BOD) in the Dispatch Boy.

Prolonged inhalation of such a bad air can give the boy dizziness and headaches.

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When one eats food, its digestion and utilization in the digestive tract and elsewhere in the body require oxygen.

Oxygen dissolved in the normal cool water provides some of such needs.

(If aquarium fish is allowed to live in such water, it would die soon for want of oxygen. Of course, if air-bubbles are created, the water gets back it oxygen, and the fish can continue living, using the dissolved oxygen.)

The above being the case, if the Dispatch Boy drinks BOILED water while taking his lunch, another BOD would arise in him. 

This can worsen the situation.

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In the process of offering prayers, some people burn JOSS STICKS, CAMPHOR, and INCENSE.

From time immemorial, the incense is burnt in temples and homes with proper ventilation. 

They are burnt in small quantities that are not harmful to humans.

In fact, these fumes are believed to eradicate many disease-causing microorganisms, besides being a deodorant that drives away foul smell.

The incense (called ‘sambirani’ in Tamil) is an insecticide. The smoke is capable of killing all kinds of small insects, including head lice, mosquitoes, cockroaches, and the like.

I burn a little of this daily morning in a specially-designed mud container, keep it in front of the alter, pray for a short while, and then carry it in hand to all parts of the house. Finally, I keep it in the store room where I keep all my groceries.

As a result of the above practice, my house is totally devoid of lizards, cockroaches, spiders, mosquitoes, and the like.  My groceries too are clean all the time, devoid of the normal pests.

I have seen some strong and well-built people wanting to enter into a trance, often inhale this fume intensely.  The weaker ones, if they did so, may even faint.

The usage can become dangerous only when these are burnt in large quantities. They begin to emit plenty of fumes and fill the room - often displacing the oxygen content that was there.

Apart from this, burning of camphor, if the windows are closed, can deplete rapidly the little oxygen content present in the already stale air.

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Among Indians, I have very often seen the following to happen:

People have been made to believe that there is no cure for epilepsy.

Therefore, the parents of these victims, wanting to seek the Divine help, let their suffering ‘children’ sleep in the prayer rooms where they have their deities. Then, they burn the joss sticks, camphor, and also incense.

Wanting to conserve the fumes, with the false believe that the fumes would do good to their children, they close the windows.  Some may do so with a view to keep away the mosquitoes, or even cold air.

If a person sleeps in that environment, without any doubt, his brain would end up severely poisoned.  Lack of oxygen to the brain makes it worse.

As a result of all the above, the body starts shivering. That is brain’s way of enhancing panting for increased oxygen uptake, as described earlier in this article.

Needless to say that this results in EPILEPTIC SEIZURE.

Such an attack would remain for a prolonged period until adequate oxygen gets back to the brain.

Every person getting a seizure would regain consciousness after a while - especially after the oxygen input becomes normalized.

Quick recovery would become possible if the widows are opened, crowd is dispersed, pollutants are kept aloof, and the clothes worn by victim are loosened.

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One thing appears to be clear: inhalation of poisonous air and depletion of oxygen appear to be the major risk factor for this disease.

People working in chemical stores can become victims.

People entering into under-ground sewerage ducts can get seizures, and can even die of such poisonous gases.

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In the process of trying to cure epileptic patients, I have traced a few more risk factors that appear to play important roles in giving this disease.

When we eat chocolates, pastries, biscuits (any kind), peanuts, over-ripe papaya (or any other excessively ripe fruits), our faeces becomes soft, shapeless and slimy, and we may defecate twice or more number of times small quantities of the faecal matter, often feeling improper or inadequate ‘evacuation’. Such a state would be accompanied by frequent releases of foul-smelling flatulence.

(Any smell that makes us feel uneasy, or repulsive as it occurs in the case of flatulence, should be considered a poison to our body! 

In other words, all poisonous gasses smell repulsive / unbearable.)

(I have been calling the occurrence of slimy stools as “Chronic Constipation” in all my books. Whereas, the medical fraternity calls it diarrhea.)

When such a condition occurs, the wall all along the lower part of the intestine, especially the colo-rectal region, absorbs the toxic substances.

I have found in ALL the epileptic patients, without exception, the occurrence of Chronic Constipation.

The poisonous gasses that develop from the decomposing slimy faecal matter in this group of people get reabsorbed into the body, thus poisoning the brain!

This worsens the health status of the victim, and he develops severe seizure attack.

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A few more practices that are invariably common among the seizure patients include the following:

They tend to cover their faces with blankets while asleep.

Keeping away mosquitoes or cold air, or even bright light could be the reason for such a practice. Unfortunately, during this process, fresh air too keeps off.

When they do this, they begin to breathe in repeatedly only the stale air that is rich in its carbon dioxide content.

Most of the victims keep their bedroom windows closed all the time, thus preventing ventilation to a significant extent.

As a result of these bad habits, the patient ends up with oxygen shortage. Needless to repeat that such a situation would inevitably give severe and frequent seizure attacks.

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I should not miss stating another fact here that is closely linked to epileptic attacks.

We know very well that carbohydrates and fats digest relatively easily in our digestive system.  Whereas, proteins take much longer time to break down.

Some of the proteins (such as dhor dhal, some of the dried bean seeds, etc.) which can be termed as “bad proteins” tend to release plenty of gasses even before they can get digested.

These gasses too appear to be disturbing the body physiology of the epileptic patients.

A point, worthy of noting is, that most of the epileptic patients seem to be consuming far too much of such high and bad protein diets.

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Some of the epileptic patients, I have traced, were even inhaling the volatile gasses that evolve while pumping petrol to vehicles. They seem to like it.

It should be worthwhile remembering that even the smell that comes out of eraser white markers can trigger an attack if the person happens to be prone to seizures.

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Talking of the epileptics and seizures, it may be of interest to know that nearly ALL humans have traces of epilepsy in them.

Let me make you recognize the ‘fault’ in you:

Try to recollect this:

Some time back, could be a few months ago, or even a few years ago, either frequently, or very occasionally, have you not JERKED suddenly while you were fast asleep?

Such a jerk could have lasted only for a second or two.

After such a jerk, you could continued sleeping, forgetting altogether the next morning that you had such an ‘attack’ the previous night.

You cannot deny this. You must have experienced the jerk, except that you never recollected its occurrence until this moment.

Would you accept it?

Well, that is seizure!  A ‘mini’ attack!

What could have give you that?

It occurs due to the accumulation of poisonous gasses in your brain! It is almost identical to epileptic attacks. The jerks tend to indicate the release of such poisonous gasses.

While conducting Group Therapy sessions, I make everybody release their poison accumulations so that the efficiency of their brain becomes excellent.

In that process, they would realize the release of such gasses, and they would never again get such nocturnal jerks. They would never ever develop any epileptic seizures.

Here, the RATIO between Carbon dioxide and Oxygen becomes NARROW, and that gives them some likeable momentary dizziness - as if they are drunk!

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Well friends, if you sum up all the above, you will end up developing a program for the total prevention or even a curative procedure for epileptic seizures.  You can cure them without the use of drugs!

I have given a short, but vivid description of these details in my book “HUMAN DISEASES”, wherein I have re-defined 101 common diseases people suffer from, with reasons, curative procedures, etc.

If you happen to be in Malaysia, you can order for a printed copy of the book. If not, you may want to kindly wait until my e-book is posted in our BLOG / WEBSITE.

With best wishes,

Dr. Palani, Ph.D.