YVETTE’S STORY

In September 2007, when I first read about the Atkins Diet being used for children with Epilepsy, I was experiencing 4-8 seizures on average per day. I would also experience Continuous Auras for extended periods. Sometimes the auras would only last a day, but sometimes they would continue for as long as 2 weeks & as you could well imagine, this severely affected my day-to-day functioning both at home & at work.

At the time I was taking Lamictin (Lamogtrigine). When I discussed my Aura/Seizure Patterns with my consulting Psychiatrist, the solution offered was to yet again increase my dosage of Lamotrigine. However, I found this to be totally unacceptable. I knew there had to be an alternative. So thus began my search and this was when I read about the success stories in the reduction of seizures in children on the Atkins/Ketogenic Diet.

There was one small snag however, there wasn’t much information available to adults successfully using the diet, but I wasn’t going to let this hinder me. I proceeded to gather as much information as I could on the Atkins/Ketogenic Diet & then I began experimenting with the diet by systematically introducing elements of the Atkins/Ketogenic Diet into my eating plan. Amazingly, I soon noticed a marked reduction in the presence of Auras/Seizures but I was still using the Lamictin and was therefore not entirely sure whether the change in my seizures were due to the diet or not. I began to wean myself from the Lamictin over a period of 3 months while carefully monitoring my seizure patterns.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, it’s now January 2011 and I am totally med-free, to date still on my own tried & tested version of the Ketogenic/Atkins Diet and I’m happy to report that my seizures have been successfully reduced from the initial 4-8 episodes per day in 2007 to a total of 8 seizure episodes for 2010. As for the ongoing auras I used to experience, well these too have been drastically reduced.

On my journey from then until now, I have found the following to be certain triggers:

  • A reduction in my daily intake of “fats”
  • Playing Mahjongh on my PC (lead period to Seizure Activity being 72hrs)
  • Working on Oracle’s eBusiness Suite (CRM Modules)
  • Lavender

I have also found that should I start experiencing auras, eating some peanut butter most definitely does help in reducing the auras and has even on occasion prevented the onset of a seizure. I sincerely hope someone benefits from my experiences

Please Note:  This article is not intended as medical advice.  What worked for Yvette may not work for others (for example, for one reader of this website, peanut butter is a huge seizure trigger).