Dear forum members
I would be highly grateful if some of the experts on this forum could give their opinion on the case of my poor 3 year old son who is currently suffering from frequent nocturnal grand mal seizures. I’m currently at my wit’s end and I don’t know how to deal with the following situation. I apologize in advance for my long and detailed posting.
My son had a relatively normal development until the age of 14 months, when he suffered from this first tonic-clonic seizure. There were no birth complications and he was breastfed until 9 months of age. After that we sometimes gave him the WAPF milk formula (which is made from raw milk) but more frequently an organic powder formula with no nasty ingredients. When he was old enough to drink cow’s milk directly, we gave him good quality raw organic cows milk about 3 times per day. We gave our best to feed him well following principles of the WAPF and Ray Peat. He was not a good sleeper from the beginning and tended to be rather uneasy and agitated, but apart from that he was a very joyful and curious little boy who was always very outgoing and playful. He had good motor development and could walk at the age of 12.5 month.
A few days before he had his first seizure he was sick for a few days (probably the flu, since he had fever). He didn’t eat much during the period of sickness and basically drank milk. Interestingly, he never lost the appetite for milk even when he was sick. About 2 days after he finally ate solid food again, he suddenly and totally unexpectedly had grand mal seizure while he was playing in his room. My wife and I were eating breakfast in the kitchen when we suddenly heard strange noises coming from his room. We immediately rushed into his room and found him lying on the floor. He had a classical grand mal seizure that lasted about 2-3 minutes, but at the time we didn’t know what it is and feared that he is going to die. We first thought that he might have swallowed something. It was totally terrifying. Of course, we immediately called the ambulance. The people from the ambulance thought that it might be a febrile seizure, because it is quite common at this age. However, when they measured the temperature, it was quite a bit below normal (35.5° Celcius). They later brought us to the children’s hospital and we stayed there for two days. During the first day my son suffered another two grand mal seizures. A full medical examination, including EEG, brain structural MRI, and blood work was conducted, but they couldn’t find anything. Therefore, they didn’t want to draw the diagnosis of epilepsy yet. Given that my child was sick the past few days and still had a cough, they interpreted it as kind of a febrile seizure. I should also say that these events occurred at the end of December, when the darkness stress of winter was at its peak.
Unfortunately, a month later my son had another isolated seizure and two months later (in mid of February) he had a period lasting about 5 days where he had a seizure practically every day. Almost all of these seizures occurred at night while he was asleep (typically in the early morning hours) or shortly after getting up. The doctors had told us to go to the emergency room if two grand mal seizures occur within 24 hours, which was the case by the end of the above described period. After we went there, they told us that the diagnostic criteria of an epilepsy are now fulfilled and they prescribed an antiepileptic (Sodium valproate). After my wife and I came home and had read the list of side effects that this medication can have, we were strongly determined to first try all possible natural alternatives.
I immediately did a thorough internet research on the topic and of course I also read everything that Ray Peat has ever mentioned about epilepsy. I came to the conclusion that it would be worth to try Magnesium, B6, Vitamin E and natural desiccated thyroid extract. I knew that the seizures had to be controlled immediately not only because they are highly stressful l and potentially harmful for the brain, but also because relatives and friends would put huge pressure on us to medicate him as long as seizures are still ongoing.
Consequently, I didn’t have the time to introduce these supplements sequentially. Luckily, I had all these supplements already at home. I decided to try magnesium in the form of magnesium chloride as it is easily soluble in milk and is highly absorbable. I also put Vitamin E (Unique E), a very small dose of Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxal-5-Phophate) and a quarter grain of thyroid (PimPom Products) into his bottle of milk that he drank before going to bed. Additionally, I gave him an Epsom salt bath before going to bed. The first night I could hardly sleep since I expected a seizure to occur at every minute. Luckily, the seizures stopped already in the first night! The next seizure he had was about a month later (probably caused by lack of sleep) and then it stopped completely for over 8 months! I was so thrilled. After introducing these supplements, we also observed in the next few days and weeks that his sleep improved and that he became quieter and less irritable.
However, after about 1-2 month being on these supplements he started to have myoclonic jerks, particularly when he was getting tired. Our neurologist was not very concerned about these jerks. He said that they can occur as part of an epilepsy and they do not have to be treated. Although he was sceptic about our nutritional approach (or I should say uninterested), he was ok with it as long our son was seizure free.
After a while we stopped the supplements one after another starting with those that I considered the least important. Based on the literature and reports on forums, I was convinced that magnesium was the most important factor. So, I dropped everything after a while and only kept magnesium. Unfortunately, he still suffered from myoclonic jerks and it became more and more obvious that he is delayed in his speech development. I therefore started to look further for potential remedies. Accidently, I stumbled across a book about B12 deficiency (Could it be B12? – Sarah Pacholok). I was highly intrigued by this book since it also has a chapter about B12 deficiency in small children. Among other things I found out the B12 deficiency has been described in the medical literature to cause all kinds of movement disorders and also epileptic seizures. I later found out that the author has another book that specifically addresses the consequences of B12 deficiency in small children. After reading that I was even more intrigued. I developed the theory that my wife, who has celiac disease and other intestinal problems, had a problem with absorbing B12 and therefore could not provide enough B12 to my son while exclusively breastfeeding him. I decided to make a therapeutic trial and started to give 500 mcg liquid methylcobalamin to my son. At first my son appeared to respond very well to this supplement. The jerks almost completely stopped after a few weeks. However, they reappeared during the next few months while still taking the methylcobalamin.
In November, about 8 months after his last seizure, while still being on magnesium (albeit a smaller dosage) and methylcobalamin , he started to have seizures again. During November and December he had 3 seizures in total. Luckily, we finally managed to control it by increasing the dose of magnesium and adding B6, Vitamin E and Vitamin D/K2 (Thorne Research product). I started the vitamin D, since I realized that he is more seizure prone in winter time and since there were two reviews published about Vitamin D and epilepsy in the mean time. After that he was again completely seizure free for 9 months! Again, we dropped the supplements one after another. The last supplement we dropped was magnesium around end of June this year. I was quite nervous about that because I always thought that magnesium was the most important factor in our concoction. To my amazement nothing bad happed. Not only did he not a have a relapse, the myoclonic jerks started to diminish and finally vanished completely! I was totally shocked. I would never have imagined that a relatively small dose of magnesium (around 100 mg elemental magnesium spread across the day) could cause that. I’m still puzzled at this day how this could have occurred. If anyone knows the answer, please tell me. I guess we had either used a bad form of magnesium or we had dosed too high.
Anyway, by mid of September, after he had been seizure free for 9 months and we already had thought that he has outgrown it, he suddenly had a seizure again in the early morning. In the weeks before we had already noticed that something is starting to change. Whereas before he would constantly wake up at 7 am, he started to wake up earlier and earlier every day until he woke up as early as 5.30, which led to more and more sleep deprivation on my side.
We first considered the seizure an isolated event and did not want to start our supplement regime again. Besides, after having realized that we had caused the myoclonic jerks ourselves, my wife became more and more suspicious about supplements in general and did not want to make further experiments. Nevertheless, I felt that I have to do something and started to give him small doses Vitamin E (Health Natura Brand) several times per week. I chose Vitamin E not only because it should protect against seizures but also because I felt that it would boost the immune system of my son. This speculation was based on the observation that my son was almost never sick earlier in the year while being on Vitamin E, but had almost constantly a cold between about April and July.
However, about two weeks later he had a seizure in the late afternoon, which is a highly unusual time for him. About another three weeks later he had two seizures early in the morning within only two hours, which again is highly unusual. My wife still did not want to give him supplements and thought that our earlier success was a coincidence. Unsurprisingly, his seizure grew further out of control in the following weeks such that he had 8 seizures this fall until this day. About 10 days ago, my wife agreed to give him supplements again. We agreed that if the seizures are not controlled within one month we would start antiepileptic medication.
Besides giving him a small dose of Vitamin E daily (one bump of the Health Natura Brand), I also started with magnesium again. However, due to fears of causing myoclonic jerks, I started slow and chose another form of magnesium, namely, magnesium glycinate (Metabolic Maintenance brand). Additionally I put him on a small dose of Pyridoxal -5-Phosphate (about 1mg) and Vitamin D (1000 I.U.) /K4 (400 mcg) (Thorne) . The first few days I gave 65 mg elemental magnesium once per day. Then I switched to Magnesium Bicarbonate with about the same dose. I thought it might be more effective and is easier to give as it has a better taste. However, after he still had a seizure, I switched back to magnesium glycinate and doubled the dose. I reasoned that magnesium glycinate is not only one of the least laxative forms of magnesium, the amino acid glycine to which it is bound might have additional calming and neuroprotective properties.
Unfortunately, this morning, after having received 130 mg magnesium glycinate the third day, he still had a seizure in the morning. I had hoped that would work better and earlier. Now, the time is running out. People around us are pushing us towards giving him medication. My wife also has lost hope that we can treat it naturally and starts to favor medication, particularly since its becoming more and more obvious that our son is developmentally delayed (especially in terms of speech). She thinks we can no longer carry the risk of not treating him properly and I tend to agree. I’m writing this because I still have a small hope that we can turn things around and treat my son naturally and without exposing him to potentially severe side effects of antiepileptics.
My current view is as follows:
Based on my reading of the literature, magnesium has the biggest potential to treat epilepsy naturally and in many cases epilepsy is simply a form of magnesium deficiency. I think it is not a coincidence that my son was seizure free while being treated with magnesium. I guess he had a decent magnesium status when we stopped supplementing it by the end of June and it took several months until his magnesium reserves were depleted enough to have a relapse. Of course, the shorter days and lower temperatures might also have contributed to this. The reason why he still did not sufficiently respond to the re-introduction of magnesium might be because we did not give it long enough and in a high enough dose. I might also be that magnesium glycinate is less effective than magnesiuim chloride that we used earlier. His other symptoms perfectly fit a magnesium deficiency state. For instance, he tends to have slightly trembling hands and his muscles appears rather rigid and stiff. Also, he still has problems to sleep through and frequently wakes up. He also gets a hiccup every time a tickle him. He is also very agitated and hyperactive at times.
The big question is, why would a small child that has a relatively good diet develop magnesium deficiency? My most recent suspicion is that he drinks too much cow’s milk, which has a very high calcium to magnesium ratio and thereby can lead to magnesium depletion. I realized this after reading the following site:
Magnesium, The Nutrient That Could Change Your Life: Chapter 7. Epilepsy
It describes how Doctor Dr. Lewis B. Barnett successfully treated children with epilepsy using magnesium gluconate. He observed that 9 out of 10 children with epilepsy were milk drinkers. He always advised his patients to eliminate milk from the diet and apparently this was an important part of his success.
My suspicion was further fueled by reading the recent discussion in the following thread:
Our Tarot Reader On The Antagonistic Effects Of Magnesium On Calcium
My son was always a heavy milk drinker. Up until recently he drank about 2.5 dl two to three times a day. We mostly use organic raw milk that is only heated up to body temperature in a pan.
Another possible explanation for his low magnesium level is that he has a low thyroid function and therefore has problems to retain magnesium. I originally suspected this after observing that he tended to have quite a low body temperature immediately after a seizure. We had requested a thyroid test when he got the diagnosis of epilepsy. He had a TSH of 2 [mlU/l], free T3 of 6.8 [pmol/l] and free T4 of 16 [pmol/l]. All values were well within the reference ranges, although I guess a TSH is too high by Peat standards.
Finally, according to Peat, not enough salt can lead to magnesium loss. I’m not sure if this is a problem. We use salt freely and don’t restrict it.
Now, if my assumption is correct that his main problem is low magnesium, how would you treat him? Remember that the treatment has to be fast and highly efficient. We can no longer wait. What magnesium form do you think is the most efficient one to treat epilepsy? I don’t want to use magnesium chloride anymore for reasons described above – at least not orally. Do you think magnesium glycinate is a good form for this? What do you think of magnesium gluconate? From what I’ve read it is highly absorbable and it has the advantage that we know from the case histories of Lewis Barnett that it works. Magnesium threonate also looks very promising as it seems to increase magnesium in the brain more efficiently than other forms of magnesium. I also read several reports in the internet that is very calming and relaxing, which is definitely a good sign. On the other hand, few independent research exists on this magnesium form . So it’s hard to say whether its only marketing hype or not. Magnesium sulfate looks quite promising as a recent randomized controlled trial from Egypt has used this form to treat epilepsy in children.
Effect of Magnesium Supplementation for Children With Drug Resistant Idiopathic Epilepsy - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov
I could not find a published paper from this study yet, but I found an abstract from a master thesis that is apparently based on the data of this trial and it says in the conclusions that magnesium reduced seizure frequency.
Application Control Violation
Magnesium sulfate was also recommended for the treatment of epilepsy by Adelle Davis. She recommended half a teaspoon in orange juice every morning. People on earth clinic report that it is highly effective:
Natural Treatment for Epilepsy
Magnesium sulfate(i.v.) is also used to prevent seizures in pregnant women.
However, magnesium sulfate is highly laxative and has an awful taste. Therefore, I don’t think giving it orally is good idea. I think it’s a good idea to apply Epsom salt bathes instead.
How much magnesium per day do you think is safe to give to a 3 year old child? He weighs about 15 kg.
What do you think of my suspicion that his high milk consumption promoted the lack of magnesium? Do you think it would be good to eliminate milk completely at least for while or do you think it’s enough to reduce the amount?
What do you think of the medication they prescribed to him (Sodium valproate)? Do you think it’s worth the risks?
What other things can we do that are both safe and effective to reduce the chances of having a seizure at night?
Thank you for taking the time to read all this.
I would be highly grateful if some of the experts on this forum could give their opinion on the case of my poor 3 year old son who is currently suffering from frequent nocturnal grand mal seizures. I’m currently at my wit’s end and I don’t know how to deal with the following situation. I apologize in advance for my long and detailed posting.
My son had a relatively normal development until the age of 14 months, when he suffered from this first tonic-clonic seizure. There were no birth complications and he was breastfed until 9 months of age. After that we sometimes gave him the WAPF milk formula (which is made from raw milk) but more frequently an organic powder formula with no nasty ingredients. When he was old enough to drink cow’s milk directly, we gave him good quality raw organic cows milk about 3 times per day. We gave our best to feed him well following principles of the WAPF and Ray Peat. He was not a good sleeper from the beginning and tended to be rather uneasy and agitated, but apart from that he was a very joyful and curious little boy who was always very outgoing and playful. He had good motor development and could walk at the age of 12.5 month.
A few days before he had his first seizure he was sick for a few days (probably the flu, since he had fever). He didn’t eat much during the period of sickness and basically drank milk. Interestingly, he never lost the appetite for milk even when he was sick. About 2 days after he finally ate solid food again, he suddenly and totally unexpectedly had grand mal seizure while he was playing in his room. My wife and I were eating breakfast in the kitchen when we suddenly heard strange noises coming from his room. We immediately rushed into his room and found him lying on the floor. He had a classical grand mal seizure that lasted about 2-3 minutes, but at the time we didn’t know what it is and feared that he is going to die. We first thought that he might have swallowed something. It was totally terrifying. Of course, we immediately called the ambulance. The people from the ambulance thought that it might be a febrile seizure, because it is quite common at this age. However, when they measured the temperature, it was quite a bit below normal (35.5° Celcius). They later brought us to the children’s hospital and we stayed there for two days. During the first day my son suffered another two grand mal seizures. A full medical examination, including EEG, brain structural MRI, and blood work was conducted, but they couldn’t find anything. Therefore, they didn’t want to draw the diagnosis of epilepsy yet. Given that my child was sick the past few days and still had a cough, they interpreted it as kind of a febrile seizure. I should also say that these events occurred at the end of December, when the darkness stress of winter was at its peak.
Unfortunately, a month later my son had another isolated seizure and two months later (in mid of February) he had a period lasting about 5 days where he had a seizure practically every day. Almost all of these seizures occurred at night while he was asleep (typically in the early morning hours) or shortly after getting up. The doctors had told us to go to the emergency room if two grand mal seizures occur within 24 hours, which was the case by the end of the above described period. After we went there, they told us that the diagnostic criteria of an epilepsy are now fulfilled and they prescribed an antiepileptic (Sodium valproate). After my wife and I came home and had read the list of side effects that this medication can have, we were strongly determined to first try all possible natural alternatives.
I immediately did a thorough internet research on the topic and of course I also read everything that Ray Peat has ever mentioned about epilepsy. I came to the conclusion that it would be worth to try Magnesium, B6, Vitamin E and natural desiccated thyroid extract. I knew that the seizures had to be controlled immediately not only because they are highly stressful l and potentially harmful for the brain, but also because relatives and friends would put huge pressure on us to medicate him as long as seizures are still ongoing.
Consequently, I didn’t have the time to introduce these supplements sequentially. Luckily, I had all these supplements already at home. I decided to try magnesium in the form of magnesium chloride as it is easily soluble in milk and is highly absorbable. I also put Vitamin E (Unique E), a very small dose of Vitamin B6 (Pyridoxal-5-Phophate) and a quarter grain of thyroid (PimPom Products) into his bottle of milk that he drank before going to bed. Additionally, I gave him an Epsom salt bath before going to bed. The first night I could hardly sleep since I expected a seizure to occur at every minute. Luckily, the seizures stopped already in the first night! The next seizure he had was about a month later (probably caused by lack of sleep) and then it stopped completely for over 8 months! I was so thrilled. After introducing these supplements, we also observed in the next few days and weeks that his sleep improved and that he became quieter and less irritable.
However, after about 1-2 month being on these supplements he started to have myoclonic jerks, particularly when he was getting tired. Our neurologist was not very concerned about these jerks. He said that they can occur as part of an epilepsy and they do not have to be treated. Although he was sceptic about our nutritional approach (or I should say uninterested), he was ok with it as long our son was seizure free.
After a while we stopped the supplements one after another starting with those that I considered the least important. Based on the literature and reports on forums, I was convinced that magnesium was the most important factor. So, I dropped everything after a while and only kept magnesium. Unfortunately, he still suffered from myoclonic jerks and it became more and more obvious that he is delayed in his speech development. I therefore started to look further for potential remedies. Accidently, I stumbled across a book about B12 deficiency (Could it be B12? – Sarah Pacholok). I was highly intrigued by this book since it also has a chapter about B12 deficiency in small children. Among other things I found out the B12 deficiency has been described in the medical literature to cause all kinds of movement disorders and also epileptic seizures. I later found out that the author has another book that specifically addresses the consequences of B12 deficiency in small children. After reading that I was even more intrigued. I developed the theory that my wife, who has celiac disease and other intestinal problems, had a problem with absorbing B12 and therefore could not provide enough B12 to my son while exclusively breastfeeding him. I decided to make a therapeutic trial and started to give 500 mcg liquid methylcobalamin to my son. At first my son appeared to respond very well to this supplement. The jerks almost completely stopped after a few weeks. However, they reappeared during the next few months while still taking the methylcobalamin.
In November, about 8 months after his last seizure, while still being on magnesium (albeit a smaller dosage) and methylcobalamin , he started to have seizures again. During November and December he had 3 seizures in total. Luckily, we finally managed to control it by increasing the dose of magnesium and adding B6, Vitamin E and Vitamin D/K2 (Thorne Research product). I started the vitamin D, since I realized that he is more seizure prone in winter time and since there were two reviews published about Vitamin D and epilepsy in the mean time. After that he was again completely seizure free for 9 months! Again, we dropped the supplements one after another. The last supplement we dropped was magnesium around end of June this year. I was quite nervous about that because I always thought that magnesium was the most important factor in our concoction. To my amazement nothing bad happed. Not only did he not a have a relapse, the myoclonic jerks started to diminish and finally vanished completely! I was totally shocked. I would never have imagined that a relatively small dose of magnesium (around 100 mg elemental magnesium spread across the day) could cause that. I’m still puzzled at this day how this could have occurred. If anyone knows the answer, please tell me. I guess we had either used a bad form of magnesium or we had dosed too high.
Anyway, by mid of September, after he had been seizure free for 9 months and we already had thought that he has outgrown it, he suddenly had a seizure again in the early morning. In the weeks before we had already noticed that something is starting to change. Whereas before he would constantly wake up at 7 am, he started to wake up earlier and earlier every day until he woke up as early as 5.30, which led to more and more sleep deprivation on my side.
We first considered the seizure an isolated event and did not want to start our supplement regime again. Besides, after having realized that we had caused the myoclonic jerks ourselves, my wife became more and more suspicious about supplements in general and did not want to make further experiments. Nevertheless, I felt that I have to do something and started to give him small doses Vitamin E (Health Natura Brand) several times per week. I chose Vitamin E not only because it should protect against seizures but also because I felt that it would boost the immune system of my son. This speculation was based on the observation that my son was almost never sick earlier in the year while being on Vitamin E, but had almost constantly a cold between about April and July.
However, about two weeks later he had a seizure in the late afternoon, which is a highly unusual time for him. About another three weeks later he had two seizures early in the morning within only two hours, which again is highly unusual. My wife still did not want to give him supplements and thought that our earlier success was a coincidence. Unsurprisingly, his seizure grew further out of control in the following weeks such that he had 8 seizures this fall until this day. About 10 days ago, my wife agreed to give him supplements again. We agreed that if the seizures are not controlled within one month we would start antiepileptic medication.
Besides giving him a small dose of Vitamin E daily (one bump of the Health Natura Brand), I also started with magnesium again. However, due to fears of causing myoclonic jerks, I started slow and chose another form of magnesium, namely, magnesium glycinate (Metabolic Maintenance brand). Additionally I put him on a small dose of Pyridoxal -5-Phosphate (about 1mg) and Vitamin D (1000 I.U.) /K4 (400 mcg) (Thorne) . The first few days I gave 65 mg elemental magnesium once per day. Then I switched to Magnesium Bicarbonate with about the same dose. I thought it might be more effective and is easier to give as it has a better taste. However, after he still had a seizure, I switched back to magnesium glycinate and doubled the dose. I reasoned that magnesium glycinate is not only one of the least laxative forms of magnesium, the amino acid glycine to which it is bound might have additional calming and neuroprotective properties.
Unfortunately, this morning, after having received 130 mg magnesium glycinate the third day, he still had a seizure in the morning. I had hoped that would work better and earlier. Now, the time is running out. People around us are pushing us towards giving him medication. My wife also has lost hope that we can treat it naturally and starts to favor medication, particularly since its becoming more and more obvious that our son is developmentally delayed (especially in terms of speech). She thinks we can no longer carry the risk of not treating him properly and I tend to agree. I’m writing this because I still have a small hope that we can turn things around and treat my son naturally and without exposing him to potentially severe side effects of antiepileptics.
My current view is as follows:
Based on my reading of the literature, magnesium has the biggest potential to treat epilepsy naturally and in many cases epilepsy is simply a form of magnesium deficiency. I think it is not a coincidence that my son was seizure free while being treated with magnesium. I guess he had a decent magnesium status when we stopped supplementing it by the end of June and it took several months until his magnesium reserves were depleted enough to have a relapse. Of course, the shorter days and lower temperatures might also have contributed to this. The reason why he still did not sufficiently respond to the re-introduction of magnesium might be because we did not give it long enough and in a high enough dose. I might also be that magnesium glycinate is less effective than magnesiuim chloride that we used earlier. His other symptoms perfectly fit a magnesium deficiency state. For instance, he tends to have slightly trembling hands and his muscles appears rather rigid and stiff. Also, he still has problems to sleep through and frequently wakes up. He also gets a hiccup every time a tickle him. He is also very agitated and hyperactive at times.
The big question is, why would a small child that has a relatively good diet develop magnesium deficiency? My most recent suspicion is that he drinks too much cow’s milk, which has a very high calcium to magnesium ratio and thereby can lead to magnesium depletion. I realized this after reading the following site:
Magnesium, The Nutrient That Could Change Your Life: Chapter 7. Epilepsy
It describes how Doctor Dr. Lewis B. Barnett successfully treated children with epilepsy using magnesium gluconate. He observed that 9 out of 10 children with epilepsy were milk drinkers. He always advised his patients to eliminate milk from the diet and apparently this was an important part of his success.
My suspicion was further fueled by reading the recent discussion in the following thread:
Our Tarot Reader On The Antagonistic Effects Of Magnesium On Calcium
My son was always a heavy milk drinker. Up until recently he drank about 2.5 dl two to three times a day. We mostly use organic raw milk that is only heated up to body temperature in a pan.
Another possible explanation for his low magnesium level is that he has a low thyroid function and therefore has problems to retain magnesium. I originally suspected this after observing that he tended to have quite a low body temperature immediately after a seizure. We had requested a thyroid test when he got the diagnosis of epilepsy. He had a TSH of 2 [mlU/l], free T3 of 6.8 [pmol/l] and free T4 of 16 [pmol/l]. All values were well within the reference ranges, although I guess a TSH is too high by Peat standards.
Finally, according to Peat, not enough salt can lead to magnesium loss. I’m not sure if this is a problem. We use salt freely and don’t restrict it.
Now, if my assumption is correct that his main problem is low magnesium, how would you treat him? Remember that the treatment has to be fast and highly efficient. We can no longer wait. What magnesium form do you think is the most efficient one to treat epilepsy? I don’t want to use magnesium chloride anymore for reasons described above – at least not orally. Do you think magnesium glycinate is a good form for this? What do you think of magnesium gluconate? From what I’ve read it is highly absorbable and it has the advantage that we know from the case histories of Lewis Barnett that it works. Magnesium threonate also looks very promising as it seems to increase magnesium in the brain more efficiently than other forms of magnesium. I also read several reports in the internet that is very calming and relaxing, which is definitely a good sign. On the other hand, few independent research exists on this magnesium form . So it’s hard to say whether its only marketing hype or not. Magnesium sulfate looks quite promising as a recent randomized controlled trial from Egypt has used this form to treat epilepsy in children.
Effect of Magnesium Supplementation for Children With Drug Resistant Idiopathic Epilepsy - Full Text View - ClinicalTrials.gov
I could not find a published paper from this study yet, but I found an abstract from a master thesis that is apparently based on the data of this trial and it says in the conclusions that magnesium reduced seizure frequency.
Application Control Violation
Magnesium sulfate was also recommended for the treatment of epilepsy by Adelle Davis. She recommended half a teaspoon in orange juice every morning. People on earth clinic report that it is highly effective:
Natural Treatment for Epilepsy
Magnesium sulfate(i.v.) is also used to prevent seizures in pregnant women.
However, magnesium sulfate is highly laxative and has an awful taste. Therefore, I don’t think giving it orally is good idea. I think it’s a good idea to apply Epsom salt bathes instead.
How much magnesium per day do you think is safe to give to a 3 year old child? He weighs about 15 kg.
What do you think of my suspicion that his high milk consumption promoted the lack of magnesium? Do you think it would be good to eliminate milk completely at least for while or do you think it’s enough to reduce the amount?
What do you think of the medication they prescribed to him (Sodium valproate)? Do you think it’s worth the risks?
What other things can we do that are both safe and effective to reduce the chances of having a seizure at night?
Thank you for taking the time to read all this.