Seizure

Seizure, also known as convulsion, is actually an abrupt, unmanageable tightening of a collection of muscles. A seizure may be gentle as well as vicious. A child who suffers from convulsion will experience that the entire or some parts of the body may become stiff and tweak accompanied by insignificant and nearly hardly noticeable movements or by big and apparent movements of the body.

Normally, a seizure continues barely some minutes, but witnessing any child enduring a violent seizure is actually a dreadful experience for his/ her parent. Basically, the child becomes unconscious when he/ she undergoes a seizure or convulsion and their body may jerk and/ or tremble. The eyes of the child are likely to roll back and they might have clenching teeth. At the same time, they may find it difficult to breathe as breathing generally becomes heavy at such times. In addition, a child experiencing seizure may wet himself as well as froth at the mouth.

An individual may experience seizure owing to a number of reasons, counting an injury on the head, high fever, poisoning, epilepsy, shock, infection in the brain or even an allergic reaction. In addition, seizure may also occur as an isolated incident or owing to a chronic/ persistent disorder. Following the endurance of a seizure, a child will generally fall asleep. When he/ she wakes up again, they would experience exhaustion, disorientation as well as be in a state of confusion.

Seizures experienced by patients are of different forms - partial epilepsy and generalized seizure. Both these forms of seizures or convulsions are discussed briefly below.

Partial epilepsy

When a patient endures partial epilepsy, he/ she may possibly become unconscious and experience trembling or tweaking of only one part of the body, such as jerking of a finger or fingers or trembling of the facial muscles. This actually occurs owing to the hiatus in the electrical actions in the brain. In effect, this might occur only in one portion or the brain or shift to another part or may possibly remain in a particular area till the run of the seizure is done.

Generalized seizure

When the electrical activities are disrupted throughout the brain simultaneously, it is known as a generalized seizure. Generalized seizure may be classified as petit mal, grand mal, myoclonic jerk, atonic and akinetic. Descriptions of each of these classifications are given below.

• Petit mal: This condition is related to short breaks, for instance, when one abruptly stops talking in the midst of a sentence and subsequently continues with where he/ she had left off. This condition is generally common during childhood.
• Grand mal: When this type of generalized seizure occurs, the patient has an abrupt beginning accompanied by unconsciousness and stiff limbs. Next they tweak and might experience drowsiness after the run of the seizure or convulsion.
• Myoclonic jerk: In this case, the patient suddenly drops on the ground.
• Atonic: When a patient endures generalized seizure and his/ her body becomes limp, the condition is called atonic.
• Akinetic: This type of generalized seizure or convulsion is related to poor flexibility of the limbs as in the case of childhood spasms.

Supplements and herbs

See age-appropriate dosages of herbal remedies

A number of herbs are effective in calming down the nervous system. Some of these herbs include licorice, chamomile, passion flower, valerian root and skullcap. After the child had undergone a seizure, you may give him/ her one dosage of any of the above mentioned herbs individually or any amalgamation of these herbs twice every day for a week continuously. However, some precautions should be exercised while using these herbs to treat children who have just suffered a seizure or convulsion. It is very important to note that licorice should never be given to any child enduing high blood pressure (hypertension). In the same way, skullcap should never be given to any child who is below six years old.

In addition, a 12-week regimen can be given to a child who has just suffered a seizure and is recuperating from the problem. The herbal regimen is described in some detail below.

Weeks 1-4

A Chinese herb called minor bupleurum facilitates in controlling the nervous system. Following a seizure attack, you may give your child one dosage of the herb, twice every day, for the first week following a convulsion or seizure. Subsequently, give the child one dosage of the herb every day for three consecutive weeks. However, you should note that the herb minor bupleurum should never be given to a child who is having a fever or any symptom of a severe infection.

Weeks 5-8

Another herb called milk thistle helps in detoxification as well as in protecting the liver. You should give your child one dose of this herb every day during the second month after the seizure.

Weeks 9-12

Herbs like skullcap and oat straw are soothing to the body and the mind. You may give a dose of any of these two herbs once every day for the third month following the seizure to facilitate the recovery process. However, it is important to note that while skullcap should not be given to any child below the age of six years, oat straw ought not to be given to a child below four years old.

Garlic is one herb which has proved to be an excellent curative for several different health conditions and it is an outstanding home remedy for treating seizures. While garlic facilitates in sustaining the health in general, it is also considered to help in avoiding seizures as well as other associated symptoms. It is recommended that you boil garlic with water and milk and consume the mixture for better results. However, it is more desirable to take a daily supplement of garlic with a view to make sure that appropriate levels of the herb are consumed.

Aromatherapy

It is quite well known that people suffering from seizures ought to be very cautious when they are using certain essential oils during the course of aromatherapy, as some of the essential oils enclose neurotoxins that may have a convulsing impact.

Hence, seizure patients should avoid using essential oils containing neurotoxins, such as thujone and nutmeg that result in a psychotropic impact. Nevertheless, since the essential oils from rosemary, sage, fennel and hyssop have convulsing effect and hence, they ought to be avoided by patients suffering from seizure.

On the other hand, essential oils, such as ylang ylang oil and jasmine oil, are said to be useful for seizure patients.

Additional things you may do

Besides making use of aromatherapy and herbal medications, there are several other things that you may do to prevent as well as treat seizures. In case, the patient has experienced the very first seizure or convulsion, he/ she should right away seek emergency medical help. On the other hand, if an individual is known to be epileptic, he/ she may adopt the curative measures mentioned below.

It would be beneficial if you take an amalgamation of half a cup of ash gourd juice, a lump of sugar along with three to six grams of licorice root powder twice every day. In addition, even taking ash gourd juice separately is also useful. For reasons unknown, it is believed that this specific type of gourd possesses healing properties which are beneficial for people suffering from seizures. Hence, making use of ash gourd as a home remedy for treating seizure may facilitate in getting relief from the symptoms of seizure and even prevent it.

While consumption of gourd or even drinking its juice is beneficial for seizure/ epilepsy patients, changing to a supplement based on this type of gourd has the aptitude to provide utmost relief and, hence, is favourably endorsed as a natural form of cure for this specific health condition.

Apart from this, an epilepsy patient or those suffering from seizures would benefit if they keep their bowels smooth as well as regular. In order to evade movement of bowel you should take three-fourth teaspoonful of triphala churna (triphala powder) with warm water before going to bed at night. Those who are not familiar with triphala churna, it may be said that this is among the most popular herbal formulas in the ancient Indian Ayurvedic form of medicine and works as a magic potion. Both triphala churna as well as the powdered form of triphala is used as a medication and also in the form of a revitalizing mixture and, according to the Indian traditional herbal medicine Ayurveda, this potion is hailed for synchronizing the humours. Normally, triphala churna is recommended to assist in the digestive process. In addition, it also assists in cleansing or sanitizing the other body areas. Triphala comprises of three basic elements - amla, harada and baheda, each of which are regarded to be beneficial on their own. You may also chew the leaves of brahmi, another Indian herb, every day and then have a cup of milk. This has been proved to be beneficial for seizure patients.

If you have any seizure patient at home, you ought to be careful to keep your house free from all sharp or pointed objects to avoid the patient hurting themselves when they have a run of seizure and fall unconscious on the ground. In addition, patients suffering from epilepsy should always keep away from working at elevated positions.

It would be wrong to state that having an inappropriate diet would add to the risks of having seizure attacks. However, it is also true that consuming suitable or appropriate diet may work excellently as a natural or normal cure for epilepsy. When we talk about an appropriate diet, we mean ignoring certain foods that are rich in fat content, as well as consuming diets that have high proportion of nutrients brought about by means of excellent healthy foods. Precisely speaking, this would facilitate in managing the symptoms of seizure, especially epilepsy, and, at the same time, reduce the possibilities of seizures, especially when a healthy diet is taken along with proper medications. In addition, seizure patients should be careful to keep away from oily as well as spicy foods. They also need to avoid stress.

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