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The first time I thought about the relationship of seizures to allergies was in December 1995. I had had what were thought to be possible absence seizures when I was in high school. I ended up with a diagnosis of stress. Most of the time, people did not seem to notice that I was not feeling well.
In December, 1995, I began to wonder if the symptoms were linked to food allergies, particularly certain types of chocolate. I do not know what I ate in December that contained chocolate. I wondered if it contained syrup or cocoa powder. I began to chart my eating patterns in February, 1996, and have noticed a definite difference in my reactions to syrup and cocoa. In addition, I have had reactions to foods not containing chocolate at all, which has reinforced my feelings about which ingredient is causing the problem.
Another surprising discovery I have made is that the foods I eat seem to interact with one another so that even the order in which I eat them can have an impact on my events. If I eat proteins and vegetables before having anything containing the offending ingredients, I tend to have fewer if any events.
It has now been 15 years since my initial observations. I have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder and have also learned that I am allergic to aspirin. The aspirin allergy means that I cannot eat certain types of foods. Furthermore, I seem to be one of a group of rare people who react to foods containing amines even though I am not taking an MAOI. I am now eating a diet called failsafe which eliminates salicylates (the chemical found in aspiring), amines, flavor enhancers, and other additives. I have been able to re-introduce a few foods, but not many. I have also been taking Topamax since 2005, and this has helped tremendously.
I have also included, with permission, information from another member of the old epilepsy list who suspects that allergies may contribute to her daughter's seizure activity. I have not checked to see whether the ingredient she mentions is on the list of additives to be avoided in the failsafe list. These letters do not surprise me at this point in my life.
Tracey's letters follow:
For the first time since our daughter was diagnosed we feel that we may be getting somewhere with trying to establish WHY.
We are looking into MEDLINE, however, you seem to have to be an authorised user of this service (any hints anyone ?).
We have never given our daughter any artificial sweeteners and her diet is relatively sugar free, due to her natural dislike of most sweets, cakes and biscuits (aren't we lucky !).
We approached this mailing list as we feel an allergy, or allergies are the only explanation as to why the seizures occur.
Our daughter is 4.5 years old, diagnosed as epileptic last September, after 5 major seizures.
2 to 4 hours petit-mal, followed by a grand-mal (3 of which were in 1 night )- witnessed by various hospitals ,and finally sleeping for hours and hours.
The main reason we feel we may have stumbled on something, is that last week she was prescribed Tixylix for recurrent catarrh, which lists among its ingredients caramel (E150 !) her behaviour became agressive, hyperactive, a rash appeared on her face and her left eye watered (2 seizures have been down the LHS of her body). We felt that she was working her way up to a major seizure (she didn't - but this may be because she seems controlled on Epilim even if it is early days).
Out of context our daughter has suffered for 2 1/2 years from a near constant cough during the winter months; unexplained rashes on her face and in the creases of her forearms; watering eyes and many earaches. All of which the G.P has put down to Catarrh.
We have had her tested re a vega machine for any allergy,intolerance,sensitivity to food & other pollutants in life.This had surprising results. She is allergic to several foods & bingo on the E150 caramel theory.She has a very low tolerance/allergic reaction to this particular additive also to other additives to which she has consumed on the "seizure days". Our next step is to 'convince' our consultant to test mainstream in order to clarify & add weight to our findings. This is because, at the end of the day, a vega machine is still looked upon as an "alternative" way of testing allergies.
Sarah J. Blake