Constipation -

[Guest guest]

Freeman's diet book, pg 25 - " Infection, kidney stones and severe constipation

are among other potential causes for breakthrough seizures " . So yep, according

to Hopkins, definitely so...

It also (somehow?) plays a part in med clearance, as when has at stages

been toxic on meds the diet (and yes, including on depakote) his toxicity

symptoms (including seizures) worsened when he was constipated. Getting his

cal/mag capsules in the right range is the key here, in 's case it needs

constant recording of both cal/mag pills given and BMs - still diligently

recording each time 3 long yrs later lol - I have a code in my diary for the

'event' so I can keep track of whether he may need magnesium upping for a day or

two.

His usual pattern is that he needs 5 capsules a day for about 4 days, then we

ease off to 4 for a couple of days, back up to 5 and so on. This is to keep him

regular, as in going every 2 or so days without heading the other way into

diarreah, which for him is a major improvement on early diet days, ie -

pre-cal/mag, where only going once every 7-10 days was his norm.

It is a bit of a catch 22, as meds on board can also affect constipation -

benzos and depakote are CNS depressants, this includes bowel and bladder muscles

being affected. Once had come off the benzos, we had to reduce his

cal/mag - as everything sped up, including bladder/bowel function, meaning his

previous dose then became overkill. Complicated business (lol - no pun intended)

isn't it...

----- Original Message -----

From: Rob Larwood

Does constipation really effect seizure activity? We

had asked our son's doctor and he said he hadnt hear

anything about that... is either at one extreme

or the other when it comes to his bowels. We've had

to come down on his Depekote dose because his ammonia

level keeps increasing. The more we've come down on

the Depekote, the less intense his t/c seizures are

getting. They would last upwards of 7 minutes before

and now they're less than a minute and he usually gets

himself to come out of it without the Diastat. I'm

hoping this well continue!! He took a nap yesterday

and did not have a seizure!!! He had little jerks

when he went to bed for the night but nothing major.

He only woke up once during the night!! What a

night!!

~Jake's mom

--- NickyBW@... wrote:

> look forward to chatting.

> Matt really jerky today, think its due to

> constipation.

> hope things are better today

> Nicola