Functional Nutrients for Epilepsy

Abstract

Epilepsy is a common neurological disorder of which seizures are a core symptom. Approximately one third of epileptic patients are resistant to antiepileptic drugs and therefore require alternative therapeutic options. Dietary and nutritional supplements can in some cases replace drugs, but with the exception of ketogenic diets, there are no officially recommended dietary considerations for patients with epilepsy. In this review we summarize a selection of nutritional suggestions that have proved beneficial in treating different types of epilepsy. We describe the types of seizures and epilepsy and follow this with an introduction to basic molecular mechanisms. We then examine several functional nutrients for which there is clinical evidence of therapeutic efficacy in reducing seizures or epilepsy-associated sudden death. We also discuss experimental results that demonstrate possible molecular mechanisms elicited by the administration of various nutrients. The availability of multiple dietary and nutritional candidates that show favorable outcomes in animals implies that assessing the clinical potential of these substances will improve translational medicine, ultimately benefitting epilepsy patients.

Personalised Therapeutic and Dietary Interventions as an Alternative Non-Invasive Management of Temporal Lobe Epilepsy

“…We also found variations in [18,19]. Also, cobalamin and pyridoxine supplementation [20] was given to overcome the vitamin deficiencies as indicated by Tables Table 1. Blood markers profile of patient showing severe vitamin D deficiency.…”

Impact of Stress on Epilepsy: Focus on Neuroinflammation—A Mini Review

“…Stress management includes both pharmacological and non-pharmacological methods for enhancing stress coping mechanisms (e.g., mindfulness-based therapies, yoga, cognitive-behavioral therapies, etc.). In addition to healthy nutrition [ 208 ] and exercise [ 209 ], mindset approaches have been proposed to manage stress and depression in patients with epilepsy [ 210 , 211 , 212 , 213 , 214 ]. Notably, psychosocial interventions have been shown to improve the immune system function in humans [ 215 ].…”

Serum Vitamin E Levels in Children and Adolescents with Epilepsy at a Tertiary Hospital in Nigeria

“…There have been several reports on the role of vitamins and other supplements as adjuncts to therapy to improve seizure control and reduce the side effects of AEDs [29][30][31]. Various studies have shown the efficacy of vitamin E as an AED and add-on therapy to control intractable seizures in animals and man respectively [17,[32][33][34][35][36], while others observed no significant change in seizure frequency after vitamin E supplementation [15,37].…”

“…Criteria for classification and possible etiology was determined from clinical history, physical examination with detailed neurological examination, and investigation results including neuroimaging and EEG available in patients' case files. The parent-completed Hague seizure severity scale by Carpay et al [22,23] was used to classify seizures in young children ≤ 12 years as mild (13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25)(26), moderate (27)(28)(29)(30)(31)(32)(33)(34)(35)(36)(37)(38)(39)(40), and severe (41)(42)(43)(44)(45)(46)(47)(48)(49)(50)(51)(52)(53), while the self-report seizure severity questionnaire by Cramer et al [24] was used for adolescents with the cut-offs of 0-28, 29-70, and 71-98 for mild, moderate, and severe seizures respectively.…”