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Title: I'll be darned... Post by Paul98 on Apr 4th, 2008, 4:01pm I never knew that melatonin has been used for epilepsy! It has been shown to help in children, adults and other aniamls. I have always wondered if CH might be a very localized specific realtive of epilepsy. This is just one of a fair amount of material: http://www.med.nyu.edu/cec/assets/melatoninarticle.pdf -P. |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by echo on Apr 4th, 2008, 4:06pm Interesting. I've always liked seizure salads. ummmm (i'll stfu now) |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by midwestbeth on Apr 4th, 2008, 4:10pm My husband has epilepsy. Went he went with me to the nuero, that was how I was able to make him understand what ch was. I compared it to epilepsy and the nureo agreed that it is similar. Activity in the brain will cause seizures in epilepsy and severe pain in ch. Thanks for the info on melatonin. Beth |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by pattik on Apr 4th, 2008, 4:32pm "It has been suggested that melatonin may lower seizure threshold and increase the risk of seizure, particularly in children with severe neurologic disorders. However, multiple other studies actually report reduced incidence of seizure with regular melatonin use. This remains an area of controversy. Patients with seizure disorder taking melatonin should be monitored closely by a healthcare professional." http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/natural/patient-melatonin.html This is a pretty informative webpage on melatonin... |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by Annette on Apr 4th, 2008, 5:41pm Both epilepsy and CH involve hyperactivity of the nerves. In epilepsy there is increased activity in the motor nerves causing uncontrolled jerking movements. In CH there is increased activity in the trigeminal nerve which is a sensory ( pain ) nerve causing severe pain. The difference is in epilepsy, especially grand mal type, whole bunches of nerves get activated and the electrical impulses travel across one whole lobe or even the whole brain, causing the brain to shut down. This causes the person to fall to the ground unconcious for an amount of time. That doesnt happen in CH, where the activation is localised to just one nerve, hence the person doesnt pass out although many wish they could. Serotonin is the neurotransmitter that appears to trigger nerve activity. It is balanced out by melatonin. When serotonin raises, melatonin falls and vice versa. So by taking melatonin supplement, one is in effect reducing serotonin level. Most CH meds are serotonin antagonists. In relation to sleep, melatonin promotes REM sleep while serotonin has the "wake up" effect. During a CH cycle, there is a higher level of serotonin in the brain than melatonin, so the person has difficulty sleeping. If the person manages to fall asleep, the rising serotonin level causes the person to wake up following by a CH hit. Taking melatonin therefore helps with REM sleep and reduces the serotonin, allowing CHers to sleep better and not be woken up with nightime hits. Thats in theory, in reality, melatonin works for some but not others. |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by Becky on Apr 4th, 2008, 5:42pm I was prescribed Sodium Valporate know as Epilim. And its used for epilepsy. My Gp told me that a lot of Epilepsy drugs are used in the treatment of migrains and clusters. Sodium Valporate is also an anti psycotic, migrain meds can also be used for mental illness aswell. |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by Racer1_NC on Apr 4th, 2008, 5:50pm on 04/04/08 at 16:01:10, Paul98 wrote:
I've often wondered the same thing Paul. Good reading in your link. One of my cluster buds on here referred to ch as "pain seizures". I always thought that fit perfectly. Bill |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by Langa on Apr 4th, 2008, 6:07pm I thought I read in Dr. Goadsby's (sp?) book that a CH attack looks a lot like an epileptic attack under mri/catscan. But I could be wrong. Langa |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by debOUCH on Apr 4th, 2008, 6:55pm annette...............awesome descripton in your post..............more info for my folders!!! tks! deb |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by CostaRicaKris on Apr 4th, 2008, 9:54pm Hmmm... Topomax is also used for epilepsy. Thanks for the great info Annette |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by Charlie on Apr 5th, 2008, 1:17am Topamax for epilepsy...You're telling me!. It is the only drug that kills my seizures entirely. When I took the stuff for seizures, they disappeared. I hadn't gone more that a week or so without a seizure until Topamax killed them. I took the stuff for four months and they were gone. Naturally, Topamax made me insane and I had to stop using the one drug that was 100% effective. Life stinks Charlie |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by HeadhurtinMama on Apr 5th, 2008, 1:36am Well I have had some of the richest recipes in order complete, on I M dioin my bwARRR.... Ok, So I'm not even sure what I was getting at...b |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by sandie99 on Apr 5th, 2008, 6:31am I haven't used metonin myself, but when I read about melatonin at Finnish websites, I found out that back in here it's used to treat insomnia. Then I read the list of possible side effects - and my favourite one in the list is: insomnia. Well, most of my ch preventatives do include headache at their side effect lists, so it figures. Sanna |
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Title: Re: I'll be darned... Post by BarbaraD on Apr 5th, 2008, 8:12am There's gotta be a "wire" somewhere that's connected to both.... otherwise the same drugs wouldn't work on both epilipsy and CH... It's like CH is the bastard at the family reunion. We just don't fit into any group - we're right on the outside looking in, but they just can't catagorize us totally. Oh well, maybe someday.... Hugs BD |
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