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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Epilepsy / November 2006Nutmeg dangers
Is anyone familiar with nutmeg as it relates to touching off seizures in epileptics. I had one a few weeks ago and it's relationship to recent nutmeg consumption was extremely close. I had one several months ago, same answer. I'm beginning to wonder about the others. That and the consumption by my best friend followed very closely by a number of grand mals on separate occasions is too much of a coincidence. I think maybe it is more dangerous of a spice to us than is commonly known and I would like to get some harder information or if none exists to push for more study. Things I have given up recently because of it. Curries Barbecue sauce Bratwurst Cream sauces Vaporub Lots of winter holiday food Spiced wine Thai food Ethiopian food Many others types of food I am now very cautious with Matt You didn't mention what medications you might be using. What might conflict with one might not necessarily conflict with another. Second, what you mean below by 'extremely close' (**) might indicate other causes. For example Alcohol will compromise many of the Anti Ep Drugs (AEDs), but it's usually absorbed in the Kidneys, so effects on e.g. Tegretol might not show up for 4-6 hours after the alcohol is consumed. Some of the 'winter holiday food', if you mean e.g. Chrismas Cakes, might contain alcohol. I don't know if there are other ingredients in e.g. Thai or Ethiopian foods that might react chemically with AEDs. Some people here (6 years ago), were unable to use foods with MSG in them. I don't know if above 2 countries would use that as a preservative or not. The top 6 of the list have no effects on my Complex Partial szr. type (or the Tegretol or Frisium I use). Many of the upset stomach remedies or headache pills (if those were used after the foods listed), could cause imbalance of the med. levels or wash them out (the meds.) before they got into the bloodstream. I can't speak for all AEDs, but those were on some advisories I got (years ago) when I started on first Dilantin, then the Tegretol /Frisium I mentioned. G./ > Is anyone familiar with nutmeg as it relates to touching off seizures > in epileptics. I had one a few weeks ago and it's relationship to [quoted text clipped - 20 lines] > > Matt Dear G. It wouldn't be an alchohol issue and the Christmas foods don't play in because I don't like most of the sweet stuff anyway. The meds would be Dilantin but that has been stable for years. The coincidence is that specifically I had been eating spaghetti a number of times during the previous week and putting a bunch of the spice in my sauce. Also the ethnic foods I mentioned are laced with large amounts of the stuff. I have seen anecdotal stuff relating this spice to seizures and I was looking for more concrete info. Matt > You didn't mention what medications you might be using. What might > conflict with one might not necessarily conflict with another. [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > > > Matt > Dear G. > It wouldn't be an alchohol issue and the Christmas foods don't play in [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > spice to seizures and I was looking for more concrete info. > Matt Did you try a Google search on nutmeg&seizures or nutmeg&epilepsy ? (and discard these 3-4 posts), but there are several other sites around N.America and Europe, that might be in the history files that would save you starting from scratch, or waiting here as some people only read the group 2-3x a week. You could also look thru Google for links to the foods listed below, or the medications you currently use & nutmeg. (The & if you haven't used it before will only bring back Posts from various newsgroups which contain *both words. If you get e.g. 400 hits, the first 10 usually are the most likely of use, or you can add Further &s (with e.g. the medication name) all together, then only those posts with all 3-5 words will be returned to you to peruse.) If you find some useful hits, bring them back 'here too' :-< as we have about 2-300 people who read the group but are too shy to post. G./ > > You didn't mention what medications you might be using. What might > > conflict with one might not necessarily conflict with another. [quoted text clipped - 43 lines] > > > > > > Matt > Is anyone familiar with nutmeg as it relates to touching off seizures > in epileptics. I had one a few weeks ago and it's relationship to > recent nutmeg consumption was extremely close. I had one several months > ago, same answer. I'm beginning to wonder about the others. Never heard anything about it being a seizure trigger, and it doesn't do anything for me, but that doesn't mean it doesn't do it for you. Nutmeg is psychoactive - it's hallucinogenic if you eat an extremely large amount of it - so if you're unusually sensitive it might cause a seizure. If your seizures aren't so bad, you might want to try a controlled experiment where you consume exactly the same thing one week and then the next, with just the addition of some nutmeg the second week. Without more control over things, it'll be hard to know if it's the nutmeg or something that just happened to be at the same time on both occasions. Karl Karl, Thanks. I don't want to test the theory because I have had full blown grand mals that last for several minutes and, at the age of 46, the muscle soreness that follows for several days afterward isn't something I would deliberately bring on myself. I also scared the spit out of some of the people in my office who had never seen one before. Apparently, when 210 pounds of something drops from a height of a couple of feet, it makes the floors in this building shake. I just find the timing too strikingly similar and I think we should be looking into it. Matt > > Is anyone familiar with nutmeg as it relates to touching off seizures > > in epileptics. I had one a few weeks ago and it's relationship to [quoted text clipped - 15 lines] > > Karl > Karl, > [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] > > Matt I don't know of smells setting off seizures... but I have always had a rather sharp sense of smell (and I am epileptic). I can smell a freshly opened bar of soap or bottle of wine from across the room, that sort of thing. By the time my parents would shove their glasses of wine under my nose as a kid... "do you want to smell it?" by then I already been quite aware of the smell. I don't associate "smells" with seizures, though. I do lose my appetite when I have a seizure, and I get ferociously hungry when they have passed. Perhaps the same (or a similar) area of the brain is affected when you smell nutmeg, as it is a rather strong smell. Have you consulted your neurologist? > > Karl, > > Thanks. I don't want to test the theory because I have had full blown [quoted text clipped - 19 lines] > affected when you smell nutmeg, as it is a rather strong smell. Have you > consulted your neurologist? On the http://efa.org or other sites that list symptoms or First Aid for seizures, Odours, Tastes or Sensations that aren't there (Deja or Jamais Vu) are part of the Simple Partial Seizure that can precede a stronger onset of Complex Partial or Grand Mal type seizures. The Aroma or feeling (Deja or Jamais) is a clue for the Dr. of which area of the brain is the Seizure Focus (where the electrical firing **started as the szr. began). Some of the newer medications are targeted for a particular area of the brain, so the Dr. will often want to know where it starts, (and usually tell the patient that), so I thought that would have been of use for others here, with above CP or GM seizures, to help. Dilantin (on another message on this thread) is used first for some seizure types, as it's older (~80 years), longer studied and for those who it will work for, is *cheaper to give control. From the lists of Auras (Simple Partial seizures/ odours and tastes etc.) the Dilantin level is wearing off or it's *Not working 100%. I used it for less than 8 months for Mine. It gave Incredibly **erratic control, and would wear off in an Instant without any warning to me, that it had. From there I'd be inside the Bubbble, and could board buses, walk into traffic, or argue with security guards who hadn't had CPR training, with no memories later of what had happened. I thought they should let the Dr. know that the dose levels or Pill type was now wearing off or failing completely, so Dr. can re-prescribe something that *will work, as some of the stronger ones (like my Tegretol) have to be phased in over 4-8 weeks, and if that's what is needed the sooner that's started, quicker they'll get to a therapeutic dose for control. G./ Dear Salami Man, That is curious as I have a particularly acute sense of smell even though I smoke. My girlfriend is constantly commenting on it even though generally women can smell most things more acutely than men. It never would have dawned on me to associate it with the epilepsy. However, I wasn't talking about the smell of nutmeg setting it off but rather the actual ingestion of it. Matt > > Karl, > > [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > affected when you smell nutmeg, as it is a rather strong smell. Have you > consulted your neurologist? On Fri, 03 Nov 2006 12:30:29 -0800, mattcsemail wrote: > That is curious as I have a particularly acute sense of smell even > though I smoke. My girlfriend is constantly commenting on it even [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > However, I wasn't talking about the smell of nutmeg setting it off but > rather the actual ingestion of it. Hmmm, I've never heard of this either, as I make my own fruit-bread, and stick loads of honey, nutmeg, cinnamon and dried fruit in it, but it's never really been a trigger for my seizures! The only things that usually do trigger them off that I ingest are things like coffee, and alcohol! The sound of running water also does for some reason, and gives me the runs when I have an absence, anytime, anyplace, anywhere - it's awful if I'm in the middle of the supermarket passing through the fizzy drinks isle! Sofie  SignaturePlease visit my deviantART page: http://sofen.deviantart.com/ |
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