Hi,

Welcome to this support group.

Many have questioned the affect of aspartame on the brain and many have
questioned the interaction of aspartame on medication. Like science, there
is always room for questioning the statement. There have been studies
showing proof aspartame can cause problems but there have been other studies
that do not show any problems with aspartame. To get the right answer to
your question in regards to your own specific body, I would suggest you
leave the diet coke or any other soda or hot drink with aspartame out of
your diet. It is probably a good idea anyway to get rid of the diet coke
because it is not very healthy for your body in general.

Now back to your story, it is for a fact that stress, alcohol and lack of
sleep are known triggers.Are you able to reduce the stress a bit? Stress can
cause seizures. It happens that during the stressy period, the brain is at
high pressure and it will not suffer from the stress trigger, but during
lunch time when the whole body is in rest including the brain, then you can
suffer again from epileptic seizure.

After having a seizure, it might be that you do not really like diet coke as
you feel tired, weak, etc. Your stomach might not feel like absorbing diet
code as it is too heavy for this. There might be other drinks like healthy
juices that you do not like as well at that time. When a person is suffering
from a fever, then he usually only drinks water or weak thea as his body
cannot really deal with heavy drinks like soda's in general or juice, etc.

Best practice however is to get back to your MD, ask him to look at your
blood levels during lunch time. It can be that your dilantin level is too
low causing the seizure at that specific time?

Wishing you all the best of course.

Regards,
Marco

Hi Michelle,  700 mg of Dilantin daily is a huge dose.  I'm a 160
pound male and have been taking 450-500 mg Dilantin for the past 5
years that is considered large for someone of my size.  I also take
1000 mg Keppra daily.  Do you have blood tests regularly and are your
blood serum levels for Dilantin staying within 10-20 (don't know what
units) that is recognized as theraputic?  I find when my levels get
above 25 I start having problems remembering names and concentrating
but some people's tolerance is higher than others.  I find Diet Coke
aggrevates my condition making seizures more likely than otherwise but
unlike yours my seizures are caused by a brain tumor.

Hi Michelle,
 I just want to say Yes, that in our daily diets what we eat, drink and
breathe can cause ones' szs as it does in my case.   You can go to your
library and get this book called "Brain Allergies" by Dr. William
Philpot. I started by getting tested for allergies and have many, Water
is very important in our daily lives. And also aspartme has scientific
proof for causing szs and more. If you want many websites on other
possible causes. just email me and will be glad to send them all to you.
Most ppl are happy taking the meds, I was on them for my 1st 27yrs of
life, before I took control and found my answers.
 
Sincerely
Kathy

Epilepsy is caused by the imagined or real lack of sufficient love,
respect, and care that occurred usually in childhood. Petit mal
seizures serve to keep such events outside consciousness, and grand
mal seizures totally prevent their recording in the memory.

I believe that the following three facts expose your problem: (a) you
abstain from drinking water, (b) your mild seizures occur while you
are eating and there are people around you, and (c) you always ask for
water when they ask if you need anything. The integration of these
facts with the above mentioned cause of epilepsy suggests the
following etiology of your seizures:

In your childhood you believed that you have not received enough love,
care and respect, and moreover, once or more times you were not given
water when you asked for it, and you evaluated this again as not being
loved and respected. Or, alternatively, you usually received too much
love, care and respect, and consequently, when you were not given
water when you needed it this made a traumatic effect on you. You are
abstaining from drinking water (the above symptom "a") to mean that
you were not insulted when you were not given water because you don't
like water anyhow. Your seizures occur while you are eating and there
are people around you (symptom "b"), because this is the time when the
current events are likely to make you remember the old traumatic
event, or events. You ask for water automatically (symptom "c"),
because your unconscious is telling you through this symptom that your
illness is caused by the fact that you were not given water in the
past when you needed it and you felt much hurt.

Your illness started 7 years ago because, most probably, you found
yourself at that time in a situation that was likely to make you
relive the old traumatic experience, or experiences. The seizure
served to keep such events outside your consciousness. The seizures
continued after that incident because the repetition of the old
traumatic events looked possible after that incident. This happens
often after traumatic experiences. Such experiences can remain
repressed for a long time, but they cause self-protective symptoms
when their repetition looks possible.

If you can remember the repressed events that are causing your
symptoms, you can evaluate them more rationally that you did earlier.
This will make your symptoms unneeded, and they will vanish. One
method of becoming conscious of the repressed events of your past is
to question yourself as follows in bed before falling asleep: "What
mistake am I making? How am I hurting myself? What am I doing wrong?"
Your unconscious will answer these questions through dreams. I will
interpret your dreams if you report them to me giving sufficient
concrete details and indicating how you felt in each part of the
dream. It is imported to report how you felt, because negative
feelings identify problems, while positive feelings identify their
solutions.

Good luck!