Can Vitamin B12 Help Seizures? | MyEpilepsyTeam

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Can Vitamin B12 Help Seizures?
A MyEpilepsyTeam Member asked a question 💭
posted February 12, 2022
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A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

True. However, you should see the effects of low magnesium, potassium and calcium (especially if you have a low sensitivity disorder to one of them). Even without a low sensitivity disorder, a very low level of potassium resulted in 2003 after the Tegretol (my only anticonvulsant at the time) was triggered. Once again it was lucky that I was working at Massachusetts General Hospital, because it was not known yet about the Tegretol being gone, but I was showing the effects of the low potassium level right from the start of the work day at 8am and by the time that I saw the doctor at the hospital clinic, I was barely able to speak but mentioned medications, thus he sent me over to the lowest level ER to get blood tests of my Tegretol and other levels. However, by the time I was at the head resident (the 3rd person in the check in process --because after all I was just going over there for blood tests--I could no longer speak. I was yelling in my head but no words were coming out of my mouth. It was not until I was hooked up to an IV that was sending potassium into my body that I was able to speak again (though I had no idea that was the reason). And since the volunteer who did the process to create my blue card (so I could go to the clinic and later to the ER and the like) did not have English as her primary language she messed up on the name of my primary care doctor even though I showed her the back of my insurance card (last name correct but first name incorrect) and my neurologist was on vacation, thus the young resident who was my primary doctor had only the symptoms to work with, thus she believed that my extremely low potassium level and the belly pain that accompanied it was an indicator that I had tried to kill myself. Which is exactly what she asked me (after pulling the curtain closed and whispered to me--so that my older brother who was my ride home did not hear. And I told her no. Thus, the other resident that took over as her shift ended told me that once my belly pain was gone to eat some bananas to natural restore the potassium to the proper level that the IV had given to me as a temporary one.

It wouldn't be until a few weeks later that my youngest sister had seen enough of how unusual I was behaving (complex seizure state) with gaps where I was sitting around in the recliner and ignoring what was going around me and looking gray and sickly), that she took the bottle (left a few pills behind) of the orange capsules in my Tegretol prescription bottle--that I had mentioned when
we picked it up on Memorial day weekend--rather than the usual color of the Tegretol capsules. The pharmacist at the pharmacy that she went to immediately told her that they were not Tegretol but rather some form of high blood pressure medicine (I have no memory if she mentioned the name because there is a lot that I do not have in memory from then and more that I lost access to because of the damage of that prescription error).

posted February 13, 2022
A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

I know B vitamins help your body deal with stress a lot better ,and stress is a trigger for seizures .
B12 deficiency is very rare unless your diet is really bad or you don't eat cereals that are fortified with b12 and folate b12 is stored in the liver and the body keeps b12 for 2- 4years.
If your thinking to supplement with b vitamins make sure you take the full range of b vitamins together as they need each other to work effectively in the body also be mindful certain b vitamins can be harmful if taken in large amounts and can cause nerve damage.

posted February 13, 2022
A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

It depends upon whether B12 deficiency is a trigger for you. Read this link to research summary from the US National Library of Medicine on this:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/17150378/#:~:te....

The typical deficiencies that trigger epileptic seizures are low magnesium, calcium and potassium, but there are others -- especially if the individual has a natural deficiency for them, with an excellent example for those with epilepsy who have direct sunlight as a trigger and thus need to be taking vitamin D supplements to make up for it.

More details are available from some of the reliable sources amidst this general search that I did on Google: https://www.epilepsy.com/search/google/can%20ta...

posted February 12, 2022
A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

From What I Seen Online, It'd Happens To A Person At Birth That's Been Diagnosed With Epilepsy At Birth.

posted February 12, 2022
A MyEpilepsyTeam Member

?

posted February 12, 2022

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