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capsaicin How Capsaicin Helps Me Defeat Epilepsy

FuzeBox

FuzeBox

January 21st, 2006, changed my life.

I won't bore you with the details but I got lost on the way to work one day. I'd had what's known as a "thunderclap" headache for two days prior and given that I was averaging 50 hours a week at my job shrugged it off as work-stress related. Well it wasn't work related at all. A 7mm lesion had burst on the left temporal lobe of by brain. Didn't even know it was there. I was diagnosed with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy as a result and life hasnt been the same since.

I spent the better of 6 months afterward being sensitive to light, sound, smell and taste and never in the same order. I was put on epileptic medication(Dilantin, then Trileptal and then Topamax) as a means of minimizing the neurological storms that I was experiencing as a result of the burst. Being that I didn't have health insurance at the time tax payers picked up the tab(thanks guys). What was worse was that without insurance my monthly Trileptal prescription was totaling $768. That's full-retail folks.

Epilepsy is quite a money maker for Big Pharma in that once you start epileptic medications it is very hard to get off of them and the negative symptoms and withdrawal from E meds can even kill you if they dont send you into grand mal hell first. It needs be done very slowly and with much caution. So I did.

I'd moved from California to Texas and knew ahead of time that I wouldnt have the low-income benefits in Texas that I'd had in California so weaning-off was my only option.

I've always had a taste for heat. My Texas garden saw me many jalapenos, serranos, Thai chili's and habaneros. What I hadn't realized was that whilst detoxifying from E meds my taste for heat was growing and my now former girlfriend had made the observation that for a period of time following the my consumption of chile peppers my headaches and seizures were kept at bay.

I began stock-piling pepper sauce and began a regular regiment of gathering peppers from the garden that found their way into not only my pallet but the rest of the household(much to their dismay!). Where my ex and her two sons were complaining of lunch and dinner being too hot I was finding relief from my disease.

To this day I find that when I keep a solid source of capsaicin in my system I'm good to go for hours at a time! Now I can't vouch that what I'm doing will work for tonic clonic, generalized or other seizure types but for my type(complex-partial) its making a helluva difference.

Thanks for readind chile-heads!
 
I may have to pass this on to a friend of mine and a former friend. They may find the same relief. Thanks for the report of your experience.
 
I'd love to see the health community look into this and do some evidence-based research with subjects such as yourself. The nursing community is ever evolving towards a holistic approach to medicine and I think this would make a great research project. It's amazing what mother nature has provided us and its unfortunate that the medical community, MD's, overlook it and are so quick to prescribe drugs that also act as poisons. Maybe if we find more solutions like this one the pharmaceutical industry won't be able to rape the American consumer. And, it is just the American consumer that gets raped like this. You can buy many of these drugs from other countries for a fraction of the price.
 
Nmorris, you're right.. and the medical industry has. There are any number of studies on the use of capsaicin as a means of cambating some forms of epilepsy.

It took me a while to realize that I was having for sz activity on the meds than off of them. Truth be told.

I can't say that I'm 100% sz free but I did get my drivers' license back and I have now been med-free for three and a half years. With a price-tag of $768 a month without insurance you'd think that Novartis(the maker of Trileptal) DOES NOT want more research done on the effects of capsaicin with epilepsy. They stand a chance at losing too much money. It's no different with marijuana. Albeit I haven't smoked in aeons I do remember it making a marked difference in my lectrical activity. It has it's place. If you're square and don't believe it then it doesn't apply to you.

There truly is something to this. Be it chemical or neurological the heat in capsaicin is natural and works to alleviate abnormal electrical activity.
 
I'm a nurse and a paramedic (for over 10 years) and I know that capsaicin release catecholamines which is a fight or flight hormone that leaves the body feeling relaxed as it peaks out. maybe that is the reason? But awesome read and go go peppers for being the cure!!!! hahah! :party:
 
That is correct punn as is ACTH. There have been cases where I'd felt an aura coming on and actually had what I call a "stall" which is where I literally stall for a few seconds. What's intriguing to me is that following a petit like that I've either eaten a pepper of taken a tablespoon of Satan's Rage pepper sauce and within minutes my studdered speech returns to normal.

It's Great.
 
Awesome man! You figured out a tasty way to self medicate, and moved to the greatest state there is!
Great story thanks for sharing!
Shane
 
That is indeed awesome. I wonder how many [background=rgb(255, 244, 228)]capsaicin related [/background]clinical studies are/ have being undertaken.
I'm also glad that the maximum anyone pays for prescriptions here is £104 a year
 
I say we get the Government to pay us to grow peppers for them! "Dude I'm moving to Cali, it's a medical capsicum state" ;)
In all seriousness however, capsaicin helps w/ my migraines, allergies, and even cyclothymia! I'm always glad to hear other's capsaicin testimonials! Chiles nature's wonder drug! :dance: :fireball: :onfire:
 
Glad to hear that you've found some relief from your illness!

My sister suffers from debilitating chronic (essentially non-stop, day-in-day-out) migraines, and has been on a boatload of potent painkillers and various anti seizure medication for the entirety of her adult life. She doesn't like spicy food, but I think I should get her to try some of my peppers or sauce this year just to see if she is lucky enough to get some benefit.
 
Thank you everyone. I think that the ingestion of capsaicin somehow triggers the use of a different part of the brain that sidetracks the area where activity would otherwise be happening. I don't know. I'm not about to question 'how' it works. I am only grateful to have something readily available and regularly effective at a hundredth of the cost of prescription meds!

Big Pharma can stick it six feet in the keister!
 
Medicine is a real danger to your health. Prescription drugs kill more people in the USA than car crashes and guns.

If you are interested in the subject, find a book called The China Study by Dr. T Colin Campbell. Most of these high profit medicines pushed on the public are not necessary, and are often toxic to your body. For many illnesses, whole foods, and a plant based diet would cure most, if not all symptoms, as well as give you a better standard of life.

Of course many people do not want to be told that their medicine, meat and dairy are killing them.
 
This is great! I’m so glad to hear of another health benefit for peppers. If you have a read though Mezo's grow log you'll see how he uses Powders to stave off heart attacks. He takes 1/2 tsp of Cayenne powder and quickly has relief.

Just a thought here but have you considered getting some of the empty capsules and putting hot pepper powder in them? I don’t know how much they’ll hold but it would be easy to figure out and you could take them when ever you need them and have a handy way to carry some with you for when you’re away from home. Also those who can’t handle eating hot peppers could gain the benefit without suffering eating them.

RM
 
Another plus for eating chilli, thanks for sending the link to me RM.

When you Google "health benefits of eating chilli" there is a ton of info on the subject, this whole business with doctors & the big pharmaceuticals is ridiculous, its nothing more than a trillion dollar scam.

I asked my doctor "what do you think to eating hot chilli`s as a way to help my condition?"

He said,,"i don't know, i don't eat hot food" looking at me with his Pfizer pen in his hand with his Pfizer notepad on his desk, having just got back form a weekends Pfizer sponsored golfing.

This is a good read for any member on here.

"If you master only one herb in your life, master cayenne pepper. It is more powerful than any other."

Good health,,

Mezo.
 
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