Epilepsy - Can Homeopathy Help?

Epilepsy is a disease that affects the brain's nerve cells and triggers the release of abnormal electrical signals. This can cause temporary malfunctioning of the other brain cells and result in seizures and sometimes loss of consciousness. Epilepsy can affect both children and adults.

Causes of Epilepsy

The cause of this condition isn’t very evident; however, few causes of epileptic seizures to mention are brain tumours, injury, infections in the brain or birth defects. Some doctors believe that epilepsy is caused due to genetic mutations and is an outcome of abnormal activity of cells in the brain. Other causes for this condition can be alcohol or narcotics withdrawal and electrolyte problems.

Symptoms

1. Repeated seizures

2. Impaired memory

3. Bouts of fainting

4. Short spans of blackout

5. Sudden bouts of blinking and chewing

6. Panic

7. Inappropriate repetitive movements

Types of Seizures
A seizure, also known as fit, is usually a brief episode characterised by uncontrollable jerking movement and loss of awareness due to abnormal neuronal activity in your brain. A collective occurrence of these seizures causes epilepsy.

 There are three types of seizures based on aetiology:

1. Idiopathic: This kind of seizure has no apparent cause.

2. Cryptogenic: The doctors believe that there is a cause for the seizure but the cause cannot be detected.

3. Symptomatic: These seizures occur due to a reason, as a symptom of some neuro-medical condition.

Role of Homeopathy

Homeopathy is a form of healing based upon the principle of ‘Similia similibus curentur’ or ‘like cures like’. It was founded by a German doctor, Dr. Samuel Hahnemann in 1810. Homoeopathy offers vast scope in the treatment of various illnesses, both acute and chronic including epilepsy. Homeopathy takes into account the entire person like the patients family history, past history, etc. Homoeopathic doctors study each case thoroughly, analyze and evaluate the symptoms and then prescribe the medicine.

Homeopaths treat the patient’s mental, emotional and physical make-up i.e. the constitution. This is known as ’constitutional treatment’. Constitutional treatment treats the disease and removes it from its roots. The Constitutional method is employed in the treatment of epilepsy in Homoeopathy. This method is gives amazing results in many cases.

Homeopathy has immense scope in the treatment of Epilepsy. In fresh cases, where the child is new to epileptic treatment, homoeopathy can relieve complaints by giving ‘constitutional treatment’.

In other cases where the child is already taking treatment, homoeopathy can taper off the doses gradually and thus treat the patient effectively. Thus, in both cases, homoeopathic treatment is beneficial in treating epilepsy.

In either of the cases, a constitutional medicine is given to treat epilepsy. Constitutional treatment relieves the patient from seizures, convulsions, etc. Thus the child can attend school daily and concentrate on his studies. In about 1/3 cases of epilepsy, a surgery known as ‘seizure surgery’ is performed. Regular constitutional treatment is very useful in such cases.

Homeopathic medicines are completely side-effect free and are not habit-forming. They can be taken by children, adults and even by pregnant women. They must be taken only after consultation from a homoeopathic practitioner.