Can Acupuncture help Epilepsy?

A growing number of people with epilepsy are finding that this ancient treatment helps control seizures. “Acupuncture” and “Chinese Medicine” are often used as synonyms; however, traditional Chinese Medicine, abbreviated as TCM, includes diet, herbal remedies and exercises.  One of acupuncturist says “Acupuncture can be quite useful for epilepsy, upon the type and extent of a person’s epilepsy.” He’s treated several people with epilepsy and says that treatment helped reduce the frequency and severity of their seizures. ‘Acupuncture targets the cause of an illness,” he says, “although it may take some time for effects to be felt.. People who expect a quick fix will be disappointed. Those who stick with treatment, though, have a better chance for success.” Like many acupuncturists, he includes herbal treatments and dietary recommendations.

Balancing Energy

This ancient method of presenting and treating illness has a very different basis than Western medicine. To an acupuncturist, vital energy or Qi runs through the human body along pathways called meridians. Qi is the life force that is involved in all bodily functions - from metabolism to emotions.  In a healthy person, the Chinese believe, the Qi flows unimpeded.  When flow or circulation is impeded, illness results. Therefore, the goal of acupuncture is to restore harmony - yin and yang - within the body. Patterns of energy flow through the body just below the surface of the skin.

To balance energy, the acupuncturist inserts sterilized stainless steel needles - little thicker than a hair - at key points along the body to access the twelve channels or meridians where qi flows through the body.  (For a person with epilepsy, this would certainly include points that influence brain energy, to increase the flow of blood to the head.)  This manipulates the energy flow, to either increase or decrease a person’s qi at various points in the body, to help clear energy blockages.  To help ensure that the correction in energy flow lasts, many acupuncturists make dietary recommendations and prescribe herbs.

The aim of acupuncture is not to just relieve symptoms, but to treat the cause of the illness - to treat the whole patients and to restore the balance between the physical, emotional and spiritual aspects of the individual.

Acupuncture seeks to help the body heal itself. In acupuncture, anything that is of profound concern to a person’s inner or spiritual life is considered to be an important factor in diagnosis and treatment.

Research

Studies in China have shown acupuncture to be a safe, reliable way to reduce or lower seizure activity.  One study indicated that treatment of epilepsy with herbs, acupuncture and massage had the best results.

One German study involved 98 people with epilepsy, ranging in age from 2-52. All drugs were discontinued during the first weeks of therapy. Acupuncture treatments lasted from 1- 18 month, and 65 people showed marked improvements with an absence of seizures dicing a one-year period without drugs. Afterwards, patients received acupuncture maintenance treatments once over 2-3 months.  Relapses occurred in 5 cases.

In the U.S., most of the research on acupuncture has been done on dogs. In one study of 5 dogs, all had decreased numbers of seizures after being treated with acupuncture.  Three continued to have fewer seizures with lower levels of anticonvulsants; the other two dogs also had a reduction in seizures.

A New York artist was diagnosed with Temporal Lobe Epilepsy at age 21.  Several years later, she started acupuncture treatments for several years, spaced at weekly, then monthly, intervals. During that time she was able to lower her medications. “It hasn’t entirely controlled my seizures, but I’ve had fewer seizures and I’ve gained a greater awareness of my body,” she says. I always felt immensely relaxed after each treatment, with a renewed feeling of well-being.  My acupuncturist had, I thought, a far better understanding of my body than my neurologist. Her powers of observations were acute, too. One day when I went for a treatment, I told her I’d had a seizure the day before. ‘I thought so,’ she said. ‘The spleen spot on your leg is swollen.”’

One man who had experienced several grand mal seizures while asleep was diagnosed with Partial Temporal Lobe Epilepsy and his physician prescribed Dilantin. “But,” he says, “I was afraid of the side effects of medication.”  I have instead decided to try acupuncture and Chinese herbal mixtures. I feel there is some control. I’ve had one seizure since I began treatment. At this point, he says, “the treatment I have chosen seems much preferable to the mind-numbing and toxic effect of the usual prescription drugs.

Children - even babies - can benefit from acupuncture treatments. Says Gary Fleischman, author of Acupuncture: Everything You Ever