Staying Healthy

In most cases, epilepsy isn't the kind of condition that can be treated with large doses of vitamins or mineral supplements. In fact, large quantities of either could be bad for your health. Check with your doctor before taking more vitamins than are in typical one-a-day multivitamins. If you are a woman who might become pregnant, ask your doctor about folic acid and how much you should be taking.

Eating a balanced diet is as important for you as it is for everyone else. However, if you think you are overweight, don't go on a crash diet without checking with your doctor first.

Sleep

Most people who have epilepsy need about the same amount of sleep as everybody else. There's usually no need to take extra naps or to go to bed early.

However, all-night study sessions, a series of late nights, or an overall lack of sleep can greatly raise the risk of seizures. In fact, that's one reason why doctors often ask adults or children suspected of having epilepsy to stay up late the night before an EEG examination. The lack of sleep increases the chances of seizure activity showing up on the tests. Another reason is to increase the chances that you will sleep during part of the EEG. Some seizure patterns are much more common in sleep than while awake.

On the other hand, people with epilepsy should not feel they need an excessive amount of sleep. If you feel tired and sleepy all the time, chances are your medicine needs adjustment in some way, or you may be depressed. Perhaps your dose is too high, or you are taking it at the wrong time of day. Don't make changes yourself, though. Tell your doctor about it.

Alcohol

There are two questions that have to be considered when the question of alcohol use and epilepsy comes up. One is the effect that alcohol could have on the medicines used to control seizures. Alcohol can be dangerous when mixed with sedative drugs, such as phenobarbital, and can cause coma, or even death. The other question is whether the alcohol itself will cause seizures.

Large amounts of alcohol are thought to raise the risk of seizures and may even cause them. When you drink alcohol, it temporarily reduces seizures for a few hours, but then increases the chances of having seizures as the alcohol leaves your body. Thus, people who drink heavily, even though they may not have epilepsy, may experience seizures after periods of binge drinking.

However when it comes to "social drinking" -- that is, having one or two drinks during an evening -- there seems to be a lot of individual variation. Some people with epilepsy are not affected, and some are. A drink as part of a large meal is less likely to cause a seizure than a drink on an empty stomach.

Check with your doctor before deciding on your own alcohol use. Be sure to ask about the kind of medicine you are taking and how it might react with beer, wine, or hard liquor. There is roughly the same amount of alcohol in a glass of wine, a bottle of beer and a shot of liquor.

Illegal Drugs

No one should use illegal drugs, but it is particularly unwise if you have epilepsy.

Most illegal drugs, especially stimulants such as cocaine, crack, PCP and speed, can cause seizures. Some of the impurities or additives to illegal drugs cause seizures, and illegal drugs may have unpredictable or dangerous interactions with prescription medicines.