Staying Healthy

Food & Nutrition

Taking care of yourself and eating healthy is important for everyone. The role of diet in epilepsy is so important that certain diets have been used as an epilepsy treatment option, although only under a doctor's supervision. (Click here to learn more about the ketogenic diet.)

You should never make drastic changes to your diet – like starting the ketogenic diet – without checking with your doctor first. You never know how a diet may interact with your medicine or what the effects of a diet may be on your epilepsy.

If you feel the need to lose weight or simply start eating healthier food, check with your doctor for advice and suggestions first. It's important that you and your medical provider work together to make the right decisions for you.

Any foods that may contribute to seizures

There are no specific foods that cause seizures for everyone, although excessive alcohol consumption may cause seizures. Depending on your alcohol tolerance and medicine, having just a few drinks may cause seizures.

If you think that eating a certain type of food contributes to your seizures, you should keep a detailed seizure record. This daily record should list what you ate, how much sleep you received, how you felt (increased stress or excitement) and when you took your medicine. You may also want to consult people who were nearby when you had a seizure – they may be able to add things you don't remember. Your doctor may consult this record in making suggestions about foods or activities you should avoid.

Sports and Recreation

Playing sports – whether on a team or on your own – is a great way to stay healthy and in shape. There are a few safety precautions you should keep in mind, but in general, having epilepsy shouldn't keep you from playing any sports. Actually, playing sports and exercising regularly can improve your health and well-being by reducing stress, so you may be less likely to have seizures!

If your seizures are well controlled and there's direct supervision, there's no reason why you can't play football, basketball, tennis, soccer, hockey or go swimming. You should check with your doctor first, but you can probably participate in gymnastics, horseback riding and rock-climbing (with a harness), if you take safety precautions.

There are very few sports that aren't recommended, such as hang gliding, scuba diving, free rock climbing and boxing, but those sports are pretty dangerous for everyone!

Team sports

It's a good idea to talk to your coach and your teammates about your epilepsy. If you have a seizure, you'll want to make sure they know what's happening and what they should do. If you ever get hurt while playing, it will be important for doctors or medics to know what medicines you're taking.

You should probably tell the coach about your epilepsy as soon as you join the team. For some sports, you may have to disclose medical conditions and medications on the application or medical release form. You may want to have a note from your doctor explaining that it is safe for you to play and outlining any precautions you should take.

Chances are most people on your team have some type of medical condition whether it's a torn ACL or a sprained hamstring, so your coach will be used to hearing about medical problems. Make sure your coach and/or team captain know what your seizures look like and the appropriate form of first aid. They should also know what your seizure warning signs look like and should be told to keep you on the sidelines when you feel a seizure coming on. It's better to be safe than sorry.

General safety measures

Whether you're participating with a team or just working out on your own, remember to follow basic safety precautions.

• Always wear a helmet when biking.
• If you bike, hike or swim, try to exercise with a partner.
• If you must bike or hike alone, carry a cell phone and let people know where you will be and when you plan to return.
•  Don't swim alone or when there is no lifeguard on duty.

Suggestions for individual sports

Some activities are safe for people with epilepsy even without making any changes. Other activities, like swimming, only require simple changes, like swimming with someone else.

If you're worried about the risks of doing any of the activities you love, ask your doctor. You can also do a basic risk assessment – think about the risks for anyone doing a certain activity, consider how your epilepsy may affect those risks and decide what can be done to make the activity safer for you.

Feeling Down

Everyone feels down once in a while. But for some people, an imbalance of chemicals in their brain can lead to longer-term feelings of sadness or depression. Just like epilepsy, this is a medical condition and it's actually very common – some statistics say as many as one in 10 Americans will experience depression.

How do you know when it's depression or just the normal sadness that comes from getting older? Sometimes it can be hard to tell. You can take a depression screening quiz or talk to your parents or doctor about how you feel.

It is important to talk to someone, especially if you're considering hurting yourself. Remember that depression is treatable and that people love you and want to help.

Suggestions for asking for help

It can be scary to ask people for help when you're down. You may not want your parents to worry about you any more than they already do and you may worry that people will start to treat you differently – just as they finally learned to accept your epilepsy.

Here are some tips for asking for help and places you can try if you're having a hard time getting the help you need:

Start with a parent or guardian and ask him or her to sit down in a quiet place where you won't be disturbed. Let them know how you've been feeling. Tell them that you want to do what it takes to get better. Hopefully, your parents will understand right away that your depression is real and needs to be treated immediately. You may want to talk about who you'd like to go to for professional help.

If your parents are unable to help, or you don't feel comfortable talking to them, don't stop looking for help. Talk to your school counselor or a trusted teacher or your doctor. Make sure someone else knows what's going on.

If you can't get the help you need, you can also try one of these 24-hour and totally confidential telephone hotlines:

Covenant House Nineline
1-800-999-9999
English and Spanish

Boys and Girls Town Hotline
1-800-448-3000
English and Spanish

National Hopeline Network
1-800-784-2433
English and Spanish

Alcohol & Drugs

Alcohol and drugs can be a bad combination whether you have epilepsy or not.

If you're under 21 and you're caught drinking, in some states, you can have your license taken away or have your eligibility delayed on top of any delays from continuing seizures.

Drugs have their own issues. In addition to reacting badly with epilepsy medicines, many drugs can be very addictive. In addition, in some cases, a drug conviction can prevent you from getting federal student loans for college.

Dangers of alcohol

Even people without epilepsy can have seizures from drinking too much alcohol. In people with epilepsy, drinking can momentarily reduce the risk of a seizure for a few hours, but when they stop drinking, their risk of a seizure increases considerably.

Some seizure medicines, such as phenobarbital, are sedatives and can cause a coma or even death when combined with alcohol.

You may be able to drink if you stick to "social drinking," consuming only one or two drinks during an evening. Some people with epilepsy are not affected by small amounts of alcohol, but some are. Having a drink as part of a large meal is less likely to cause a seizure than drinking 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.

Learn your limits and never drive after you've been drinking – even if you're seizure free.

Smoking

Although smoking does not have any known effects on epilepsy, it can cause numerous other health problems. In addition, there can be a risk of fire or injury if you have a seizure while smoking.

If you are a smoker who is trying to quit, talk to your doctor before using any type of nicotine withdrawal program like the patch.

Illegal drugs

Illegal drugs are a bad idea for everyone, but they're a really bad idea if you have epilepsy. Many illegal drugs like cocaine, crack, PCP and speed are stimulants and they can cause seizures. In addition, anything from baking soda to rat poison may be added to illegal drugs as fillers. Those additives can lead to seizures or cause unpredictable or dangerous interactions with prescription medicines.