Candida and epilepsy/seizures

Naturopathy, Diet and Medication

© Donna Williams

Salicylate occurs in 80% of known foods. Its highest in colourings, flavourings, preservatives and Monosodium Glutamate (also called Flavour enhancer). These are especially found in processed foods, sweets, soft drinks, cordial and snack foods. It's also high in citrus fruits (but not lemon), berries (like jams and blackcurrant drinks) and stone fruits as well as curries and chilli and tomato.

Salicylate intolerance is known to effect 60% of people on the autistic spectrum (Waring). It causes a cocaine-like high, agitation, anxiety, mood swings and visual perceptual fragmentation- seeing the world in bits. Salicylate intolerance is kept under control through diet but also assisted through supplementation that includes Epsom Salts baths (to absorb the Magnesium Sulphate through the skin (although this is not the best route for Magnesium or sulphate absorption) and Glutamine as well as fish oils to reduce the inflammatory effects on the body.

When a child develops an acute anxiety state the high stress levels turn the environment of the stomach alkaline. An alkaline stomach is one with insufficient stomach acid to properly digest food. Lemon juice before meals helps improve levels of stomach acid.

The hardest foods to digest are dairy/gluten. 80% of people on the autistic spectrum cannot properly digest dairy/gluten (Shattock). The effects of this dairy/gluten intolerance on the brain is like being on drugs. It mimics the effect of opium and are called 'opiate-like' effects.

An alkaline stomach is one where the messengers to recognise food substances-what is called secretory IgA- is impaired so many foods are left undigested. This means that in spite of adequate diet, the child becomes malnourished.

This is why multivitamin/minerals and amino acids are used to help people with autism and compensate for this functional malnutrition. 80% of people with autism are found to have abnormal brain electrical activity and as many as 30% are formally diagnosed with epilepsy (including absence and partial seizures in which the child does not collapse or convulse) and most of these people are found deficient in Magnesium, Zinc and Manganese (Danczak). Lack of IgA in the gut will mean the body won't fight infections which enter the gut, including the fungal infection, Candida. Candida (which is opportunistic) lives off the sugar in a child's diet so the Candida often makes the child crave sugar but it also robs the child's body of that sugar, causing mood swings and increasing likelihood of seizure activity (including absence seizures) when the brain becomes intermittently starved of blood glucose levels.

The only sensible way to kill off Candida is to improve gut immunity, often by treating the underlying nutritional and anxiety conditions, and stop feeding the Candida with sugar (which also exacerbates the loss of zinc via the kidney). There are supplements to fight Candida including Garlic capsules, Caprylic acid capsules (Calcium Ascorbate and lots of water is needed to detox during such a program as Candida is killed off) as well as replacements for the beneficial bacteria which fights the bad bacteria- probiotics called Acidophilus (taken separately) . Fish oils are also found to be good.

When Candida can't rob the body of sugar, it will rob the body of vitamin B. This starves the brain of this important vitamin- one which is important to processing and keeping up with incoming information. This is why some children take a mega B complex supplement.

In people with failed immunity, Candida contributes to 'leaky gut' by making the holes in the gut too big so undigested foods and bad gut bacteria get through into the bloodstream, effectively poisoning the brain. (this is part of the mettalothionine story) High stress levels lower the integrity of the blood brain barrier- a membrane in the brain which normally would stop the brain from being poisoned by such things in the blood. There is a supplement which helps the blood brain barrier- called Glutamine.

When undigested foods get into the blood stream, the person often develops food allergies which can effect the brain in some individuals and common cerebral allergies include, among others, those to dairy and wheat, putting the person in a drugged state when they eat these, often craved, substances.

Medications such as low doses of Risperdal (i.e. 0.5mgs) are used to treat those with chronic anxiety conditions to stop the kind of fight/flight responses which cause involuntary avoidance, diversion and retaliation responses.

These medications stabilise neurotransmitters- the messengers in the brain involved in fight/flight responses and impulse control. The Risperdal has a positive impact on the gut because by treating the chronic anxiety the Risperdal, used regularly, will help the body stabilise and reduce the alkaline state of the gut, restore

the production of stomach acid and indirectly raise gut immunity so the person can progressively recover from leaky gut.

This would be particularly effective when used in conjunction with natural medicine approaches such as the correct diet and supplementation in order to recover from the imbalances which has progressively caused or exacerbated the autism.