Treating Epilepsy Naturally. A Guide toAlternative and Adjunct Therapies

by Patricia Murphy and Russell BlaylockMcGraw Hill, New York, 2001.Softcover, 322 pages.

Reading medical books may be very interesting but seldom is it fun. Over the past few weeks I am reading two books and in both cases they are both very interest-ing, very accurate and, on top of it, a lot of fun. Perhaps that is because each one was written by a journalist, this one and the other which follows this review, by an Ox-ford Professor of English literature. I had to read them twice. The lesson is that books which have great medical value for the public should be written only by writers. It may be even better if they are both writers and doctors but this is relatively rare.

Murphy has epilepsy diagnosed when she was 21. She was treated in the same way that mostepileptic patients are treated: diagnosed, tested, and then prescribed anti-convulsant drugs. These helped con-trol the frequency of the seizures but they did not leave her feeling well. She paid the price that we all pay when we take xenobiotic drugs. Then she became a direct and active participant in her search for reasons behind her seizures, and what could be done about it with the present state of knowledge. She discovered that orthodox medicine offered a little but not enough for her and she had to investigate the alternative or complementary field be-fore she was able to obtain all the informa-tion she needed to bring her to her present state of good health. She still has to be care-ful and carry on with the final program she developed for herself. The search for truth was slow and painful but, in the end, very rewarding. For she is well and free of the debilitating symptoms induced by drugs. And her search for truth was also very re-warding for me. I honor anyone who teaches me anything and from this book I learned a new concept about epilepsy. She quotes Dr. Fried who told her “We believe that a seizure is basically an attempt to correct the effect of stress on individuals in their body biochemistry. We are trying to give individuals techniques that help them to prevent the degradation of the oxygen transport system that then requires the body to call upon a seizure to straighten everything out. Breath controls brain waves It’s the body’s natural tranquilizer”. In other words the seizures is the bodies attempt to treat itself, lest greater harm come to the individual. In the same way induced sei-zures were used to treat schizophrenic pa-tients many years ago and even now be-cause for these patients the greater evil is the schizophrenia itself. But ECT by itself was not very helpful and beginning in 1952 I never gave any patients ECT without at the same time giving them optimum does of niacin. The ECT helped them get well. The niacin kept them well. Niacin is con-verted into nicotiamide adenine dinucle-otide in the cells of the body and is one of the most important respiratory enzymes in maintaining oxgyen transport and utlization. According to Dr Fried the sei-zure restores proper supply of oxygen to the brain and therefor prevents loss of brain cells from anoxia. If therefor the serious anoxemia which precipitates the seizure can be prevented then there will be no need for these seizures. The seizures are life sav-ing and give the patients the message that they have biochemical problem which can be dealt wit successfully.

Of course prolonged seizures are very dangerous and must be treated as quickly as possible. If you remember the rule that you must prevent degradation of the oxy-gen transport system, then everything Murphy does makes sense. She found which foods she was allergic to and elimi-nated them, described the optimum diet and gave especial attention to the ketogenic diet. But in most cases this would not be enough. She described the use of supple-

Journal of Orthomolecular Medicine Vol. 17, No. 4, 2002 ^{Book Review}

ments including vitamins and minerals, also herbs which are in fact safer chemi-cals than the synthetic modern drugs. These therapies were combined with relaxation techniques or body therapies to control brain waves. Epilepsy for children, for men and for women an for the elderly are given individual chaapters and finally the environ-ment is very important as it is in the treat-ment of all disease. Ideal treatment of dis-ease requires four components: (1) Shelter;

(2) Optimum Nutrition; (3) Respect, decency etc ; (4) Orthmolecular therapy. If you fol-low the program described so well in this valuable book you will be providing yourself all of the four components of the ideal treat-ment. I think every person with seizures should read this book even before they con-sult their first doctor,

–A. Hoffer, M.D., Ph.D.