Chinese medicine, Ren shen, Seizures, and smart drugs

November 19, 2009

Dear Nam, Betty and all,

First of all I must emphasize that we should never treat seizures or epilepsy,

per se, but rather determine the patterns to establish a differential diagnosis,

and trace the contributing factors involved in the pathogenesis. In our

journey, there were many clues as well as many dead ends. If a had $100 for the

many suggestions that were given, and approaches suggested, I would be a rich

man. In the 9 years between 1990 and 1999, we traveled to " experts " around the

city, the country and world, seeing over 200 practitioners, Western, Eastern,

alternative and conventional, attempting to resolve her seizure disorder. I

began formally studying and CranioSacral therapy in 2000.

Well, in a very different way, I am now very rich, but certainly not in material

sense. When my wife Chana had her first seizure back in Feb 1990, we owned in a

lovely 6 bedroom 5 bath house in LosAngeles, and I had a flourishing business.

We lost our house in 1996 and now rent in a 2 bedroom apartment. But the

learning that life as well as formal education has taught me has made me a much

wealthier man than I could ever have imagined. But I digress.

First let me tell you Chana's patterns, as they have developed. Originally,

back 10 years ago or so, she had a combination of replete and vacuous heat. The

trouble was that nourishing the empty heat engendered stagnation and phlegm,

both visible and invisible and yet " reducing " the excess heat, created Qi and

Yin vacuity, and stirred up liver wind. Now, after nearly 20 years, the

replete fire is considerably reduced, and her state is much more one of

emptiness and deficiency, primarily of the Kidney and Lung. Phlegm from

deficiency (as is mentioned in Clavey's text on body fluids and well as the new

Bensky formula book), is still prevalent as well as hyperactivity in the liver

engendering wind. As would be expected, particularly with a woman, there is

blood xu component with accompanying yin xu.

Before I share with you my formula, though, I want to reflect upon my journey,

and the conclusion I have come to as to why would she start to have seizures,

particularly after MRIs, EEGs, CT scans, PT scans, and lumbar punctures all

came back being either negative or non-conclusive.

Years before we met, Chana gave birth to her first child. At the time, she and

her first husband lived in an apartment with loud neighbors who played the TV

day and night, and paper thin walls. After giving birth, she was not allowed to

rest or sleep, and developed post-partum depression. Her ex-husband, in his

great wisdom, had her admitted to a psychiatric hospital where she received a

series of ECT. I don't know if any of you have seen grand mal seizures or

electric shock treatment, but they look identical. I am absolutely convinced

that the electricity from the ECT left an imprint on Chana's nervous system,

which each month would build up into an explosion as a seizure--until 3-4 months

ago. Chinese medicine, nutriceuticals and Craniosacral therapy have all been

helpful in reducing many of her symptoms: Sleep is good, she is no longer

constipated, she no longer has frequent urination, her speech is clearer, and

her skin is soft and

unwrinkled, much like a woman 25 years younger than she is. Yet, we could not

stop the seizures--until we found Levetiracetam.(Keppra). Keppra is a

derivative of the nootropic (smart drug) Piracetam, which raises IQ, promotes

concentration, and has a mild anti-convulsive effect. Piracetam works by

stimulating the production of acetylcholine. Oh, one other thing: Chana has

not able to tolerate any Western drugs, nearly dying from a reaction to Lamictal

(an anticonvulsant). After the most recent procedure, the lumbar puncture,

(done to test for the presence of latent bacteria, virus or fungus in the CS

fluid-negative), our neurologist suggested giving Keppra a try, as it is

virtually without side effects. For the first time, I was intrigued, knowing

that it came from Piracetam. Well low and behold, for the first time in 20

years, Chana went over 35 days without a seizure. As a matter of fact, she went

67 days! Unfortunately, there were 3

undesirable side effects: Significant asthenia (generalized muscle weakness),

a slowing of reactions, and reduced appetite. There was no question that it was

worth it, but I was determined to find ways to mitigate the symptoms. And,

thank G-d, I think that I have succeeded. First of all, along with

Levetiracetam, she is now taking 3g of Piracetam. Second despite the seizures

being pretty much under control, her muscle spasms and motion tremor had not

improved. I therefore added yet another nootropic, Picamilon, a drug developed

in Russia, 50 years ago, which molecularly combines GABA and Niacin, to cross

the blood-brain barrier. And now the tremors and spasms are becoming less and

less almost each day. As I alluded to, since we started the current protocol,

she has had 2 seizures: one occurred the night after YomKippur- Chana felt so

good, that unbeknownst to me, she decided to fast on YomKippur. The other one

occurred when I decided to give

RenShen a shot, switching from TaiZiShen. The first night after, she had her

first incident of incontinence in months. I didn't get it. The next day her

tremors increased. 'Still didn't get it. The next night she was drenched in

sweat. And finally on night 3 she had the seizure. When I switched to the

current formula, all the problems stopped.

Here is the formula:

FuShen 12, Shu Di Huang 21, Nu ZhenZi 12, GouQiZi 15, BaiShaoYao 21, Mai Men

Dong 24,

Dang Gui 9, Zhi Gan Cao 12, GouTeng 15, Tian Ma 9, Mu Li 25, Long Gu 25,

SuanZaoRen 12,

BaiZiRen 12, ShanZhuYu 9, ShanYao 12, Tai ZiShen 30, Dan Shen 9, YuJin 6,

and Shi Chang Pu 3.

I believe that we need to consider all options and determine the most

efficacious and wholistic approach we can, with open-mindedness and awareness.

Chinese medicine was not able to resolve the root of Chana's problem, but it has

been amazingly helpful in addressing accompanying symptoms. Acupuncture

exacerbated her symptoms, paradoxically increasing the tremor and even

precipitating seizures. Yet the beautifully effective Western drug

Levetiracetam (Keppra), left her acting like a zombie, which was unacceptable.

By marrying together the best of both worlds, I look forward to revitalizing our

marriage of nearly 31 years, one rooted in deep love, and lots of giving.

________________________________

chihealing <medicwoman

Chinese Medicine

Sat, November 14, 2009 3:22:59 PM

Re: Renshen and Seizures

Yehuda,

Would you please give us the formula you used to successfully prevent your

wife's seizures? I must have missed it the first time you posted it. My Mom is

now have seizures and I would like a lead on developing a formula that would

help to prevent them. Thank you and God Bless....... ......... .Betty

Traditional_ Chinese_Medicine , yehuda frischman

<@.. .> wrote:

>

> Dear Colleagues,

>

> As many of you are aware of, my wife has had a seizure disorder or

undetermined etiology for nearly 20 years. Thank G-d, over the past 4-5 month,

she has basically been seizure free due to a number of factors that I will

relate to you when I have time--just not now. What I would like to relate,

anecdotally, is that the formulas I have written for you have generally included

TaiZiShen, which she was doing very well with. However, because she was doing

so well, I thought that I would give a 6g dose of RenShen a shot because of its

cognicence enhancement properties. Unfortunately, for the first time in months,

her spasms increased, she had incontinence, and last night a seizure.

>

> I will relate more later. 'Thought that you would find this of interest.

>

> www.traditionaljewishmedicine. net

> www.traditionaljewishmedicine. blogspot. com

>

November 19, 2009

Very touching, Yehuda.Â Thanks for sharing that.

Anne

Anne C. Crowley, L.Ac., Dipl.Ac.

www.LaPlataAcupuncture.com

-

" yehuda frischman " <

" Traditional "

Thursday, November 19, 2009 5:32:33 AM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern

Â Chinese medicine, Ren shen, Seizures, and smart drugs

Â

Dear Nam, Betty and all,

First of all I must emphasize that we should never treat seizures or epilepsy,

per se, but rather determine the patterns to establish a differential diagnosis,

and trace the contributing factors involved in the pathogenesis. In our journey,

there were many clues as well as many dead ends. If a had $100 for the many

suggestions that were given, and approaches suggested, I would be a rich man. In

the 9 years between 1990 and 1999, we traveled to " experts " around the city, the

country and world, seeing over 200 practitioners, Western, Eastern, alternative

and conventional, attempting to resolve her seizure disorder. I began formally

studying and CranioSacral therapy in 2000.

Well, in a very different way, I am now very rich, but certainly not in material

sense. When my wife Chana had her first seizure back in Feb 1990, we owned in a

lovely 6 bedroom 5 bath house in LosAngeles, and I had a flourishing business.

We lost our house in 1996 and now rent in a 2 bedroom apartment. But the

learning that life as well as formal education has taught me has made me a much

wealthier man than I could ever have imagined. But I digress.

First let me tell you Chana's patterns, as they have developed. Originally, back

10 years ago or so, she had a combination of replete and vacuous heat. The

trouble was that nourishing the empty heat engendered stagnation and phlegm,

both visible and invisible and yet " reducing " the excess heat, created Qi and

Yin vacuity, and stirred up liver wind. Now, after nearly 20 years, the replete

fire is considerably reduced, and her state is much more one of emptiness and

deficiency, primarily of the Kidney and Lung. Phlegm from deficiency (as is

mentioned in Clavey's text on body fluids and well as the new Bensky formula

book), is still prevalent as well as hyperactivity in the liver engendering

wind. As would be expected, particularly with a woman, there is blood xu

component with accompanying yin xu.

Before I share with you my formula, though, I want to reflect upon my journey,

and the conclusion I have come to as to why would she start to have seizures,

particularly after MRIs, EEGs, CT scans, PT scans, and lumbar punctures all came

back being either negative or non-conclusive.