Epilepsy & Seizure Disorders
Alternative Treatment for Epilepsy & Seizure Disorders
What are Seizure Disorders?
Seizure disorders, including epilepsy, are neurological conditions in which nerve cells in the brain become disrupted, causing seizures or periods of unusual behavior, odd sensations, and sometimes loss of consciousness. Seizure symptoms can vary widely. About 1 in 26 people in the United States will develop a seizure disorder, and nearly 10 percent of individuals may have a single unprovoked seizure.
Many approaches to treating seizures involve using anticonvulsant medications to raise the threshold level of seizures. For many, these medications can cause extreme side effects, prove to be of little help, and even lower the threshold of seizure activity still further–resulting in even more seizures once the medication is withdrawn. And while various other therapies can be useful, they often do not address the underlying brain imbalances.
Our Approach to Epilepsy & Seizure Disorders
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
Recent advances in neuroscience reveal the root causes of seizures include three things:
- A lack of blood flow and oxygen to the brain
- A lack of specific brain chemicals, and
- Brainwave imbalances
Let’s look at each of these a little more in depth:
Inside the brain, we have billions of brain cells, called neurons, sending electrical signals to each other, which we measure as brainwaves.
These electrical waves cause the brain cells to make small chemicals called neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline.
This vast network of brain cells is fed with oxygen and other nutrients by blood from over 100,000 miles of blood vessels inside the brain. For people with seizures, there is often not enough of these blood vessels supplying oxygen and other important nutrients.
This lack of oxygen and nutrients begins to cause brainwave imbalances, which can be measured with a brain scan.
This, in turn, causes an effect on the chemicals the brain needs, meaning that brain cells start producing too little or too much of the chemicals they are supposed to.
These chemical imbalances are even more disrupted by nutritional deficiencies in the person’s diet, especially key vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and amino acids.
So, how do we start correcting what is often a problem with multiple factors?
One of our most important tools at Oxford is called hyperbaric oxygen. This therapy actually causes new blood vessels to grow in the brain and causes the body to create new stem cells which actually turn into new brain cells.
Neurofeedback Therapy
Neurofeedback allows us to retrain the brain to achieve optimal efficiency. With a qEEG (quantitative electroencephalogram), a device that looks like a swimming cap, we are able to see inside the brain to measure your brain waves.
Using state-of-the-art equipment, we are then able to train your brain by presenting it with a view of its activity. It’s like giving the brain a mirror to see when it is operating at an optimal cognitive balance and when it deviates from that balance.
Neurofeedback training helps you get “in the zone” and is used by many athletes. It also has many therapeutic benefits.
How we can help
Related Research
Our Approach to Epilepsy & Seizure Disorders
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT)
Recent advances in neuroscience reveal the root causes of seizures include three things:
- A lack of blood flow and oxygen to the brain
- A lack of specific brain chemicals, and
- Brainwave imbalances
Let’s look at each of these a little more in depth:
Inside the brain, we have billions of brain cells, called neurons, sending electrical signals to each other, which we measure as brainwaves.
These electrical waves cause the brain cells to make small chemicals called neurotransmitters, such as serotonin, dopamine, and adrenaline.
This vast network of brain cells is fed with oxygen and other nutrients by blood from over 100,000 miles of blood vessels inside the brain. For people with seizures, there is often not enough of these blood vessels supplying oxygen and other important nutrients.
This lack of oxygen and nutrients begins to cause brainwave imbalances, which can be measured with a brain scan.
This, in turn, causes an effect on the chemicals the brain needs, meaning that brain cells start producing too little or too much of the chemicals they are supposed to.
These chemical imbalances are even more disrupted by nutritional deficiencies in the person’s diet, especially key vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and amino acids.
So, how do we start correcting what is often a problem with multiple factors?
One of our most important tools at Oxford is called hyperbaric oxygen. This therapy actually causes new blood vessels to grow in the brain and causes the body to create new stem cells which actually turn into new brain cells.
Neurofeedback Therapy
Neurofeedback allows us to retrain the brain to achieve optimal efficiency. With a qEEG (quantitative electroencephalogram), a device that looks like a swimming cap, we are able to see inside the brain to measure your brain waves.
Using state-of-the-art equipment, we are then able to train your brain by presenting it with a view of its activity. It’s like giving the brain a mirror to see when it is operating at an optimal cognitive balance and when it deviates from that balance.
Neurofeedback training helps you get “in the zone” and is used by many athletes. It also has many therapeutic benefits.