Using Cannabis or Homeopathy to Treat Epilepsy

Two Alternative Ways to Treat Epilepsy are Cannabis and Homeopathy

EPILEPSY

My name is Jacob Mirman, MD, DHt, CCH, MHOM. My practice is Life Medical in St. Louis Park. As a doctor who offers evaluations and certifications for patients who may be eligible for the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program, I see many conditions that are greatly improved when the patient is prescribed cannabis; Epilepsy is one of them.

Simply described, Epilepsy is when a part of the brain gets overly excited; the cells get over- stimulated. This over-excitement in a specific area of the brain can lead to a multitude of different symptoms. Patients can experience simple muscle spasms or their whole body can go into a seizure.  Sometimes they just check out for a few seconds or minutes.

Epilepsy and seizures are often caused by a brain injury. They can also be caused by a tumor. Some patients need to be treated surgically if they have a scar or tumor in that specific area of the brain.

In some cases when a brain scan is done for people who experience seizures, nothing appears on the scan to explain the seizures; meaning that there is no obvious organic pathology.  The seizures just seem to arise out of nowhere.

When I treat patients for epilepsy, I start by making sure that the appropriate tests have been given by a neurologist; a brain scan, EEG, etc. Once I determine that these tests have been completed, and no conventional treatment like surgery is necessary,  I can choose from two different approaches.

MEDICAL CANNABIS FOR EPILEPSY

One approach that I could choose would be cannabis, or MEDICAL MARIJUANA. In Minnesota, any cannabis patient needs to be qualified and certified by the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program, but seizures are indeed a condition listed for qualification into the program. I offer evaluations and certifications for patients that need a marijuana doctor at my office at Life Medical in St. Louis Park, MN.

I find that cannabis often works better than the pharmaceutical drugs to stop seizures, and for most people it has far fewer side effects than conventionally-prescribed drugs. Since I started certifying patients for medical cannabis, I’ve seen a few children with epilepsy respond better to cannabis than to conventional drugs.

One of the children that I have treated for epilepsy using cannabis was an 11 year old girl.

This child was adopted and her epilepsy was due to a neonatal withdrawal syndrome from maternal use of drugs during pregnancy.  The little girl had a long history of bad behavior and was performing poorly in school. The girl’s mother came to see me for an appointment because she wanted to try cannabis as an alternative to the drugs her daughter had been given by the neurologist.

After starting on cannabis, the child is very much improved and can now actually concentrate much better at school.  Because of this, her reading and writing is vastly improved.  The girl’s anxiety level has been greatly reduced and the “fight or flight symptoms” that she was experiencing have disappeared. Her balance is also much improved; so much so that she can now walk on the balance beam in her gymnastics program without fear. She has been able to stop all of her conventional sedative medications.

HOMEOPATHY FOR EPILEPSY

For some patients with seizures, especially if they see me very early after the onset of their first seizure, I can treat them homeopathically. Using homeopathy I have not only treated patients with seizures but I have actually cured them.

One example of this stands out very clearly in my mind.  A 25 year old woman who had experienced only two seizures and came to see me. She had no obvious physical cause for her seizures; her brain scan showed no scar tissue or tumors.  I gave her a homeopathic remedy to control the seizures.

Ten years later, I had further contact with her. When I asked her how her seizures were, she said that since taking the homeopathic remedy she had been seizure-free.  I used Alloxanum for her. It is not a treatment that is traditionally used for seizures, but in her case that is what came up so that is what cured her.  When using homeopathy I treat the whole person and in this case it was very successful.

I’ve also had other cases where I’ve used homeopathic remedies in patients with no organic pathology, and where seizures are a functional issue and the remedy has really helped the patient.