Many people who were not sensitive to salt become so when they take certain prescription drugs

Many people who were not sensitive to salt become so when they take certain prescription drugs. - Yes. These are some of the pharmaceutical drugs that cause salt sensitivity and a host of associated health problems: amitriptyline and the other tricyclic antidepressants, also many prescribed steroid meds, including HRT and some birth control meds, also Epilim and other anticonvulsants, and some painkillers, and some anti-psychotic drugs. And you can read here about other groups of people who are or who can become vulnerable to salt in different ways.

Study suggests promising results for epilepsy surgery

Study suggests promising results for epilepsy surgery as you can read in this BBC News report. "The most common type of surgery undertaken on people in the study was temporal lobe surgery, which focuses on the area of the brain behind the forehead between the ear and the eye, where most seizures originate. Researchers who carried out the study, published in The Lancet, reported that 63% of all patients were free of seizures two years after surgery (excluding simple partial seizures), 52% after five years and 47% after 10 years." - I can't say I'd consider these percentages very 'promising' myself...

But you may be very hesitant about embarking on brain surgery - and I'd certainly be with you on that! - and you probably wish there could be a third option, i.e. not surgery and not drugs either. - I'd be with you about avoiding anti-epilepsy drugs too because they tend to have undesirable side-effects, don't they? (Though some of the serious side-effects, e.g. weight gain, from anti-epileptics such as Epilim, can be greatly reduced by cutting down on salt and salty food. See amitriptyline and other drugs.)

Well there is indeed a third option, and it has much to commend it. - Maybe you have already heard of it? - The ketogenic diet? - The ketogenic diet is a high fat, adequate protein, low carbohydrate diet. Maybe you have heard of it but been advised that it is a difficult diet to stick to, and so you haven't given it further thought. - But compared with brain surgery! - Surely it's a no-brainer as an option to brain surgery!? - Check out this excellent, reassuring article about this kind of diet. As a matter of fact, although I do not suffer from epilepsy, I nevertheless eat a ketogenic diet and have done so for many months now and it suits me very well. You may like to consider it and discuss it with your medical adviser and read further about it on the internet.

Dr Andrew Holton's child victims, reduced to 'zombies' following his misdiagnoses and wrong treatment, have been awarded £4 million in compensation

The Telegraph reports that Dr Andrew Holton's hundreds of child victims, reduced to 'zombies' following his misdiagnoses and catastrophically inappropriate medication, have been awarded £4 million in compensation. This appallingly poor doctor, who had worked for years as a paediatric neurologist despite having no formal qualifications in paediatric neurology, has destroyed the lives of these children and of their families. Clearly he knew he had no relevant qualifications to be so readily 'diagnosing' epilepsy, nor so recklessly prescribing dangerous anti-convulsant drugs like Epilim.

See also the long years of struggle by Ryan Pitcher's parents to find out the why their 3 year old died.

"Dr Holton now works as a consultant neurophysiologist at Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust."
I believe he should be serving a long custodial sentence in prison for the horrific suffering he has inflicted on innocent children and their families.

Sodium Valproate (Epilim) Poses Risk of Major Birth Defects if Taken During Pregnancy

WARNING!
The FDA is updating the warning for the antimigraine and antiepileptic drug valproate sodium and related drugs, which include Depacon, Depakote, Depakene and Stavzor. Use during pregnancy can cause neural tube defects and other major birth defects. The agency released information for healthcare professionals on December 3, alerting them that women of childbearing age should be informed that the use of these drugs could cause a wide variety of birth defects.
Read article at aboutlawsuits.com (USA)

Leicester Royal Infirmary's inexcusable delay over Dr Andrew Holton's wrong treatment that led to suffering and death for 3 year old Ryan Pitcher

BBC News reports that Leicester Royal Infirmary took years to apologise and admit responsibility for the death of 3 year old Ryan Pitcher. Dr Andrew Holton, a consultant paediatrician, misdiagnosed hundreds of children over 10 years at the hospital and was responsible for the "incorrect treatment" for epilepsy that Ryan received. His parents described Ryan as "like a zombie" on the medication he was prescribed.

Ryan died in 1997. Since then, we read in thisisleicestershire.co.uk, his "devastated family has told of a 12-year battle to find out why their young son died," and that, "Since then, an investigation has found Dr Holton had misdiagnosed 618 cases and put 500 children on the wrong doses of drugs."

"Compensation of around £3m has been paid by the trust to children wrongly diagnosed with epilepsy by Dr Holton."

I hope you will click on the links and read the articles. Severe and avoidable suffering was inflicted on hundreds of children because of the customary failure of the NHS to take complaints seriously and to act appropriately to save other patients from harm when grave medical mistakes are made. This shocking case reaffirms the low priority the NHS accords to patient safety. It routinely protects negligent/incompetent/ill-informed and frankly dangerous doctors, rather than protecting their innocent, suffering patients/victims.

This matter is a national scandal of which the NHS should be deeply ashamed.

(The drug that caused most damage to Ryan was sodium valproate, aka Epilim. Beware of this drug! Doctors do not seem to be very well-informed about its harmful side-effects.)

Epilepsy drug, valproate, may lower children's IQ

Epilepsy drug may lower children's IQ, study shows - Guardian

Extract:

"Women who took an epilepsy drug during their pregnancy are at greater risk of having children with lower IQ, according to a study. Taking the drug valproate - which is already at the centre of a British court action after claims that it has damaged children - seems to double the chance that the woman's child will be born with mental retardation.

Around 140 British families claim their children are suffering from foetal anti-convulsant syndrome because their mothers took valproate during pregnancy. The syndrome encompasses a range of neural, behavioural and physical disorders such as cleft palate and spina bifida, learning difficulties, behavioural problems and abnormalities in movement, speech, vision and hearing. Many mothers were prescribed the brand Epilim, made by Sanofi-Synthelabo, though the drug is also available in generic forms. So far, Sanofi is the only company involved in the court action, with a trial date set for October 2008.

In the research, Kimford Meador, of the University of Florida in Gainesville, looked at IQ results of 187 children born to mothers who had taken the epilepsy drugs carbamazepine, lamotrigine, phenytoin, or valproate during pregnancy. The results, presented yesterday at the American Academy of Neurology's annual meeting in Boston, showed 24% of the children of mothers who took valproate had an IQ low enough to be defined as mentally retarded, compared to 12% for carbamazepine, 9% for lamotrigine, and 12% for phenytoin.

Children whose mothers took carbamazepine scored an average of 93 points on the IQ tests, those on phenytoin 93, lamotrigine 96, and 84 for valproate. "Our findings are consistent with other studies, which have shown valproate poses an increased risk for foetal death and birth defects," said Dr Meador."

Doctors are supposed to avoid prescribing drugs to pregnant women unless the drugs are absolutely necessary because so many drugs are particularly dangerous to unborn babies. I know personally, however, that valproate is a dangerous drug and that it is not only unborn babies that are affected. - I used to know a woman whose only child, a beloved daughter, died because an obstinate doctor had insisted to her mother that the drug was safe and that the little girl was just attention-seeking and not really ill...)o: - And I, in my innocence years ago, took Epilim for some weeks. I was told that it would lessen the chronic toothache I suffered because of the sustained gross negligence of senior dental staff at the Charles Clifford Dental Hospital. - It did not lessen the pain at all; what it did do was cause some of my hair to fall out. It has many adverse side-effects. - For years now I've been punctilious in avoiding all drugs that I can; I'm certain that on the whole they do far, far more harm than good.


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
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