ROLE OF NONI IN EPILEPSY

Epilepsy is a neurological condition that makes people susceptible to seizures. A seizure is a change in sensation, awareness, or behavior brought about by a brief electrical disturbance in the brain. Seizures vary from a momentary disruption of the senses, to short periods of unconsciousness or staring spells, to convulsions. Some people have just one type of seizure. Others have more than one type. Although they look different, all seizures are caused by the same thing: a sudden change in how the cells of the brain send electrical signals to each other.

If you have epilepsy, you probably already know that it's not a mental disorder. It can be caused by anything that affects the brain, including tumors and strokes. Sometimes epilepsy is inherited. Often, no cause can be found.

Although seizure medications are not a cure, they control seizures in the majority of people with epilepsy.

Causes

The onset of epilepsy can often be traced to an accident, disease or medical trauma — such as a stroke — that injures your brain or deprives it of oxygen, often causing a small scar in your brain. In rare occasions, epilepsy may be caused by a tumor in your brain. However, in many cases there's no identifiable cause for the disease.

ROLE OF NONI IN EPILEPSY

For most people with epilepsy, a well-balanced, nutritional diet -- including adequate folic acid, calcium and magnesium, Vitamins B12, D, E and K-- is recommended. Minerals are essential nutrients. Low levels of the minerals sodium, calcium, and magnesium can alter the electrical activity of brain cells and cause seizures. It is true that if the body is depleted of these substances convulsions may occur. Noni is well balanced nutritional supplement which contain all the vitamins, many trace minerals like calcium, magnesium, and lots of phytochemicals. Thus it helps in epileptic patients.

“Seizures associated with metabolic disorders usually begin soon after birth and rarely start after age six,” says Robert J. Gumnit, M.D., president of the Minnesota Comprehensive Epilepsy Program and director of the Epilepsy Clinical Research Center at the University of Minnesota. Micro nutrients can play a role in epilepsy. Adding more of micronutrient may help others. Shortages of magnesium, thiamin, vitamin B6 and zinc have been reported to be associated with seizures in some individuals. These nutrients, among numerous others, are needed for normal chemical reactions in the brain. Noni contains all the essential nutrients, many more phytonutrients and lot of essential trace minerals like calcium, magnesium, zinc, selenium which are needed for the normal chemical reactions in the brain of epileptic patients.

Vitamin E helps prevent seizures. One clinical studies show that people taking antiseizure drugs have reduced blood levels of vitamin E. The researchers at the University of Toronto decided to test vitamin E in 24 children with epilepsy whose seizures could not be controlled by medication. They found that the frequency of seizures was reduced by more than 60 percent in 10 of 12 children taking vitamin E supplements. Six of them had a 90 to 100 percent reduction in seizures. Noni contains vitamin E and all the other vitamins. Thus a regular and constant use of Noni may prevent the seizure attack of epilepsy patients.

Though Vitamin E apparently has no direct anti-epileptic action but it may act as a scavenger of free radicals in some forms of epilepsy, such as post-traumatic seizures, and so help protect the membranes of brain cells.”

Selenium may stop seizures. The mineral selenium, another nutrient with antioxidant properties, also appears to help control seizures in some children, says Georg Weber, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and a researcher at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Dr. Weber has found that some children with severe, uncontrollable seizures and repeated infections have low blood levels of glutathione peroxidase, a selenium-dependent antioxidant enzyme. Noni contains lots of trace minerals including selenium and thus helps in enhancing the production of glutathione peroxidase that helps naturally to fights against infections.

Role of antioxidant in epilepsy

Biological ill effects of oxidative injury from excess free radical production are implicated in many human conditions. Epilepsy is a chronic, dynamic neurological disorder associated with ongoing neuronal damage, particularly when uncontrolled. Oxidative injury may play a role in the initiation and progression of epilepsy, and therapies aimed at reducing oxidative stress may ameliorate tissue damage and favorably alter the clinical course. There is abundant in vivo evidence of oxidative injury in animal models of epilepsy and for efficacy of antioxidant therapy in reducing this injury in animal models of epileptogenesis.

Researchers in India have conducted a small human study to determine the oxidative stress status of patients suffering from epilepsy. A total of 29 epileptic patients and 50 normal control patients were recruited for the study. The antioxidant status and the level of lipid peroxidation were measured and recorded in both groups. Ten epileptic patients who had remained seizure free for one year were further evaluated. The results of this study showed that lipid peroxidation was increased in patients with epilepsy and levels of specific antioxidants, vitamins A, C and E, were lower than in the normal control group. This led to the conclusion that “the antioxidant status in blood of epileptic patients which was low compared to controls, improved after treatment, suggesting that free radicals may be implicated in epilepsy. This study shows for the rationale use of antioxidant in epilepsy. Noni is an effcetive and powerful antioxidant as it contains all antioxidant vitamins like vitaminC,Vitamin E, betacarotene and all trace minerals like zinc, selenium, calcium, phosphorus and lots of phyto chemical having strong antioxidant property. Regular use of Noni in epilepsy provide a powerful effective antioxidant to your body and thus helps in the curative process of epilpetic paitents.

According to one study a group of 13 patients suffering from generalized epilepsy has shown about 20-25% decreases in the activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GP) in red blood cells. Out of them 9 patients were treated with the antioxidant. Prior to the treatment all patients showed abnormal electroencephalographic (EEG) changes; 4 weeks later the effects of the antioxidant appeared as positive EEG changes, reduced frequency of epileptic seizures, increased SOD activity and patients' improved general state. Thus, the addition of the antioxidant to the multitherapy of epilepsy enhances antioxidative activity and therapeutic effects. Noni helps for enhancing the endogenous antioxidant system of your body. Thus Noni plays an important role in epilepsy.

Noni enahnces the inter cellular communication. In epilepsy the inter cellular electrical signals are being disturbed thus it manifests the symptoms of seizure. Noni helps in balancing the intercellular electrical signals systems and thus prvent the sezure attack in case epilepsy