[Laura Fr: Canada]

I was just wondering if anyone else out there was having this problem I've been on medication for epilepsy for years and one of the side effects is weight gain, but it never used to be a problem until about 4 years ago when I started to notice that I was having a weight problem, I was always skinny but not anymore! So could it be that the meds are starting to make me gain weight after I turned 30 I'm 5'7 and 200 lbs, 36 yrs old, I've had epilepsy since age 13. Controlled epilepsy

[edith]

Hi! Laura, I totaly understand your delima. My daughter started having seizures when she turned thirteen, she had grand mal seizures and they where not totaly contolled. she gained weight every year. She has taken depakote, phenobarbitol,and tegretol.gained weight with every one of them.she got married when she was twenty five, started on birth controll pills and hasn,t had a seizure since. she,s been married for five years.This year she went to a new Doctor he took her off of depakote and put her on topamax, she has lost seventy five pounds This seems to be one of the side effecys of this medication, but the only one it seems. I don,t know what kind of medication you,re on but maybe you should talk to your Doctor about this one . I.m not sure i spelled it right, if not try- toupamax. I hope this helps it,s bad enough to have to deal with the seizures and everything else much less the weight gain also. Please let me know what you think? Hugs Donna K

[Laura Fr: Canada]

Thanks for your reply, as I said I have been taking these meds since I was in my teens and had no problem with the weight, until now. I take depekene I used to be on phenobarital but I came off it many years ago, also I was on dilantin and I also came off that. I haven't had a seizure in about 1 year, and I have no interest in changing drugs now just because I'm over weight I think that I would rather be overweight than having seizures. Thanks again

[jenny 1]

Laura -- My sister is 29 and has had epileptic seizures since she was 4 years old. I am 27 so I have been around it my whole life.

The medication my sister took (tegretol) always made her tired, although she never realized it, admitted to it or whatever. She was pretty active growing up and stayed slim, but she had a baby at 25 and has had a horrible time with getting her weight under control since then.

She now will say that the meds make her feel tired and leave her without energy and how it is hard for her to really exercise because of the stress it puts on her body sometimes causing seizures.

She went on a modified version of Atkins diet and lost like 40-45 pounds in a year, this is with exercise 3-5 times a week, mainly walking or stationary bike. But then she started having these spells where as she describes it her feet left like 2 - ton weights and could not lift them only drag them, she felt like she was drunk and out of control.

Her doctors told her that the dieting was causing her blood sugar to dip too low and the medicine is strong and this was the effect the two was causing. His advice to her was stop dieting, and start eating carbs.

This broke her heart, because she had struggled to lose and is now almost at her goal but cannot reach it. She says that if she doesn't eat right then the weight just piles back on because of the effects of the medicine. And when she gains weight her doctors complain that she is just making things worse for herself.

She cannot win.

I hope that you can either find a different medication or a diet that will fit into your lifestyle with having this disorder. My sister used Atkins and it did work until she lost too much and too fast for her body and the meds to cope with. For a normal person 40-45 lbs in a year is not too much but for my sister it might have been.

She will be having the "hopefully" corrective brain surgery this month to remove the scar tissue that is the cause for her seizures. They are saying she will probably have to keep taking meds but at a much lesser dose.

Goodluck, I hope you can find something that will work for you.