Ancient Epilepsy Treatment

Avicenna is an ancient Iranian physician (c. 980 AD). His original Persian five volume set of books was titled, Canon of Medicine. Later, it was converted into English from an ancient Arabic edition (https://herbcraft.org/canon2.pdf).

Avicenna was known as the Prince of Physicians. He based his writings on his own observations along with known excerpts from Hippocrates, Aristotle and Galen. This was historically significant because his work brought together hundreds of pages from classical medical knowledge. Included in his Canon (published in 1473) are several approaches to treating epilepsy that dominated medical schools throughout Europe and Asia for 500 years.

The history of epilepsy can be summarized as 4000 years of ignorance, superstition and stigma, followed by 100 years of knowledge, superstition and stigma (Kale et. al).

One excerpt from Avicenna’s Canon recommends a camel’s feces for the removal of pimples, swelling of joints, nose bleeds and the synergy to enhance the medications used to treat epilepsy. In addition, Avicenna recommended an application from a rabbit's brain to be applied onto a baby’s oral gums to alleviate the discomfort associated with teething pain. Furthermore, epilepsy can be diminished with the peculiar property that is effective when camel feces is added to clarified butter or honey with vinegar.

Interestingly, a modern article in 2012 by Asadi-Pooya evaluates Avicenna’s ancient treatments for epilepsy with a literature search from key terms found in Medline and Scopus to discover new scientific findings in modern medicine related to Avicenna’s recommendations. The author's goal was to make suggestions to design future scientific studies based on Avicenna’s suggested therapies for epilepsy. Their conclusion was that only Rue has been tested for anticonvulsant activities in modern medicine with a dose dependent anticonvulsant effect.

Asadi-Pooya AA, Nikseresht AR, Yaghoubi E. Old Remedies for Epilepsy: Avicenna’s Medicine. Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal. 2012;14(3):174-177.

Kale R, Bringing Epilepsy Out of the Shadows. BMJ 1997;315:2-3.

Well, thats a different recommendation. Not one I think I could ever make. But the point about Rue being tested in modern medicine is a good point. There are individuals who will ask about herbal medications for the treatment of seizures. Here is a reference if you are interested in looking further. I have not found one that has worked as a stand alone for any of the individuals I treated in clinics. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5564656/

I did have several individuals who used cannabis, but also used lamotrigine to control their seizures. Ruth Nemire