Herbal Ashwagandha Inhibits the Parameters Associated with Epilepsy in Vivo

By Kyle J. Norton

Epilepsy is a neurological disorder associated with sudden recurrent episodes of sensory disturbance, loss of consciousness, or convulsions, caused by abnormal electrical activity in the brain.

Approximately, 1.2 percent of U.S. people have active epilepsy.  More than 65 million people have epilepsy globally. 

Additionally, about 1 in 26 people will develop epilepsy at some point during their lifetime.

The most common causes of epilepsy are low oxygen during birth, head injuries that occur during birth or from accidents during youth or adulthood, brain tumors, genetic mutation, infections such as meningitis or encephalitis.

The most common symptoms of epilepsy are temporary confusion, uncontrollable jerking movements of the arms and legs, loss of consciousness or awareness, and psychic symptoms such as fear, anxiety or deja vu.

Experimentally, melatonin, a hormone that regulates the sleep-wake cycle. has been found to attenuate seizures, and it is most effective in the treatment of juvenile intractable epilepsy.

Melatonin also processed additional benefits include improved physical, emotional, cognitive, and social functions.

On the other hand, melatonin has been shown to induce electroencephalographic abnormalities in patients with temporal lobe epilepsy and increase seizure activity in neurologically disabled children. 

The hormone showed very low toxicity in clinical practice, according to the study by the Department of Pathophysiology, Medical University, PL 20-090 Lublin, Jaczewskiego 8, Poland(22).

Ashwagandha also is known as Withania somnifera is a nightshade plant in the genus of Withania, belonging to the family Solanaceae, native to the dry parts of India, North Africa, Middle East, and the Mediterranean.

The herbal medicine has been considered as Indian ginseng and used in Ayurvedic medicine over 3000 years to treat tumors and tubercular glands, carbuncles, memory loss, and ulcers and considered as anti-stress, cognition-facilitating, anti-inflammatory, and anti-aging herbal medicine.

In the urgency to discover a natural ingredient for the management of the neurological disorder, researchers investigated the effect of Withania somnifera (WS) root extract and withanolide A (WA) in the management of temporal lobe epilepsy.

According to the tested analysis, in the epileptic test group of rats, levels of antioxidants are found to substantial decrease compared to the increase of the levels of peroxide.

Oxidative stress caused by an imbalance of the ratio of antioxidants and free radicals in the tested rats, induced significant decrease levels of proteins associated with systemic inflammation, compared to the increase of pro-apoptotic proteins.

Moreover, the epileptic condition of the tested rats also showed to increase the muscarinic receptor binding, which leads to reduced function of transduction of cholinergic signals and increases mRNA expression involved of the inhibition of the cell growth in the cerebral cortex.

However, the administration of the WS reversed the altered muscarinic receptor expression, oxidative stress and resultant derailment in cell signaling in experimental rats.

Based on the findings, researchers said, "Withania somnifera and withanolide A play important roles in central muscarinic receptor functional balance and activation of the antioxidant system in the cerebral cortex in temporal lobe epilepsy".

Taken altogether, Ashwagandha may be considered supplements for the management of epilepsy, pending to the confirmation of the larger sample size and multicenter human study.

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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.

Sources
(1) Altered muscarinic receptor expression in the cerebral cortex of epileptic rats: restorative role of Withania somnifera by Anju TR1, Smijin S2, Jobin M3, Paulose CS. (PubMed)
(2) Melatonin in experimental seizures and epilepsy by Banach M1, Gurdziel E, Jędrych M, Borowicz KK. (PubMed)