Pediatric Epilepsy
Pediatric epilepsy is a disease that can make even the strongest parents feel helpless.
It does this by making you sit and watch as your child loses control of their mind and body. It robs you of your ability to protect your child from harm. You are helpless and all you can do is try to comfort them and hope that they can fight through another seizure. Modern Western medicine has struggled to diagnose, treat and prevent pediatric epilepsy for decades without success. This has allowed alternative treatments, like medical cannabis, to become more popular and accepted by patients and their health practitioners.
Medical cannabis is an “alternative treatment” option that is achieving amazing results when it is being used to combat pediatric epilepsy. These amazing medicinal benefits of cannabis are being backed by both anecdotal evidence from patients and by the medical community at large.
The results of using cannabis to treat pediatric epilepsy that have been observed are incredible and have given hope to parents and the children who suffer from this mysterious and potentially catastrophic disease.
The goal here at Kanteeva is to provide you with the information you will need to make informed and educated decisions regarding medical cannabis and if cannabis therapy can be a beneficial part of your life.
After reading this article, you should have a solid foundation of knowledge so you can easily and effectively discuss your options with your healthcare provider(s).
Please post your comments and/or questions below the article and a member of the Kanteeva team will respond as soon as we can.
What is Pediatric Epilepsy?
According to the Epilepsy Foundation, a diagnosis of epilepsy is given when a person has two unprovoked seizures that were not caused by another known and reversible medical condition. This means that a pediatric epilepsy diagnosis is given to children suffering from seizures when no other diagnosis seems to fit.
As you can see, modern medical science can not even offer a clear definition as to what pediatric epilepsy is, making this disease even more difficult for modern medicine to effectively treat or prevent.
According to one study, traditional western treatment options are not effective for a third of the patients who suffer from pediatric epilepsy.
We can all agree that epilepsy, be it pediatric or adult, is a mysterious disease that the medical community is having a hard time defining, treating and preventing.
Can Medical Cannabis Help Treat Pediatric Epilepsy?
Not only can cannabis work for a variety of conditions such as epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and pain, sometimes, it is the only thing that works.
– Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN
Medical cannabis has been argued as a strong therapy option for many ailments in recent years, however, none has been as prevalent as pediatric epilepsy.
One of the driving factors behind this is the endearing story of a young girl named Charlotte Figi.
Her medical cannabis journey has gained enormous amounts of media attention in the past 5 years and we invite you to watch her and her family’s success story below:
The Story of Charlotte’s Web
Charlotte lives in Colorado with her family. She has a rare form of pediatric epilepsy called Dravet Syndrome. At one time, she suffered from nearly 50 convulsive seizures per day. This was while she was being treated with traditional pediatric epilepsy therapy options. After an immense amount of research by Charlotte’s mother and a Colorado-based medical marijuana group (Realm of Caring), Charlotte began using a high CBD low THC strain of marijuana (in oil form), to treat her pediatric epilepsy.
The results are impressive.
After adding a strain specific full-spectrum cannabis oil which was high in CBD and Low in THC to her existing medication regimen, Charlotte saw a significant decrease in her seizure frequency. After a few weeks of therapy Charlotte began having far fewer seizures. Instead of nearly 50 per day, she was only having 2-3 nocturnal seizures per month.
This lasted for over 20 months at the time that the study referenced here was written.
At the time of the study, Charlotte had been successfully weaned off of her other antiepileptic medications. The effect of the cannabis strain she consumed was so successful for her that it has been named after her ... “Charlotte’s Web.” In recent years many people have accredited Charlotte’s Web for providing them and their children with relief from a variety of different illnesses. As the CNN video shown above indicated, dozens of children have used cannabis oil derived from Charlotte’s Web and found relief from the symptoms of pediatric epilepsy. Many more children are on waiting lists to try this form of cannabis therapy, while countless children are refused access to cannabis therapy because of pre-existing anti-cannabis laws that make even medical use illegal.
At Zaki’s worst, he had 200 seizures an hour, and it has been 106 days now since his last seizure. I get to say, after almost a decade, I get to meet him for the first time.
- Heather, Zaki’s Mom, Discussing Zaki’s results on YouTube after taking Charlotte’s Web Oil
A Story from a Kanteeva Team Member
One of the team members here at Kanteeva has had many personal experiences with medical cannabis being used to treat pediatric epilepsy.
When asked for a statement, he had the following to say:
A close friend of mine has a daughter who suffers from severe pediatric epilepsy. What started out as 3 to 5 seizures per day at the age of two quickly progressed to more than 30 per day by the age of four.
Her mother and father were very distraught to say the least and had tried more than eight different medications to manage her seizure activity. After finding little to no relief from the medications that they had tried, one of her doctors recommended that they try medical cannabis.
In a period of three weeks she saw a reduction of seizure activity from 30 to 40 seizures per day down to 3 to 5 seizures per week. Currently, her parents and doctors are still trying to find the correct dosage to eliminate her seizure activity altogether but the results so far have been very impressive.
For over a year now, she has had no more than seven seizures in a weeks’ time, and as someone who has grown to know this child personally, I must say that I’m very impressed with the results that she has seen so far.
I believe that we need to take the time to further understand how medicinal cannabis can help children with neurological conditions, but especially those who suffer from pediatric epilepsy.
The missing link to this story may be that the child needs a different oil that is made from a different strain or strains. Remember everyone reacts differently to each unique cannabis strain, and so do their ailments.
Please help the community by posting below the article if you or someone you know has had success using medical cannabis to help treat pediatric epilepsy.
What Does Science Say About Medical Cannabis and Pediatric Epilepsy?
Unlike many other ailments, there has been a significant amount of research conducted on the effectiveness of medical cannabis for pediatric epilepsy.
An FDA Approved Medication from Cannabis?
In recent months, the US FDA has even approved a medication derived from cannabis. The medication known as Epidiolex is manufactured by the British-based pharmaceutical company GW Pharmaceuticals. This drug is designed to treat two rare forms of pediatric epilepsy.
After 3 months of therapy, 39% of patients had a >50% reduction in seizures; there was a 32% median reduction in seizures.
- Epidiolex study from the American Epilepsy Society.
The fact that there has been approval for a cannabis derived medication for pediatric epilepsy speaks volumes about its overall effectiveness for treating the symptoms of the disease.
Promising Results from an Israeli Medical Study
Another recent study that shows promising evidence of the effectiveness of medical cannabis for the treatment of pediatric epilepsy was completed in Israel.
The study was conducted using 74 patients. All patients were between the ages of 1 -18 and half were under the age of 10. Every patient involved in the study suffered from severe intractable epilepsy and had shown resistance to more than 7 anti-epileptic medications. 49 of the patients had also tried a ketogenic diet or vagal nerve stimulation implant.
During the study, patients used a concentrated oil form of a cannabis strain that had a 20:1 CBD to THC ratio.
At the end of the study 66 patients (89%) reported at least some reduction in seizure frequency. One patient reported complete elimination of seizure occurrence. 13 patients (18%) reported at least a 75% reduction in seizure occurrence.
This study is very impressive as it shows that a full spectrum cannabis oil can be very effective in treating seizure frequency for many patients who suffer from pediatric epilepsy.
At the end of the study researchers had the following to say:
The results of this multicenter study on CBD enriched cannabis oil treatment for intractable epilepsy in a population of children and adolescents are highly promising. Further prospective, well-designed clinical trials using enriched CBD medical cannabis are warranted to validate our findings.
Unfortunately, the study does not state what strain of medical cannabis was used. All that we know is that it was a very high CBD to THC ratio strain like the ones that we list below.
What are the Best Cannabis Strains for Pediatric Epilepsy?
Finding the best strains can be challenging enough for adults, so when children are involved you must be extremely diligent and extra precautious.
You need to keep THC levels as low as possible. THC has been shown to decrease memory function in people under the age of 25 and high amounts of THC are not necessary for a pediatric epilepsy medical cannabis program. Studies have shown that cannabis oils that have very high levels of CBD provide the most effective symptom relief.
Many patients who find relief from pediatric epilepsy symptoms through medical cannabis say that ingesting a strain specific full-spectrum cannabis oil with very high CBD content works best for their needs.
WARNING - You may want to stay away from CBD isolate products because these products do not involve any other cannabinoids and you will not benefit from “The Entourage Effect." To learn more about this subject please explore our “Whole Plant Extracts vs Single-molecule Compounds” article.
If you have additional questions or comments about your own unique needs please post them below the article.
What are the Top Strains for Pediatric Epilepsy?
Here at Kanteeva, we conduct our due diligence in order to provide the community with the best information possible.
We base these recommendations on testimonials from medical cannabis community members, anecdotal research, scientific research and other factors like accessibility.
Charlotte’s Web
This is the strain that was used to treat Charlotte Figi and subsequently named after her. This Sativa Dominant Hybrid strain has very low THC levels and very high levels of CBD that average 15% or higher. Many medical cannabis community members swear by this strain for helping to alleviate some of the symptoms of pediatric epilepsy.
Avidekel
This Indica Dominant Hybrid is another strain that many medical cannabis community members swear by for treating the symptoms of pediatric epilepsy swear. With its very low THC concentrations and very high CBD concentrations that average around 17%, it is easy to see why this strain is a popular choice for pediatric epilepsy symptoms.
ACDC
This 50/50 Hybrid is one of the most popular medical cannabis strains on the market and as a result of this it iswidely available in most areas. It typically contains THC concentrations of 6% or less while also having very high CBD concentrations of 15% or more. While this strain does have some THC content, many members of the medical cannabis community report being instructed to use ACDC when strains that have lower levels of THC fail to provide adequate relief of pediatric epilepsy symptoms.
Final Thoughts
Pediatric epilepsy is a terrifying disease for both the children that suffer from it and the parents who are trying to care for them.
Many children have found relief from their epilepsy with medical cannabis. Now, there are even pharmaceutical companies stating that their medications derived from medical cannabis have reduced seizure occurrence significantly. If you are interested in beginning a medical cannabis program for your child, we strongly recommend speaking with your healthcare practitioner(s) and joining our community for helpful information from other patients and practitioners.
No one should have to watch their child suffer. We hope you find peace and healing for your family.
We Want to Hear from You!
Have you or someone you know found relief from the symptoms of pediatric epilepsy by using medical cannabis? If so, we would love to hear from you!
Help us spread the word about the amazing benefits of medical cannabis by sharing your stories, comments, and questions below. With your help, countless people from all over the world could finally find relief.
If you have found relief, please mention what strain(s) have been most effective for you.
Thank you for taking the time to read this post, and we look forward to hearing your story soon!
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