Hyperventilation and Epileptic Seizures

For a novel perspective on seizures consider the observation that acute hyperventilation precedes most attacks. It has been suggested that the seizures may be an involuntary response to low arterial CO2, depleted by hyperventilation. These studies show that spasms are self-limiting and stop when the arterial CO2 threshold is regained, muscle spasms being the suggested mechanism to generate CO2. So epileptic seizures, like asthma and sleep apnoea, may be another compensatory mechanism in response to hypocapnia (CO2 loss) brought about through over-breathing. The high incidence of disordered breathing reported in sufferers of epileptic seizures attests to this relationship.