I became epileptic at the age of 41 and on august 9, 2005 became 52.I have never had a head injury nor has anyone in my family ever had epilepsy or seizures.Years ago at the age of 38 I had just went back to college part time and I had gotten excellent final grades for my first two classes.On television I had been seeing many advertisements for fruit and vegetable juicers and they had been saying that the average person does not eat enough fruits and vegetables and one of the easiest ways to fix that was to juice them in a fruit and vegetable juicer and drink the juice.I knew I did not eat enough fruits and vegetables and the ideal of a juicer I found very interesting, instead of eating one apple I could juice seven apples or instead of eating one carrot I could juice ten carrots and drink them.There were also some fruits and vegetables I did not like to eat but if I put them in a juicer and then drink the juice and benefit myself with a better diet.I was able to come up with enough money to buy a good juicing machine at a health food store.When I started juicing at the beginning I only juiced a couple times a week because I could not afford to buy a lot of fruits and vegetables.After I started juicing and drinking fruits and vegetables I noticed I would break out with poison ivy like symptoms on my hands and around my mouth at times and I did not know why, I also started to have panic attacks and I thought it might have something to do with me going to college at my age even though I didn't seem to worry about it.My parents wanted to help me and they said they wanted me to move in with them until I finished college and then I could move out on my own and find a job in the field I was studying.My parents did not mind helping me and I was enjoying college.I packed everything up and moved and I did pack my juicer.It must have been a year since I used my juicer and during this time I had no panic attacks and none of the poison ivy symptoms I described.I got to thinking about the juicer I bought at this time and the benefits of fruits and vegetables and I had spent over two hundred dollars to buy a good name brand juicer that I got it out in the fall and I started using it again but this time I had a little more money living with my parents so I bought all different kinds and types of fruits and vegetables and would juice and drink 3-5 large glasses every morning.I really do mean every morning!It seems like you hear the human person never has enough fruits and vegetables in their diet and I wanted a healthy body.I always drank the juice in the morning on an empty stomach thinking that would be the correct way to get the most benefits.After a short time I noticed I had more trouble studying and learning and I also started to break out with poison ivy like symptoms around my mouth and on my hands again.All the time I was drinking the fruits and vegetable juice these poison ivy symptoms would break out and start to heal up and break out again and sometimes they would not even heal up they would just get worse.My grades dropped and I had more trouble studying.I was also feeling more nervous and also there felt like there was a band around my head.I kept thinking that fruits and vegetables are good for you so I continued to drink 3-5 large glasses of fruit and vegetable juice every morning.I tried eating and eliminating things from my diet to see if that had an effect and I did not notice any so I thought the only thing I have done differently in my life at my age was juicing fruits and vegetables and drinking it.Now at this time time I was feeling so nervous and that feeling of a band around my head and the poison ivy symptoms and having so much trouble studying that I thought I would stop juicing and see how I felt.When I woke the next morning I was feeling nervous and I did not see a change that day.Two days after I quit juicing I came home from a late class and was getting ready for bed and my whole body shook like convulsions than stopped, that scared me!I never felt anything like that before and I was not sure what to do.I did not know if I was having a heart attack.I did not know if I should call 911 or should I drive to the hospital.Than about a minute later my body shook again and stopped and I thought what do I do.About a minute later my body shook again and stopped and I was scared because I did not know what was happening.I thought I would try and go to sleep and try and not think about it and try to relax but while I was in bed I must of had about thirty more of those episodes where my body would shake and stop and about a minute later it would happen again, but I was finally able to fall asleep.When I woke the following morning I was feeling nervous and scared thinking about what happened to me the evening before because I just was not sure what to do about it and that feeling of a band was still around my head.If I went to the hospital how would I describe what happened to me?I never heard of anything like this, would they say I was just nervous and send me on my way or what?I thought maybe in time I would feel like my old self and I would not have to describe what happened to me to anyone.I noticed that I stopped having dreams when I slept and often when I closed my eyes to rest or sleep my body from the neck down felt like it was balloned up to five times its regular size sometimes.As time went on I noticed that I had no more poison ivy like symptoms around my mouth and on my hands and that band feeling around my head was feeling better even.In time I kept hoping I would feel like my old self.Awhile later I woke one morning and whole body felt very stiff and sore and I had some trouble walking.I had no idea why.A couple of weeks later the same thing happened when I woke up.About two weeks later I was going to the store and just parked my truck and got out and the next thing I know I come to in an ambulance.I had passed out in the parking lot and someone had called for medical help.The medical persons wanted to take to the hospital but I said no and they said I should see my doctor which I did and he referred me to a neurologist.I went to the neurologist and had some testing done and it turns out I had been having seizures.He has no idea how I became epileptic at the age of 41.I am on medication(dilantin)and I have tried a couple of other medications but he put me back on dilantin and the side effects I have to say I don't even want to talk about.I never had the poison ivy symptoms since I quit juicing and the band feeling around my head did go away in time.I talked to three neurologists about how all this happened after I began drinking 3-5 large glasses of fruit and vegetable juice every morning for eight months on a empty stomach and they say they have never heard of that.They told me diet can not cause epilepsy.I am convinced juicing caused my epilepsy.I am not saying this is the cause of all epilepsy.When this first happened to me years ago I trusted the neurologists opinion on treatment and he said I would probably be ok after five years and I could get off all type of medication.I have been able to drive part of the time years ago, but things are not better but they are worse.October of the year 2001 I was driving and had a seizure and went off the road to the right and traveled a couple hundred yards and went through a fence off a embankment at 60-70mph in the air and hit head on and rolled my truck over.I came to hanging upside down trying to figure out what happened.I had trouble unsnapping my seat belt hanging upside down but finally managed it and then I crawled out the driver's side window and when I look up the ambulance is there and police and spectators looking down at me.All this time nobody came down to help me because they assumed I was dead.They took me to the hospital and I was sore and bleeding at spots but what hurt the most was from the force of the impact the seat belt broke a couple of ribs by holding me in.I have not driven since.I do not want to ever harm anyone driving!I have never had a accident before in my life!In 1994 I did not have a computer and I did not know how to use one but I did write a couple of letters by hand to epilepsy foundations and research centers asking about the fruit and vegetable juice and epilepsy and I got pamplets from EPA but no help.I have a computer now and I learned how to use it and I have written many many letters and e-mail them to organizations, foundations, research centers, neurologists, and even allergic specialists who say they care and are dedicated to epileptics and I have gotten just a couple of responses back and some of them were very rude with no help.The few answers back say they have never heard of drinking fruit and vegetable juice causeing epilepsy.I am not a neurologist or expert but with what I have learned from the computer and talking to other epileptics this field of neurology needs some real help.I have written to my local epilepsy foundation for help and they say write to main EFA so I write them and they say write to my local epilepsy foundation, is this how they help someone?I saw that the epilepsy foundation of western pennsylvania say at there web site they are dedicated to the prevention, control and community understanding of epilepsy and seizure disorders and I got a reply back they do not know any answers to my questions and say write to the main EFA office in maryland which I already know is a lost cause.I do not see the dedication they talk about.I have talked to persons on the computer with epilepsy and they don't know what to do anymore.I know a doctor can only do so much but with epilepsy and talking to a neurologist and the unfeeling way they deal with you is saddening.The advice you hear mostly from other persons is if you don't like your doctor than go to another, that is so easy to say but the person who says it should try it with no money, unable to drive, no friends, and numerous other problems and then they say if you cared you would find a way like it is as simple as that.I have asked about the ketogenic diet and I'm told that is for children, but that is another one of the things that made me wonder more about diet and epilepsy?The ketogenic diet has helped and even eliminated epilepsy/seizures in some persons, but if diet has no cause or relation to epilepsy/seizures how can I be told diet can not cause epilepsy?I have read that 50-75% of the time the neurologist do not know the cause of an individuals epilepsy but I am told diet does not cause epilepsy, I do not understand that.The real help for epilepsy is where to be found?I am positive the fruit and vegetable juicing caused my epilepsy.I have read on the computer that a person over the age of forty to come down with epilepsy is 4%.Those are slim odds and most of that 4% are persons over the age of fifty who have a reason and a known cause of there epilepsy like heart problems or known injuries.I have learned by my own research about hypoglycemia which is a low blood Sugar condition and this deals with the pancreas and it could be over sensitized to Sugar and is overactive in producing insulin or underactive in producing glucagon and this can cause an imbalance of nervous impulses.I've read that an imbalance of Sugar can cause seizures.I drank up to five large glasses of fruit and vegetable juice on an empty stomach for eight months and even though the sugars were natural the body doesn't know the difference between natural and other sugars.What I read about the test for hypoglycemia it takes a certain diet for three days and then it takes a six hour test.I talked to my mother about having a test for hypoglycemia and without me knowing it she called the doctor's office to ask if they test for hypoglycemia and they told her yes and she called me to the phone and said she was making me an appointment to have the test but she gave me the phone to talk to the receptionist and I was told when my appointment was.I knew there was some preparations so I asked her about keeping a record of my diet for three days and she said no and I asked her how long it would take and she said just a couple of minutes, now what I have read it takes 4-6 hours and I asked her about that and she said no, so I said again this is for a hypoglycemia test and she said it would only take a couple of minutes.I am not an expert so I thought they must know because I specifically said hypoglycemia test.I show up for the test and the nurse was going to prick my finger and I asked is this the test for hypoglycemia because I didn't ask for a diabetes test and she said there the same so I said something is not right here and she said do I want to talk to the doctor and I said yes.It turns out they thought it was the same test and I was charged 75.00 dollars for a medical test they said they do but they really can't.I would like to know where is the hippocrate oath with doctors.For more than ten years my life has been so hard to describe!I have talked to three neurologists who say diet does not cause epilepsy and I am finding that diet can have an effect on some persons with epilepsy.I have been misdiagnosed and where does one find true medical help?I have tried to talk with my neurologists about diet and epilepsy and they continue to say diet can't cause epilepsy.You are probably thinking go to more neurologists and I don't have the money and the capability to but truely wish I was able to.The EFA tell me they can't find anything on diet causeing epilepsy and I write back and tell them to look at places where I have found information on it and they won't answer me back.I thought the epilepsy foundation of america helps persons with epilepsy?I have written to the american epilepsy society and I did receive a reply back from them and they said they forworded my letter to the EFA.Where is the dedicated help to persons with epilepsy?I would like to know did I damage my pancreas?Is there something I can do to try and straighten my health out from this horrible mistake of drinking so much fruit and vegetable juice?Did I dammage my brain?What can a person do to find real medical help?I have written to many foundations, research centers, neurologists hoping to find some hope but I receive no replys.I have written to professors of medical schools and received no replys.I have written to epileptologists and gotten no replys back.I have written to epilepsy organizations in europe and received no replys.I am not saying that what I am talking about is the cause of all epilepsy and I want that clearly known.I know that a medical diagnosis can't be made over a phone or computer but if there is knowledge and a starting point it would help.I have to stop this letter somewhere even though there is still so much to say and I know I'm always going to wish later I would not have forgot to say another important fact but writing is not my specialty and with what I've said I hope I got my point across.Is there a helpful and caring person in the medical field?If this was your life what would you do?The few responses I have gotten back always refer me to somewhere else but I wish I could find the place that says I'm going to help this person.Is there a place like that?I just keep thinking and hopeing that if the reason why epilepsy and seizures is found, it could be treated better.I know that all epilepsy is not the same in all persons.I have lost everything in my life because of epilepsy and I can't find anyone who cares.I have had my right to drive taken away from me, which I would never want to hurt anyone on the road.Is there hope or should I just not of had my seat belt on when I totalled my truck in a wreck from a seizure.Where is the help?Is there anyone who cares?Is there anyone who cares?