The Doman Method® Paradigm for Epilepsy
By Douglas Doman
Glenn Doman, Founder of The Doman Method®
Dr. Temple Fay, my father Glenn Doman’s mentor, laid the groundwork of a new paradigm for epilepsy more than 80 years ago. Only now is the world catching up with the great genius Fay. Dr. Fay understood that seizures are a natural physiological phenomenon, like many other potentially disturbing normal physiological occurrences. For instance, vomiting is also a natural physiological phenomenon, and is very upsetting both to the person that it happens to and the people observing it. All of us know how it feels to vomit - our stomach begins to feel bad. We worry that maybe we are getting sick. As this discomfort grows, we begin to fear that we may vomit. We do our best to suppress the idea. But if we continue to worsen, we accept that it’s going to happen. It’s a very convulsive and involuntary experience. Often within a few minutes of it ending, we feel much better. Perhaps within 10 minutes, we are entirely recovered. This is because vomiting is a natural phenomenon that the human body engages in to get rid of something that is dangerous to the body. While it is unpleasant, it is actually to solution to the real problem, which is that our body has been exposed to a bacteria, virus or poison that it needs to get rid of.
We’ve all seen a fish that has been caught, and placed on a dock or in the bottom of a small boat. The fish cannot breathe and is being deprived of oxygen. Eventually, the fish will begin to suffocate. The convulsive movements of suffocation may cause the fish to flop off the dock, or even out of the boat, and back into the water. If the extraordinary movements do not cause the fish to fall back into the water, the fish will eventually die. It is not the movements that killed the fish. It was the lack of oxygen. If the movements cause the fish to flop back into the sea, they have saved the fish’s life.*
In his work, Dr. Fay observed fish that had been caught in tidal pools. As the water evaporated, their escape route disappeared. The water continued to evaporate and the tidal pool lost its oxygen. Occasionally as the fish began to have a seizure, the flopping motions caused them to move down the beach and back into the water. Fay hypothesized that seizures are an ancient physiological phenomenon designed to get more oxygen to the brain. In the end, it is a life-saving phenomenon. All animals have seizures.
Observing a fellow human being having a grand mal seizure is a very disturbing experience. The observer often feels hopeless because they can’t offer any help. In the past, it was often believed that seizures were caused by demons that had taken over the body of the affected person. Unfortunately, seizures are considered a disease, rather than a symptom of brain injury. The reality is that the seizure is a symptom of brain injury. Without addressing the root cause of the symptom, treating seizures with antiepileptics would just be symptom-masking and not a holistic way of addressing the problem. Seizures are a symptom of a problem in the central nervous system, or brain injury.
Over the last 60 years, the mothers of brain-injured children have told us time and time again the surprising effects of some seizures. Mothers report that sometimes the child said his first words after the seizure. Or a child took her first independent steps after a seizure. Sometimes seizures can be correlated to positive developmental changes. With the improvement in neurological organization, a seizure is a protective response that aims to restore circulation and homeostasis to the areas of the brain which are trying to improve neurologically and function better.
Unfortunately, there are also instances when the child is exhausted following a seizure which maybe for a few minutes or even days. As a seizure is possibly a response to the stimulation of brain areas that were not active previously and are now beginning to function, suppressing them with anti-convulsants will not only mask the seizure but also suppress the brain areas which are trying to respond. This is one of the many reasons why my father developed a detoxification program more than 50 years ago to gently wean the children off anticonvulsant medications. Now thousands of children have successfully had their medications eliminated. At the same time, their seizures have decreased, or disappeared and never returned.
Anticonvulsant medications are designed to suppress the cortex. Suppressing cortical function can make it seem as if the seizures are reduced, or no longer occurring. However, oftentimes EEGs indicate that a child is having seizures while on the medications. The parents do not observe the seizure because it has been masked by the suppression of the cortex. Thousands of parents have reported that their children’s intelligence was lowered when they were put on antiseizure medications. When we gradually and gently remove the medications the children often blossom cognitively, like flowers opening for the first time.
This does not mean that parents should abruptly stop giving their children anticonvulsant medications. The protocol that we have established over the last 50 years is that only a medical doctor is qualified to reduce the child’s medications.
We do not have an anti-seizure program. Seizures are a symptom of brain injury. The cause is in the central nervous system. It is useless to treat symptoms. This is the chief problem with conventional therapy for brain-injured people: the therapy is aimed at the symptoms. Science has known for more than one hundred years that you can not treat the symptom and make the disease go away. My father learned this more than 60 years ago. The entire reason the Doman Method exists is to develop programs to grow and develop the brain. When this is done, the symptoms of brain injury go away.
Our protocol to eliminate seizures and anticonvulsant medications starts with providing the brain with the ideal physiological environment in which to function and develop. Step one is to give the child a tailor-made nutritional program to provide the brain and the body with the correct nutrients. The principal foods of the brain are oxygen, glucose, and trace elements. The children need the nutrients that are the precursors to creating neurotransmitters. The neurotransmitters are the chemicals that permit the neurons to communicate.
In addition to providing an ideal nutritional program, it is necessary to properly balance the child’s liquid intake. In groundbreaking research done by Dr. Fay more than 70 years ago, he determined that if fluid levels are high, brain-injured patients will have more seizures. In some cases, we have eliminated seizures simply by hydrating the child correctly.
Douglas Doman, Founder of Doman International, wearing Purple to celebrate World Epilepsy Day
Most importantly, it is necessary to improve the oxygenation of the brain. This is known as Doman Method Oxygenation. This is one of our most effective programs, and we have experience with thousands of children over the full spectrum of brain injury. From patients in a coma to children who are only a few grades behind their peers academically, thousands have developed significantly as a result of this program. In many cases, this program alone has helped to completely eliminate seizures. When the brain is better oxygenated, both sensory functions and motor functions of the brain improve.
We can also better oxygenate the brain with our physical program. If a child is immobile, the objective is to get the child crawling as quickly as possible. If the child is able to walk, then we want to get her running as soon as possible. We have found that the better a child’s mobility is, the better the child’s breathing. All of our children with seizures or on anticonvulsant medications are on a physical program.
Seizures occur in the cortex. This is the highest level of the brain. This is where cognitive function exists. By developing the cortex we can eliminate the seizures. Our cognitive program is essential for all children having seizures.
There is no “silver bullet” to eliminate seizures and medications. Our protocol requires that a child needs at least three months of Doman Method neurological program to start to develop the brain. Simultaneously, the child requires at least a solid three months of Doman Method Oxygenation. At this point, our medical staff will consider the possibility of developing a very gentle schedule of reducing the child’s medications. It is our integrative and holistic program that grows and develops the brain and is the best way to eliminate the symptom of seizures. This is the best way to eliminate both seizures and medications.
*Ictogenesis: The Origin of Seizures in Humans. A new look at an old theory. G. Doman, R. Pelligra. Medical Hypothesis 60(1)129-132, 2003.