Seizures Stopped in Baby with Chiropractic

A case study published on January 21, 2022, in the Journal of Pediatric, Maternal & Family Health documented the case of a baby who suffered with a rare form of seizures and was on multiple medications being help by chiropractic.

The National Library of Medicine’s MedlinePlus website describes a rare form of seizure and the medical inability to help. "Malignant migrating partial seizures of infancy (MMPSI) is a severe form of epilepsy that begins very early in life. Recurrent seizures begin before the age of 6 months but commonly start within a few weeks of birth. The seizures do not respond well to treatment. Although affected individuals may develop normally at first, progression stalls and skills decline when seizures begin; as a result, affected individuals have profound developmental delay."

The study reports that the medical prognosis for infant with MMPSI is not good. "Long-term outcomes of individuals with MMPSI are poor, with infants who survive beyond 18 months having various levels of mental retardation and microcephaly. Only 83% of infants with MMPSI did survive beyond 18 months."

In this case, a mother brought her 2-year-old son to a chiropractor to see if her son could be helped. At 6-weeks-old the infant started experiencing seizures that increased to about 20 episodes per day. The boy was suffering with severe developmental regression due to the seizures. It was not until he was 11 months old that the boy was medically diagnosed with MMPSI.

By the time the boy was brought to the chiropractor, he was having 15-20 seizures per day as well as very poor eye gaze/tracking, his arms were flailing, he was screaming and writhing with gross motor movements, and severe lack of muscle tone, which led to the inability of the boy to hold up his head, sit up, or speak. The boy was on multiple medications to try to help his situation.

A chiropractic examination including postural analysis, spinal palpation, and infrared thermography was performed. Spinal x-rays were also performed. The results of the tests revealed the presence of vertebral subluxation. With this information, and with the permission of the parent, age-appropriate specific forms of chiropractic adjustments were started.

As chiropractic care progressed, there was improvement in both the objective test as well as the quality of life as reported by the parents. After eight months of chiropractic care, the boy's primary medical physician preformed a 24-hour EEG test which showed no seizures at all during that testing period. This was compared to the 15 to 20 seizures the boy was previously having prior to chiropractic. As a result, the primary medical physician took the boy off all medications.

In their conclusion, the study authors noted, "Chiropractic care that focuses on the reduction and correction of vertebral subluxation showed significant improvements in the function and quality of life of this child with MMPSI."