NCBI ROFL: Are you having a seizure? Quick, smell my shoe!

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By ncbi rofl
Aug 14, 2009 1:49 AMNov 5, 2019 8:53 AM

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Scientific basis behind traditional practice of application of "shoe-smell" in controlling epileptic seizures in the eastern countries.

"Epilepsy has been known for thousands of years and has been subjected to various forms of conventional and non-conventional therapies including a non-pharmacological conservative treatment known as aromatherapy, ever since. One commonly practiced form of aromatherapy that persists as an immediate first-aid measure even today in some parts of developing countries in the East is the application of "shoe-smell" during an epileptic attack... ...The neurophysiology of olfactory stimulation from "shoe-smell" reveals a sound and scientific reasoning for its remedial efficacy in epilepsy; olfactory stimuli in this study have been found to possess significantly effective anti-epileptic influence which could have formed the basis for the use of application of "shoe-smell" in earlier times and also for its persistence even today in those parts of developing regions."

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