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kleinbl00  ·  1067 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Scientists find new evidence linking essential oils to seizures (n=350)

let's take a step back for a minute: We've got 55 patients in this study, 60% of which have a previous epilepsy diagnosis. Epilepsy is largely famous for allowing flashing lights to cause seizures but lights are just the tip of the spear - you'll note that "strong smells" makes that list. Meanwhile, "epilepsy" is one or more of a constellation of neurological disorders causing two or more seizures - so of our 55 people, for 30 of them, this is their third (or later) seizure and for the other 25 or so, it's their first or second. Meanwhile, 80% of epilepsy diagnoses worldwide are in the developing world - like India. One in 10 people will have a seizure at some point in their life while one in 100 are considered to be actively epileptic (being treated for a seizure within the past year). So statistically:

- 90% of non-active epileptics wouldn't have another seizure anyway (should be 23/25, is 25/25, is well within the statistical range of the sample size)

- 90% of active epileptics wouldn't have another seizure within a year (study reports 94%, again with a sample size of 30 is well within the statistical range)

Look - it's fucking dumb that people presume the efficacy of natural miracle cures without also presuming toxic effects from overdosing. But it's also fucking dumb that "oil mist toxicity" is well-fucking-known and has been since we used whale oil for light but tack the word "essential" onto the front of it and "skeptics" will happily make fools of themselves so they can pick on the hippies.

You'll note the paper even forces an acronym: "EORS" for "essential oil-related seizures" as if this is obviously something we've all been talking about forever. Yet if you search for "essential oil related seizures" what you see is the "skeptical" web regurgitating this one nothing study (they literally asked everyone with a seizure if they'd used essential oils) because the "skeptical" web has already forgotten the last nothing study they did in 2017:

    During the period of two years from January 2015 to December 2016, there were 10 cases of EO‐induced seizure (EOIS) identified by five neurologists in three tertiary care hospitals. Among 350 cases of acute symptomatic seizures per year, EOIS was seen in 5 patients, giving an annual incidence of 1.4%. The mean age of the cohort was 22.3 years (range 2–45 years). All patients were males. Eight out of 10 patients inhaled steam of water mixed with EO, 1 patient used EO as intranasal drops, and 1 patient used EO as massage oil.

We're literally talking about a group of doctors who see a prevalence of seizures in the general population at 10%, the prevalence of seizures associated with eucalyptus oil at 1% and go "it must be the eucalyptus." Then when they went back and didn't even find that prevalence said "it must be all essential oils." Two acronyms in four years... some serious sciencing here.