High-fat diet hope for epileptics
Last Updated: Saturday, 03 May 2008, 15:50 GMT
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High-fat diets could help epileptic children, says new research


Doctors have confirmed that a special high-fat diet can help children seriously afflicted with epilepsy.

Among children given the diet, seizures dropped by more than a third over a three-month period. At the same time, children not given the diet experienced a more than 33% rise in seizures.

The ketogenic diet has been successfully used to treat children with drug-resistant epilepsy since the 1920s. However, this was the first time it had been tested in a randomised trial.

The diet consists of large amounts of fat, little carbohydrate and controlled amounts of protein. It is thought to mimic the biochemical response to starvation, when ketone bodies fuel the brain rather than sugar.
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Ketone bodies, used as an energy source for the heart and brain, are compounds produced when fatty acids are broken down in the liver and kidneys. They provide a vital energy lifeline when fasting.

The trial, based at the Institute of Child Health at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, involved 145 children aged two to 16, who suffered epilepsy fits at least one a day or more than seven times a week.

Around half the children were assigned a ketogenic diet immediately. The other half were given the diet after a delay of three months.

In the diet group, the number of seizures dropped by more than a third. Children who had to wait before having a ketogenic diet saw the number of seizures they suffered rise by about the same amount.

A total of 28 children in the diet group saw a more than 50% seizure reduction. Five children on the ketogenic diet had their seizures cut by more than 90% compared with none in the comparison group.

cleaver wrote:I've seen articles about kids who have completely stopped having seizures almost immediately after going ketogenic. There must be some trigger in the brain which is not affected when carbs are kept low.

kp1512 wrote:

cleaver wrote:I've seen articles about kids who have completely stopped having seizures almost immediately after going ketogenic. There must be some trigger in the brain which is not affected when carbs are kept low.

Oh def theres tons on this going back 10 years to be honest....but I guess with the stigma of fats and all...I doubt those with it have actually tried it?

KP

cleaver wrote:Nothing worse that an over enthused newbie doc. FFS - nothing is bad in moderation. I hope you tore him a new asshole.

kp1512 wrote:I couldnt agree with you more....I was on another board the other day talking about something similar as in TKD diets and there was a BMA recently graduated Doctor...jumped up little shite..who was proceeding to tell people how fats are all bad......