Atkins-Like Diet May Help Kids With Epilepsy
Low-Carb, High-Fat Diet Appears To Help Brain Function
Updated: 10:33 a.m. EST March 19, 2003
NEW YORK -- Epilepsy is caused by fits of uncontrolled brain activity, which results in strange sensations, bizarre behavior, and convulsions.
Doctors usually use medications to treat epilepsy, but now, doctors have found that a special diet may help some epileptic children.
Seventeen-month-old Emily Gueli has been sick most of her life. Since she was born, Emily had seizures at least once a month.
Dr. Akila Vankataraman treated Emily with every antiepilepsy drug available, but none of them worked.
"There are certain seizures that no matter how many medications you give them or how much you increase the dose, they still have breakthrough seizures," Vankataraman said.
But for some of these children, a change in diet may be the answer. Vankataraman put Emily on something called a ketogenic diet. The diet is kind of like the Atkins diet for kids. It involves a strict regimen of high-fat, low-carbohydrate meals that forces the body to burn fat instead of sugar.
"Not using glucose for energy may alter the biochemical nature of the seizure focus in the brain, and it is thought that it may be one of the effects of this diet in helping to control the seizures," Vankataraman said.
A recent study showed two-thirds of children improved on the ketogenic diet. Some had fewer seizures, while others were completely seizure-free. Almost all of them were able to cut back on their medication -- and they didn't have to stay on the diet forever.
"For most children on the diet, a period of two years is about enough for them to remain seizure-free," Vankataraman said.
Emily's mom, Carla Gueli, said a strict low-carbohydrate diet is hard to stick to, but Emily has been on it for two months, and has not had a seizure.
"It is working and I will do anything I can to keep her from having any more seizures," Gueli said.
Curing epilepsy means a person is to have no further seizures and no dangerous seizures; the diet certainly can achieve full seizure control in some patients. However, the risk of getting seizures will always remain.
Unless you are able to maintain the diet for at least two years, you are not going to see the long-term effect on the diet, experts say. Medications still do have a great role in seizure control, and this diet is not for every child with seizures.
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