High-Fat Diet Treats Epilepsy

A seizure is a single episode of convulsing that can result from many medical reasons (e.g. oxygen deprivation, high fever, epilepsy). Whereas, epilepsy is a condition in which brain produces sudden bursts of electrical signals ensuing in seizures. A person with epilepsy requires treatment to control their seizure disorder. Epilepsy may result in abnormal electrical signals to the entire brain (generalized seizures) or some of the brain (partial seizures). The cause of epilepsy is not known for the majority of people suffering from it. But, some conditions such as lead poisoning, abnormal fetal brain development, genetic conditions, and infections (e.g. meningitis, encephalitis) may cause epilepsy.

The best thing to do when someone is going through a seizure is to try to keep them from injury. Never stick anything in their mouth to prevent them from swallowing their tongue. It is impossible to swallow the tongue because there is tissue holding the tongue to the floor of the mouth called frenulum linguae. During seizures well-intentioned people may try to stick something in the patient's mouth. This action is not advised as forcing a spoon, wallet or some other object will probably result in injury such as broken teeth.

Anyone can develop seizures. Approximately 30 percent of the new cases each year begin in children. While there are many anticonvulsants to help treat epilepsy some children may not be responsive to those drugs and other therapies. Interestingly, an old treatment that has been largely ignored by doctors since the 1920s is now a standard approach to treating epilepsy in unresponsive patients. A British study that will appear in The Lancet Neurology shows that a high-fat diet works to treat epilepsy. Dr. J. Helen Cross, professor of pediatric neurology at the University College of London is the principal investigator of the study. She said, "This is the first time that we've really got Class 1 evidence that this diet works for treatment of epilepsy."

The high-fat study included 145 children between the ages of 2 to 16. The study required that the children never tried the diet before, experienced at least seven seizures weekly and showed no improvement after using at least two different anticonvulsants. The children were divided into a high-fat diet group and a control group. At the end of the study, researchers found that the high-fat dieters had a 38 percent drop in their seizure rate compared to 6 percent for the control group. There were five children in the high-fat diet group with seizure rates reduced to more than 90 percent.

The high-fat diet mechanism is unclear. However, researchers believe that the high-fat diet forces the body into ketosis in which it burns fat rather than sugar for energy in its low carbohydrate state. Johns Hopkins Pediatric Epilepsy Center offers the high-fat diet method as a treatment option for children. While there is no cure for epilepsy there are many options to help treat the seizures that plague the lives of those with this condition. Through the work of Johns Hopkins more hospitals and epilepsy centers have advanced from the times of naysayers in the 1920s and have incorporated the high-fat diet approach for treating epilepsy. To learn more about the high-fat diet visit the Johns Hopkins Pediatric Epilepsy Center or check out The Charlie Foundation.

Sources: http://www.epilepsyfoundation.org/about/faq/index.cfm, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/06/health/research/06epil.html?ex=1210651200&en=35df32d2a2ce3e4c&ei=5070&emc=eta1