Low Carb, High Fat Diet Could Cure Epilepsy - Research

Scientists have alerted that a diet high in fruit and steak could cure a deadly form of epilepsy. According to the findings of a new study published in the journal ‘Neurology’, a ketogenic diet could be used in the future as a life-saving treatment for epileptic patients.
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that in medicine is used primarily to treat difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children.
The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fueling brain-function. However, if there is very little carbohydrate in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies.
The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood, a state known as ketosis, leads to a reduction in the frequency of epileptic seizures. Epilepsy is a chronic disorder, the hallmark of which is recurrent, unprovoked seizures.
Many people with epilepsy have more than one type of seizure and may have other symptoms of neurological problems as well. Although, it is estimated that super-refractory status epilepticus (SRSE), which is the most severe classification of the brain condition, kills 60 per cent of sufferers, the new research shows that the ketogenic diet could alleviate symptoms in patients.
High in fats and low in carbohydrates, the diet alters the activity of brain cells to prevent deadly fits, the scientists claim. According to a report in the ‘mailonline’, in general, after a patient has experienced 24 hours in a seizure and they will be placed in a coma if drugs aren’t working. “They are then awakened after another day to see if the seizures return. If so, they are then considered to have SRSE.
“The patient will then return to a coma and continue on other medications to try find a treatment method.” The researchers from Johns Hopkins University recruited 15 patients between the ages of 18 and 82 who were hospitalised with SRSE.