Epilepsy

Strict fasting proved effective in curing epilepsy in early twentieth-century medical practice. Hard clinical data shows the ketogenic diet eliminates seizures in 50–70% of cases. The article states that an extremely high-fat diet produced about a 95% rate of recovery, remission, or dramatic improvement in children with epilepsy. The article links ketosis to brain function as well as weight loss because children’s brains reportedly performed better on a very high-fat, very low-carbohydrate diet. For children with epilepsy, the ketogenic diet is preferred over prolonged fasting to achieve the same therapeutic effect. Epilepsy may be diagnosed after at least two unprovoked or reflex seizures more than 24 hours apart. Focal epilepsy involves seizures originating within networks limited to one cerebral hemisphere. Generalised epilepsy involves seizures that rapidly engage bilaterally distributed networks. Convulsive epilepsy includes seizures with substantial motor activity, often with loss of consciousness. Non-convulsive epilepsy can involve impaired awareness, behaviour, or sensation without prominent jerking or stiffening. The therapeutic ketogenic diet for epilepsy reduced carboh…