From: hound23x@gmail.com   
      
   Low Carb, High-Fat Diets May Reduce Epileptic Seizures    
      
   November 10, 2014 | 195,368 views    
      
      
   Story at-a-glance +    
   By Dr. Mercola    
      
   A ketogenic diet calls for minimizing carbohydrates and replacing them with   
   healthy fats and moderate amounts of high-quality protein.    
      
   This kind of diet is now being investigated for its potential to prevent and   
   treat cancer, but it has long been established as an excellent treatment for   
   epileptic seizures.    
      
   A high-fat, low-carb diet will also help optimize your weight and virtually   
   all chronic degenerative disease, as eating this way will help you convert   
   from burning carbs to burning fat as its primary fuel.    
      
   In the US, epilepsy affects an estimated 2.3 million adults and nearly 468,000   
   children below the age of 17. It’s a chronic neurological condition   
   characterized by recurring seizures, which can have a significant impact on a   
   person’s quality of life,    
   given the heightened risk of accidents and injuries.1    
      
   Ketogenic Diet—An Accepted First Line Approach for Epilepsy in Children    
      
   Standard treatment for epilepsy includes anti-epileptic drugs, which tends to   
   work for 60-65 percent of patients.2 For the remainder, the drugs don’t   
   work—but oftentimes a ketogenic diet will.    
      
   Clinical medicine began recognizing the ketogenic diet as a valuable option in   
   the treatment of epilepsy in the late 90s, and there’s even a Ketogenic Diet   
   Special Interest Group at the American Epilepsy Society.    
      
   The special interest group was organized by Dr. Thomas Seyfried, who today is   
   one of the leading academic researchers looking at using the ketogenic diet as   
   a cancer treatment.    
      
   Jim Abrahams was another key player. Abrahams created the Charlie Foundation   
   for his son Charlie, who went through a near-death experience from seizures   
   and was healed using a ketogenic diet.    
      
   Today, the ketogenic diet is frequently used as a first line approach in   
   seizure disorders where medications fail, and according to Dr. Seyfried,   
   it’s recognized as an important component for the management of refractory   
   (drug resistant) seizures in    
   children specifically.    
      
   Interestingly, the mechanism by which the ketogenic diet manages seizures is   
   not nearly as clear as the way the ketogenic diet manages cancer. This is   
   ironic considering that it’s barely known, let alone applied, within   
   oncology circles, while it’s    
   already an established treatment for epilepsy.    
      
   New Study Investigates Ketogenic Diet for Adult Epileptics    
      
   While the ketogenic diet has a successful track record in treating epileptic   
   children, adult studies have been scarce. To investigate the potential   
   effectiveness of dietary intervention in adult epileptics, researchers   
   recently reviewed3, 4, 5, 6 the    
   limited body of published studies.    
      
   Two types of diets were included:    
      
   Ketogenic diet, consisting of a 3:1:1 or 4:1:1 fat to carbohydrate and protein   
   ratio, with 87-90 percent of calories from fat    
   Modified Atkins diet: 1:1:1 fat to carb and protein ratio with approximately   
   50 percent of calories from fat    
   In all, the results were very similar between the two diets; 32 percent of   
   those on a ketogenic diet and 29 percent of those on a modified Atkins diet   
   reduced their seizures by about half.    
      
   A small subset of patients—nine percent of those following a ketogenic diet,   
   and five percent of those using a modified Atkins diet—reduced the frequency   
   of their seizures by more than 90 percent.    
      
   The effects were persistent over the long term, but low rates of diet   
   acceptance and high rates of treatment discontinuation were found to be   
   significant barriers to success.    
      
   More than half of all patients doing a ketogenic diet discontinued it before   
   the end of the study period, as did 42 percent of those on a modified Atkins   
   diet. That said, for those who kept the course, the results were typically   
   rapid and beneficial.    
   According to the authors:    
      
   “The anticonvulsant effect occurs quickly with both diets, within days to   
   weeks. Side effects of both diets are benign and similar. The most serious,   
   hyperlipidemia, reverses with treatment discontinuation. The most common,   
   weight loss, may be    
   advantageous in patients with obesity...    
      
   In summary, ketogenic and modified Atkins diet treatment show modest efficacy,   
   although in some patients the effect is remarkable. The diets are   
   well-tolerated, but often discontinued because of their restrictiveness. In   
   patients willing to try dietary    
   treatment, the effect is seen quickly, giving patients the option whether to   
   continue the treatment.”    
      
   Another finding was that while children sometimes remain seizure free after   
   discontinuing the diet, such was not the case in adults. This means that adult   
   epileptics would likely have to maintain the diet indefinitely, or suffer a   
   relapse...    
      
   The Importance of Intermittent Fasting    
      
   In my experience, the vast majority of people are adapted to burning carbs as   
   their primary fuel opposed to burning fat. This is the result of eating a diet   
   too high in sugar/carbs and generally lacking in healthy fats.    
      
   One of the most common side effects of being a sugar-burner is that you end up   
   with insulin and leptin resistance, which it at the root of most chronic   
   disease. Intermittent fasting is one of the most effective strategies I know   
   of to shift your body    
   from burning sugar to burning fat as its primary fuel.    
      
   While there are many different strategies, my favorite (and the one I   
   personally used to become fat adapted) is to simply restrict your daily eating   
   to within a six- to eight-hour window, which means you’re fasting for about   
   16-18 hours each day. This    
   upregulates the enzymes that are designed to burn fat as a fuel, and   
   downregulates the glucose enzymes. This approach really only needs to be used   
   until insulin resistance resolves.    
      
   This kind of intermittent fasting can also be a useful modality to help you   
   make a more gradual transition to a ketogenic diet, as it helps break your   
   body’s addiction to glucose. In fact, eliminating sugar cravings is one of   
   the most welcomed side    
   effects of intermittent fasting. Unless you have a very serious disease, I   
   believe it is best for most people to implement intermittent fasting slowly   
   over six to eight weeks rather than a three day complete fast. You begin by   
   not eating for three hours    
   before you go to bed and then gradually extend the time you eat breakfast   
   until you have skipped breakfast completely.    
      
   For Optimal Health, Pay Attention to What and When You Eat    
      
      
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