How can a diet reduce seizures, and how well does it work? · Grey Matter

A diet very high in fat and very low in carbohydrate makes the liver produce ketone bodies that partly replace glucose as the brain's fuel, and it changes how excitable neurons are by routes still being worked out (ketone bodies themselves, adenosine, ATP-sensitive potassium channels, and decanoic acid, which blocks AM

How can a diet reduce seizures, and how well does it work?

A diet very high in fat and very low in carbohydrate makes the liver produce ketone bodies that partly replace glucose as the brain's fuel, and it changes how excitable neurons are by routes still being worked out (ketone bodies themselves, adenosine, ATP-sensitive potassium channels, and decanoic acid, which blocks AMPA receptors directly). In a randomised trial in children whose epilepsy resisted drugs, 38 % on the diet had their seizures more than halved after three months against 6 % of controls. It is a medical treatment with real side effects, started and followed by a specialist team.