ketogenic diets

My 5 year old daughter was just put on a ketogenic diet by her neurologist to
help with seizure control. She is also taking medications for her seizures. I
am new to all of this. Can anyone tell me if this is an affective way to help
my five year old control seizures? And, how strict should i be with this diet.
I am a very healthy person myself and don't want to get obsessive over this.
Can it cause her any harm? Does anyone know of any good web sites or books to
refer me to for this? Any adive would be appreciated! Thanks!
Jenny

Note that we're not doctors here, so be careful getting advice from
Usenet.

"Jenny Rebecca" u21361@uwe writes:
My 5 year old daughter was just put on a ketogenic diet by her
neurologist to help with seizure control.

Note that epileptic diets and LC diets are *not* the same. The
ketosis level used to treat epilepsy (from what I've read) is much
deeper than is proper for simple weight loss or BG control. So, be
careful when getting advice here - we're more used to the
non-epileptic variant of the diet.

Also, if she was *just* put on, you really need to do what the doc
says - don't start second guessing anything until your doc has a
chance to see how your daughter is responding to the prescribed diet.
Learn more, yes, but don't change anything without talking to your doc
first!

She is also taking medications for her seizures.

All the more reason to do exactly what the doc says to do diet-wise.

I am new to all of this. Can anyone tell me if this is an affective
way to help my five year old control seizures?

While LC for weight loss is relatively new, LC for epilepsy is much
older. I'm guessing it changes the way the brain works (LCers seem to
realize that the brain works differently on ketones than on pure
glucose), but you may have to have to rely on your doc or some
research to find the stats from the original studies.

And, how strict should I be with this diet.

To maintain a deep ketosis, you really have to stay strictly away from
carbohydrates. Around 100g/day is enough to take you out of ketosis
completely, but *any* amount could knock you out of ketosis
temporarily, if you're not careful about how you manage them
(i.e. high GI vs low GI, and what else you eat with them). Since the
body tries real hard to provide glucose for the brain, even small
amounts of glucose (or even too much protein) could be detrimental to
an epileptic LC diet.

Thus, you need to be as strict as your doc says you need to be.

Does anyone know of any good web sites or books to refer me to for
this?

I normally recommend "The Ketogenic Diet" by Lyle McDonald for people
interested in LC in general (http://store.lylemcdonald.com/), but he
recommends "The Ketogenic Diet: A Treatment for Epilepsy, 3rd Edition"
for epileptics: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1888799390

The Stanford Medical center has several webpages on the procedure.

I'm biased, so in my view, this diet will be much healthier for anyone than
a regular high carb/high sugar diet.


"Jenny Rebecca" u21361@uwe wrote in message news:5f87c11996dd3@uwe...
My 5 year old daughter was just put on a ketogenic diet by her neurologist
to
help with seizure control. She is also taking medications for her
seizures. I
am new to all of this. Can anyone tell me if this is an affective way to
help
my five year old control seizures? And, how strict should i be with this
diet.
I am a very healthy person myself and don't want to get obsessive over
this.
Can it cause her any harm? Does anyone know of any good web sites or books
to
refer me to for this? Any adive would be appreciated! Thanks!
Jenny

Jenny Rebecca wrote:
My 5 year old daughter was just put on a ketogenic diet by her neurologist to
help with seizure control. She is also taking medications for her seizures. I
am new to all of this. Can anyone tell me if this is an affective way to help
my five year old control seizures? And, how strict should i be with this diet.
I am a very healthy person myself and don't want to get obsessive over this.
Can it cause her any harm? Does anyone know of any good web sites or books to
refer me to for this? Any adive would be appreciated! Thanks!
Jenny

Google search on keywords "ketogenic diet seizures"

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1001071818.htm

Johns Hopkins neurologists report that a rigorously high-fat,
low-carbohydrate diet not only reduces the number of seizures in
children with severe seizure ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1001071818.htm - 64k - Cached -
Similar pages



http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1114220938.htm

ScienceDaily: Ketogenic Diet Prevents Seizures By Enhancing Brain ...
New studies show that the ketogenic diet, a high-fat, calorie-restricted
diet used to treat epileptic seizures in children, alters genes involved
in energy ...
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...1114220938.htm -


There are many thousands of links to the subject, but I wanted to give
you some studies to look at.

As DJdelore pointed out to you, there is a long history of this diet for
seizures, and I would take the doctor seriously.

You can also read up on it with a Google search - which I would
normally recommend.

I'm wishing you good results with your daughter's treatment.

--
1) Eat Till SATISFIED, Not STUFFED... Atkins repeated 9 times in the book
2) Exercise: It's Non-Negotiable..... Chapter 22 title, Atkins book
3) Don't Diet Without Supplemental Nutrients... Chapter 23 title, Atkins
book
4) A sensible eating plan, and follow it. (Atkins, Self Made or Other)