Understanding the ketogenic diet

The Ketogenic Diet

The neuropharmacology of the ketogenic diet.

The ketogenic diet is a valuable therapeutic approach for epilepsy, one in which most clinical experience has been with children. Although the mechanism by which the diet protects against seizures is unknown, there is evidence that it causes effects on intermediary metabolism that influence the dynamics of the major inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmitter systems in brain. The pattern of pro...

Optic neuropathy in ketogenic diet.

A symmetrical, bilateral optic neuropathy is reported in 2 patients being treated with ketogenic diets for seizure control. Laboratory tests suggested a thiamine deficiency, and both patients recovered normal visual function after several weeks of treatment with thiamine. The risk of optic nerve dysfunction occurring during the treatment with a ketogenic diet can be minimised if routine vitamin...

Ketogenic diet for epilepsy treatment.

The ketogenic diet (KD), a high-fat, low-carbohydrate, and adequate-protein diet is an established, effective nonpharmacologic treatment option for intractable childhood epilepsy. The KD was developed in 1921 and even though it has been increasingly used worldwide in the past decade, many neurologists are not familiar with this therapeutic approach. In the past few years, alternative and more f...

Ketogenic Diet in Epileptic Encephalopathies

The ketogenic diet is a medically supervised high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet that has been found useful in patients with refractory epilepsy. It has been shown to be effective in treating multiple seizure types and epilepsy syndromes. In this paper, we review the use of the ketogenic diet in epileptic encephalopathies such as Ohtahara syndrome, West syndrome, Dravet syndrome, epilepsy with myoc...