The ketogenic diet (KD) has been used successfully in a variety of epilepsy syndromes. This includes syndromes with multiple etiologies, including Lennox-Gastaut syndrome and infantile spasms; developmental syndromes of unknown etiology, such as Landau-Kleffner syndrome; and idiopathic epilepsies, such as myoclonic-astatic (Doose) epilepsy. It also includes syndromes where genetics play a major...

Within the past two decades, interest in understanding the therapeutic mechanisms of ketogenic diet (KD) action has grown steadily. Expanded knowledge about underlying mechanisms has yielded insights into the biochemical basis of brain function, both normal and pathologic. Metabolic changes likely related to the KD’s anticonvulsant properties include – but are not limited to – ketosis, reduced ...

Bentourkia M, Tremblay S, Pifferi F, Rousseau J, Lecomte R, Cunnane S. PET study of C-acetoacetate kinetics in rat brain during dietary treatments affecting ketosis. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 296: E796 –E801, 2009. First published January 27, 2009; doi:10.1152/ajpendo.90644.2008.—Normally, the brain’s fuel is glucose, but during fasting it increasingly relies on ketones ( -hydroxybutyrate, ...

The ketogenic diets (KDs) have been used for the treatment of medication-resistant epilepsy since the 1920s. The classical KD is a highly restrictive diet with a 3:1-4:1 ketogenic ratio, calculated as the weight of fat divided by that of carbohydrates plus protein. Although the classical KD result in at least a 50% reduction in seizure frequency in approximately half of epileptic patients, some...

BACKGROUND The increasing use of the ketogenic diet (KD), particularly by women of child-bearing age, raises a question about its suitability during gestation. To date, no studies have thoroughly investigated the direct implications of a gestational ketogenic diet on embryonic development. METHODS To fill this knowledge gap we imaged CD-1 mouse embryos whose mothers were fed either a Standard...

BACKGROUND Altering the macronutrient composition of the diet influences hunger and satiety. Studies have compared high- and low-protein diets, but there are few data on carbohydrate content and ketosis on motivation to eat and ad libitum intake. OBJECTIVE We aimed to compare the hunger, appetite, and weight-loss responses to a high-protein, low-carbohydrate [(LC) ketogenic] and those to a hi...

As ketogenic diets become more frequently used as a standard treatment for epilepsy in children and adults, hospital and community neurologists, pediatricians, intensivists, general practitioners, and house officers will readily encounter patients who are receiving these dietary treatments. A growing body of evidence demonstrates that dietary therapies for epilepsy (classic ketogenic diet, medi...

PURPOSE Long-term ketogenic diet (KD) treatment has been shown to induce liver steatosis and gallstone formation in some in vivo and clinical studies. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate the hepatic side effects of KD in epileptic children. METHOD A total of 141 patients (mean age: 7.1±4.1years [2-18 years], 45.4% girls), receiving KD at least one year for intractable epilepsy...

The medium chain triglyceride (MCT) ketogenic diet is a major treatment of drug-resistant epilepsy but is problematic, particularly in adults, because of poor tolerability. Branched derivatives of octanoic acid (OA), a medium chain fat provided in the diet have been suggested as potential new treatments for drug-resistant epilepsy, but the structural basis of this functionality has not been det...