The ketogenic diet is an extremely low-carb, high-fat diet that was found to reduce seizures in children with epilepsy.
The very low carb intake – usually less than 20g a day – puts the body into a metabolic state called ketosis, where it burns fat for fuel. Epileptic seizures are triggered by abnormal electrical discharges in the brain and research suggests ketosis disrupts these abnormal discharges.
“You’re forcing the brain to use a different fuel. We don’t know exactly how it works,” says Dr Judith Bluvstein, a paediatric epileptologist and assistant professor of neurology at New York University. “But it’s almost as though the brain can’t figure out how to produce seizures using this new energy pathway.”
The ketogenic diet has also been found to have other health benefits, including reversing insulin resistance…
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You South Africa (Digital) - 1 Issue, 23 Sep 2021