Could this diets save your life?
In recent years, there has been a spike in ‘fad diets’, new and unique ways for people to lose weight, burn fat and pack on some muscle. But there are some diets that not only helps its user’s lose weight but also decrease or cure cronic or debilitating health problems.
By Groundwork Staff
PUBLISHED NOVEMBER 27, 2014
The Ketogenic Diet
As many people who experiance seizures already know, not all problems can be resolved with prescription medication. For those who have tried but failed to control thier seizures, the ketogenic diet might just be the one for you. Its known for curing epileptic seizures and in some cases, even stopping the growth of cancer cells. Being in a state of ketosis is in indication that the human body is running on fat (or ketones) as fuel as opposed to the usual carbohydrates. The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, low-carbohydrate diet, that accompanied with a physician and dietician can help a child achieve ketos
This diet is suited for children as it is harder for adults to stick to such strict and restricted food choices. (After all, there are carbs in everything.) Although, there have been several studies that have shown that this diet has been just as efficient with adults.
The ketogenic diet is especially suited for children with the Lennox-Gastut syndrome but it has also been shown to be helpful in many epilepsy conditions such as infantile spasms, Rett syndrome, tuberous sclerosis complex, Dravet syndrome, Doose syndrome, and GLUT-1 deficiency.
Due to the lack of carbohydrates and the increased number of healthy fats, the body begins to release ketones. These ketones are reported to be the reason behind the reduced number of seizures or even curing them altogether! The diet works best on children with focal seizures (seizures where electrical activity is limited to a certain part of the brain) but has been shown in small studies to aid in other seizures as well.
Although the use of this diet limits the amount of seizures a child experiences, parents are still required to give their children seizure medication. In most cases, the potency or amount of medicine is reduced and in several cases children do not even rely on over-the-counter prescriptions.
This diet can be used as long as there is no evident metabolic or mitochondrial damage. Some side effects may include kidney stones, constipation, high cholesterol levels in the blood, dehydration, slowed weight gain and/or bone fractures.
Some studies have even indicated that the lack of carbohydrates in the human body (accompanied with the release of ketones) has helped stopped the growth of cancer cells, and in certain cases, even helped reduce the size of the cancer cell itself.
For parents who want to avoid giving their epileptic child any more seizure medicine that doesn’t work, the ketogenic diet is a healthy and natural alternative. Given that the body is used to running on carbs, the first week will be quite slug-ish, and it can be hard to follow such a strict diet as other children or members of the family may be on a ‘normal’ diet. Nonetheless, the ketogenic diet accompanied with a dietician and physician can greatly assist in reducing the amount of seizures a child can have.
