The Ketogenic Diet and Epilepsy: Does It Really Work?
There are few things more dramatic and frightening to watch than a seizure. Imagine you are at home with your young child when suddenly he begins to twitch or move uncontrollably, drool, cry out, or even lose consciousness. Now, imagine it happening two or three times a day, every day. For the parents of children with intractable epilepsy , this is a constant reality. Even with medications, the seizures may continue. For some of these children, the ketogenic diet may be effective in helping to control their seizures. Epilepsy is a condition of spontaneously recurring seizures (a sudden change in movement, behavior, sensation, or consciousness produced by an abnormal electrical discharge in the brain). It is a condition shared by over two million people in the US. For more than half of those who have epilepsy, the cause of the condition is unknown. The remainder show evidence of some sort of injury to the brain, either as a result of severe trauma, stroke , tumor, lack of oxygen, infect
