As mentioned in an earlier thread, I plan to send
some of the research I've posted to a health oriented
forum and mailing list I used to help run.

Each week, there will be some information related to
keto diets, paleo diets, general nutrition, training, or
disease presented here in the Horsepower Gain Support Group.

At the top of each post will be a short header that provides
the type of information (category), a rating as to how technical
an article is (technical) and in some cases a brief summary
of my opinion on the piece (summary).

The summary was provided as a convenience to people
I used to help who were not concerned about the nuts &
bolts, but just wanted the jist.

My guess is that this stuff will start some hearty debate.

So, without further ado, lets get on to the meat! (Posted for
Little Mo's benefit..)

:cool: TJ :cool:

CATEGORY: diseases/epilepsy
TECHNICAL: *
SUMMARY:
This paper describes the ketogenic diet in regard to
epilepsy treatment. It does a fairly good job at mentioning some
of it's properties and effects. It also lists some of the questions
that still puzzle the medical community about why it works so
well. To this point, they still don't understand it at all really.

The article lists some of the side effects of the ketogenic
diet as being "cognitive", and "allergic". The cognitive aspect is
only an issue until adaptation occurs. I find now that, when I
run under ketone metabolism, it is much easier for me to concentrate
and focus on whatever task I am working on. The allergic reaction
reported is not due to the diet itself, but rather due to the
way it is clinically administered. Instead of consuming normal
fats, the status quo is for patients to be treated with MCT oil
(a non-natural manmade oil). Why? -- I have no idea.. Presumably
it's because they can make money off of selling you MCT oil as
opposed to just letting buy wholesome foods in the store.

I think the thing that really brings home the point that
the pharmaceutical industry controls american medicine is this
line:

"then perhaps a medication could be developed that would simulate
the biochemical effects of the ketogenic diet."

I think it's silly to spend so much effort in building
a drug to do something that food can do already. What a waste
of time. Besides, even if they do synthesize a drug to simulate
ketogenic diets for epilepsy treatment, will it still have all
of the *other* benefits of the diet? Like weight loss, immune
system boost, cardio-vascular health, diabetes, cancer, rhett
syndrome, MS, etc., etc.. Why re-invent the wheel? Mother nature
(and evolution) has already solved the problem for us..

-------------------------------------------------------------

Adv Pediatr 1997;44:297-329

The ketogenic diet: 1997.

Swink TD, Vining EP, Freeman JM

There has been a dramatic resurgence of interest in the ketogenic
diet during the past several years. For many children with
difficult-to-control epilepsy, the diet presents an alternative approach
to trying multiple medications. The ketogenic diet's current success rate,
when properly executed, greatly exceeds that of the medications which have
recently become available. Its side effects, both cognitive and allergic,
appear fewer than most available medications. The ketogenic diet is also
cheaper than most new anticonvulsants. Even though we now know that the
diet works, we still do not know how it works. Nor do we know how most
anticonvulsants work. The mechanism of action of the ketogenic diet
appears to rely on a fundamental change in the brain's metabolism from
that of a glucose-based energy substrate to a ketone-based substrate. This
change is, in some fashion, critical to the maintenance of seizure
threshold. Why should the source of the energy make a difference in
seizure threshold? The change in seizure threshold appears to occur
without affecting the brain's ability to carry out its normal complex
functions. Could the brain's utilization of an energy substrate for
seizure control be different from its utilization of energy for normal
brain function? If so it should it be possible to study the metabolic
differences between the two and develop a biochemistry of epilepsy, which
is differentiated from the biochemistry of normal cognition and function.
The ketogenic diet is successful in controlling or ameliorating a broad
spectrum of seizure types and etiologies. Perhaps then, common metabolic
pathways, independent of seizure type, are used in the initiation and
spread of electrical seizures. Based on clinical experience and limited
research data, it would appear that different seizures and different
epilepsies must have metabolic pathways in common that make them
susceptible to treatment with a common metabolic therapy. If we could
understand how the ketogenic diet "works," how changing from a glucose
substrate' to a ketone body substrate is anticonvulsant, then perhaps a
medication could be developed that would simulate the biochemical effects
of the ketogenic diet. Such an approach would be a major departure in the
study of the neuroscience of epilepsy. The ketogenic diet offers a new
paradigm to think about epilepsy and its treatment, and perhaps will
stimulate new approaches to this still often devastating condition.

Publication Types:
* Historical article
* Review
* Review, tutorial

PMID: 9265974, UI: 97410925

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Study shows high fat, low carb diet helps epileptic children
December 8, 1998

(CNN) -- A 70-year-old, unconventional diet helps many epileptic children,
especially those who don't respond to modern medicines, according to researchers
at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

In a study involving 150 children with difficult-to-control epilepsy,
researchers followed the patients on a ketogenic diet for a year or more. More
than half of the patients had a 50 percent or greater reduction in seizures and
a quarter experienced a 90 percent improvement.

"Our study shows that despite new and improved anti-convulsant medications on
the market, the ketogenic diet is still a viable option for children with
difficult to manage epilepsy," said John M. Freeman, principle researcher of the
study and professor of pediatric neurology at Johns Hopkins.

Originally developed at Johns Hopkins and the Mayo Clinic in the 1920s, the
ketogenic diet was used before the advent of modern anti-convulsant medications
to curb seizures in epilepsy patients. The diet requires exact and careful
measurements of all food and calls for high fat intake and low carbohydrate
consumption, which causes a condition called ketosis.

Ketosis occurs when the body burns the fat supplied in the diet because there is
a limited amount of glucose to burn. Ketones, products left after the fat is
burned, build up in the blood and inhibit seizures, although exactly how is
unknown.

At the beginning of the Johns Hopkins study, children had an average of 410
seizures per month and had gotten no relief after being treated with an average
of six anti-convulsant medications. After a year, 55 percent of the original
patients remained on the diet and 27 percent had a greater than 90 percent
decrease in seizures.

"Occasionally, children who have uncontrollable seizures go on the diet, remain
seizure free for two years, and stay that way even when they have stopped the
diet, never having to take more medication. Something is healed. If we knew what
and how it healed, then we might know what causes epilepsy," Freeman said.

However, the ketogenic diet shouldn't be the first line of treatment for
epileptic children, Freeman said. Seventy percent of the epileptic patients can
gain control of their seizures with one medication. For children whose seizures
don't respond to medication, the diet is an effective alternative, but Freeman
cautions that it should be used only under controlled circumstances with the
appropriate nutritional and medical supervision.