Keto Info Week 11/10

[spEEdfrEEk]

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:

[spEEdfrEEk]

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.