The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine Researchers Report describes the astonishing results of a study on how a low carb diet may reduce epileptic seizures. In the report, Dr. Eric H. Kossoff discusses the results of testing, which show a 50% reduction of epileptic seizures in a third of the participants after only three months on the diet.
Epilepsy is a chronic neurological disorder that is known for it’s main symptom, seizures. The seizures come unprovoked and there is no cure, but certain medications and diet can help reduced the number of seizures in certain patients. About 50 million people have epilepsy worldwide.
Previous studies on children show that a Ketogenic diet can help control the numbers of seizures. A Ketogenic diet, like the Atkins diet, reduces the amount of carbohydrates in your daily food intake. The goal of such diets is to ensure that 80 percent of calories are from fat instead of carbs.
The report stated that 30 participants spent six months on a reduced carb diet, where carbohydrates were reduced to 15 grams a day. The participants were required to have failed two other forms of anti-convulsive medicated treatment for people who have epilepsy to partake in the study. Each candidate had their meals controlled, eating mostly fatty foods like eggs, meat and heavy creams.
An Atkins-like diet is simple to do. There are many programs out there that are designed to reduce the number of carbohydrates you take in each day. As a diet, it is said that the reduction of carbohydrates helps people with weight loss because the diet encourages to burn more fat rather than carbs. Additional benefits, like the study on reducing seizures, has become a topic of research over recent years.
What Happened In The Study?
Roughly two thirds of the candidates described a reduction in the number of seizures. Nearly half of the patients continued the diet after the study was over as a method of controlling the seizures. The studies revealed that patients needed to stay on the diet in order to continue getting the results.
Is it promising? Yes, however, the results also showed that the diet wasn’t so easy to follow. 30% of the patients stopped the diet, even when they had reduced seizures, because they claimed the diet was too tough to continue. The research into linking diets as a form of treatment is still relatively new. Still, studies like this one are showing how following a healthy diet can help, even after other treatments are unsuccessful.
Doctors Suggest Making Diets Easier To Follow
According to doctors involved in the study, an Atkins or Ketogenic diet can be simplified to make it easier for consumers to follow. They suggested one could find a diet that is less restrictive and without the need of a supervising dietitian.
This is true with any sort of diet that you would partake in, in order to find a change in weight loss or a change in health issues. Keeping with the program is very important. Also, making sure while you are on the program that you make it easy to follow and stick to. If you make it too tough on yourself, you could lose all that effort. You could gain weight back or start finding yourself with the same symptoms again.
An Atkins-like diet is sometimes considered hard to handle. Less sugar sometimes makes people more irritable, at least at first. Your body must work harder in order to get energy it needs. A person might feel a little sluggish on a diet like this in the beginning.
Any diet you might attempt should be talked over with your doctor before hand. While on an Atkins-diet, it can help to start out slow. Reduce your carbs a little bit each week, instead of doing it all at once. Once you are down to your desired level of carbs, stick with the program for at least three to six months to observe any improvements.
A diet journal might help. Write down the foods you eat, and how you felt that day. If you are using such a diet on your own to help with seizures, make sure to note if you ever have one in the journal. Keep track of how many might occur. Also keep note of any additional medications you might be taking during that time.
How A Low Carb Diet Works
After you have committed to the diet plan, and you talk to your doctor, the next step is to select what foods you can eat. For such diets, carbs are very limited, so things like caffeinated drinks and alcohol are not to be used. You should also limit many fruits, breads, starches (like potatoes) and certain types of vegetables.
The basis of the diet is to eat mostly protein. On most diet plans, you can eat as much meat as you would like. You can eat a limited amount of cheese and vegetables. The diet often works because you don’t often go hungry as you can eat almost as much as you want. As long as you are following the diet plan of limiting carbs, you often have freer choices.
Some say the diet is easier to follow because there is less to think about. You know right off you can eat so many meats. What becomes hard is letting go of all those carbohydrates. Carbs are addicting and in a lot of the processed foods that we eat regularly. Breads, cereals, fruits, all sorts of things have carbs in them. You need to read labels on foods a bit more carefully.
Once you learn which foods you can eat, you can easily stick to it. Obviously, letting go of addicting carb filled foods can be tough at first. While the some diets recommend starting by cutting it all out at once, going slow at first might help. Talking with a doctor and doing your own research can help you create a plan that is right for you.
Exercise is not a recommended as necessary for this diet. It does help to exercise to increase muscle mass and to help lose unwanted pounds. It would prove an additional benefit. Exercise is not needed and doesn’t appear to be a consideration in the case of the studies on epilepsy and the results of being on a low carb diet.
Cautions of Dieting
As with anything you are doing different to your body, you should pay attention to anything that doesn’t seem normal. This might include increased dizziness, too rapid of weight loss, increase tiredness without signs of improving after a few weeks. It is recommended that you stop and see your doctor if conditions don’t improve after being taken off the diet.
These warnings go double for people who are trying to use these benefits to improve health, like lessoning epileptic seizures. If your epileptic seizures become worse or increase in number, consult your doctor right away. If you have other serious symptoms, consult your doctor. Talk to your doctor if you find symptoms that are abnormal, even if they are not yet severe.
Stopping seizures or to be able to reduce the frequency of them can provide hope for a great many people. The results of the study on children and the most current study show a lot of promise. Be safe when trying out a diet and make sure to do plenty of research.
