“We need new treatments for the 35% of people with epilepsy whose seizures are not stopped by medications,” study co-author Dr. Pavel Klein explained in an American Academy of Neurology news release. “The ketogenic diet is often used in children, but little research has been done on how effective it is in adults.”
In conducting the review, the researchers analyzed five studies on the ketogenic diet with a ratio of fat to protein/carbohydrate of 3 or 4 to 1. They also reviewed five more studies on the modified Atkins diet, which has a 1 to 1 fat to protein/carbohydrate ratio by weight.
The researchers found that 32% of the patients on the ketogenic diet and 29% of those following the modified Atkins diet had reduction in their seizures of 50% or more. Meanwhile, 9% of those in the ketogenic diet group and 5% of the modified Atkins group had drops in their seizures by 90% or more, according to the study published October 29 in Neurology.
The benefits of these high-fat diets happened quickly – just days or weeks after the patients began following them. The results persisted, but only if the adults continued to follow the diets. Once the patients stopped following the diets, the benefits also stopped, the researchers noted. None of the side effects of the diets were serious, and most often the patients experienced weight loss, not weight gain, the researchers said.
