A trial aimed to evaluate the efficiency of the Ketogenic diet in children that suffer from uncontrollable epileptic fits has concluded there is a link between the dietary treatment and the controlling of symptoms.
It was determined that 36 per cent who followed the diet’s guidelines responded to the treatment with seizure reductions of up to a half.
The Dutch study concentrated on the high fat, low carbohydrate and controlled protein content diet for this single-centre retrospective study, conducted at a university paediatric hospital in Rotterdam.
Over a nine-and-a-half year period, the diet was trialled by 59 children with refractory epilepsy and they were examined in terms of seizure trends.
The trial aimed to assess the efficiency of the treatment and searched for nutritional related factors which could predict the overall effectiveness after a 12 month follow up. The team also wished to determine the usefulness of a three-month trial period for the diet.
Results published in the European Journal of Paediatric Neurology showed that of 24 children who continued with the diet for 12 months, 21 experienced a seizure reduction of 50 per cent or more.
Although no noteworthy relationships between variables and effectiveness were revealed at 12 months, it was concluded that children with a successful response at three months were significantly more likely to achieve success after 12 months of treatment.
Ketogenic diets have been acknowledged as a useful means of controlling symptoms of refractory epilepsy for many years, but have also been linked to increased risk of nephrolithiasis – a process that leads to the formation of kidney stones.