What science says about Keto Diet / No Carbs Diet For Epilepsy

Overall, there’s no strong objection from medical and nutritional experts about the fact that keto diet for epilepsy is effective for controlling this condition and reducing the frequency of seizures. There are lot of scientific and medical evidences to support this as well. 

However, the main concerns remain focused around the fact that the diet cuts a complete food group. Hence, this might cause malnutrition or dehydration, especially if the patient suffers from other medical conditions. 

Long term health implications of the keto diet are also another subject of apprehension given that high fat diets might have negative overall health effects.  

Opinion in favor of following the keto diet to treat epilepsy:

Most medical and health experts believe that the keto diet is quite effective in reducing or eliminating seizures in most epileptic patients. As a fact, similar types of diet that focus on reducing carbs have been used for hundreds of years to treat epilepsy condition and were proven successful.

Furthermore, there are many scientific researches and medical evidences that support these claims by showing that the keto diet reduced significantly the frequency of seizures, and even allowed many epileptic patients to live seizures free as long as they are following the diet. 

For instance, a follow-up study by Neal et al. evaluated the efficacy of the keto diet in epileptic children, and showed a reduction in frequency of seizures by 75%, while a similar study for adults showed a 52% reduction.

Supporters of the keto diet believe that this diet can reduce or eliminate seizures in most epileptic patients mainly because it can regulate the glucose levels in the body by limiting the consumption of carbohydrates. 

Research suggests that unregulated glucose levels in the body increase neurons hyperexcitability, and hence are the main cause behind seizures.

Opinion against following the keto diet to treat epilepsy:

There’s not much objection about the effectiveness of keto diet to treat epilepsy per se. However, some medical experts have health concerns about consuming lot of fat in the diet as they believe this would have negative overall health effects. 

There’s also a major fear about cutting a complete food group for epilepsy patients because this might put the patient at a higher risk of malnutrition. Since the keto diet cuts out water-rich foods like fruits and some veggies, there are medical concerns about possible dehydration as well. 

As such, if the patient wishes to follow the keto diet to treat epilepsy, it is highly advised to do it under the supervision of a health expert. This is important because some additional vitamins and supplements might be required to compensate on any deficiency in nutrition that could result. 

Additionally, opponents of the keto diet for epilepsy express concern about the long-term effect of the diet as this is still unknown. Many medical and health experts suggest that more research is still required to better understand the diet mechanism and how it works to treat epilepsy. Subsequently, they can improve the treatment to get a better success rate.