Epilepsy is a serious and often debilitating disease that causes seizures. These seizures can be mild or severe, even causing brain damage. Many people with epilepsy take medications daily to control seizures. According to the website Epilepsy.com, a particular diet, called the ketogenic diet, helps to treat epilepsy without medication. The basis of the ketogenic diet is that it is very high in fat and moderate in protein, but very low in carbohydrates. This causes the body to emit a substance called ketones, a by-product of burning fat, which suppresses seizures. While a ketogenic diet cannot prevent all seizures, it may be able to limit them. Adhering to the ketogenic diet is not easy as it is somewhat complicated, but when done correctly, it can change the life of an epileptic.
Step 1
Find a doctor or dietitian willing to help you do a ketogenic diet. Since the diet has so many different rules and details, you need a medical professional to guide you. Your general practitioner may not be experienced enough in the ketogenic diet, but a brain specialist or a registered dietitian may be willing and able.
Step 2
Start with a 24-hour, monitored fast whereby you eat no food at all. The Epilepsy Foundation explains that since glucose, a product of eating carbohydrates, is stored in the liver and muscles, you need to use up the body's supply of glucose before you can actually be on the ketogenic diet. Once you have no more carbohydrate stores, your body will start burning fat for fuel, which causes you to emit ketones, limiting seizure activity.
Step 3
Decrease the carbohydrates in your diet drastically while maintaining a high intake of fat and moderate intake of protein. The amount of carbohydrates that you can eat and still emit ketones depends on your own body, and only the doctor or dietitian can help you to determine that. The Epilepsy Foundation states that on the ketogenic diet, about 80 percent of your daily calories needs to come from fat, which is found in foods such as butter, eggs, bacon, beef, olive oil, nuts and avocados. Examples of appropriate meals on the ketogenic diet include scrambled eggs with butter for breakfast, Cesar salad with full-fat dressing, chicken and no crotons for lunch and steak with buttered spaghetti squash for dinner.
Step 4
Use ketone paper strips to test and make sure ketones are being emitted through your urine. You can buy these strips at medical supply stores. How often you test your urine is up to you, but the important thing is to continually monitor yourself to determine if the ketogenic diet is working. Continue the ketogenic diet as long as your doctor suggests, but make sure to keep regular doctor's visits.
