A ketogenic diet is a low-carb, adequate protein, high-fat diet initially intended as a possible treatment for seizures in pediatric patients. It is still widely prescribed when more conventional anti-convulsion treatments fail. A few years after the invention of the ketogenic diet in the 1920s, one study indicated that the diet might also be effective as a treatment of bronchial asthma in children. However, no recent studies have followed up on this initial study.
The Ketogenic Diet
The ketogenic diet is a carefully controlled diet that provides an adequate amount of calories. Protein intake is kept to the minimally required amount, and carbohydrates are restricted to negligible amounts. Fat is the major food component in the foods permissible when following the diet. Early versions of the diet achieved the high fat content by serving heavy whipping cream with each meal. In recent years a modified version of the Atkins diet sometimes yields the same results. The modified Atkins diet allows more protein than the ketogenic diet and so allows for more food choices.
How the Ketogenic Diet Prevents Seizures
It remains unknown how the ketogenic diet prevents seizures. The leading theory is that it prevents seizures by making the brain switch to a different metabolism. Glucose is normally the brain's preferred fuel. But when glucose is restricted through a restriction of carbohydrates and protein that can be converted into glucose, the brain needs a different fuel to function. When the liver burns fat, it produces a byproduct called "ketone bodies." The brain can function by feasting on these molecules. Ketone bodies require more engines, or mitochondira, in the cells. The additional or more efficient mitochondria may stabilize the cells and prevent them from getting over-excited, which is how seizures start.
An Asthma Study
After the success of the ketogenic diet as a treatment of seizures, physicians in the early 20th century were optimistic about the potentials of the diet as a treatment of other conditions in pediatric patients. One study apparently demonstrated that a ketonic diet had treated asthma in nine children. The study was published in November 1932 issue of "Journal of Allergy." Studies of the ketogenic diet were very limited in the years to follow, primarily because more effective medications for a variety of conditions entered the commercial market.
Connection Between Asthma and Epilepsy?
If the ketogenic diet potentially can treat both asthma and epilepsy, it is tempting to think that the two conditions are related. However, a study published in a June 1998 issue of "Journal of Child Neurology" suggests that there is no connection between the two conditions. So, if the ketogenic diet is effective as a treatment of asthma, which remains to be established, ketone bodies most likely play a completely different role than they do in the prevention of seizures.
References
- John Hopkins Hospital: The Ketogenic Diet Center
- Epilepsy: Ketonic Diet
- "Epilepsy Currents"; Substantia(ting) Ketone Body Effects on Neuronal Excitability; Jong M Rho; September 2007
- "Epilepsia"; Anticonvulsant Mechanisms of the Ketogenic Diet; Kristopher J. Bough and Jong M. Rho; January 2007
- "Journal of Allergy"; An estimate of the ketogenic diet in bronchial asthma; H. L. Alexander M.D.; November 1932
- "Journal of Child Neurology"; Asthma and Epilepsy: Are They Related? A Retrospective Study; Glenn Y. Castaneda, MD, et al.; June 1998
