Treating Epilepsy: The Origins of the Ketogenic Diet

The word Keto comes from the word ketogenesis, the name of a metabolic process in the human body. Keto Diets are a class of low-carbohydrate diets and are executed by lowering the intake of carbohydrates. Typically, it is advised to reduce the total carbohydrate intake to 50 grams per day and net carbohydrate intake to 20-30 grams per day to be on a ketogenic diet.

How does Keto Diet Work?

Well, generally we eat a lot of carbohydrates. Carbs are our body’s favorite source of energy. Carbs are easily digested. We eat a lot of fat and proteins too. When we eat a lot of carbs, our body stores the fats that we eat. This fat accumulation in the body leads to weight gain and related issues. The most common weight-related issues are Diabetes, PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), skin and hair care, Hypothyroidism, etc.Total Carbs = Net Carbs + Dietary Fiber

When you reduce your carb intake, your body uses up all the blood sugar and glycogen reserves and consumes stored fats for energy. The human body has evolved very well to use fat as an energy source. Fats are metabolized into Ketones which are then used to power your body.

The ketogenic diet aims at lowering the carb content to a certain minimum level. This lower intake of carbs pushes your body into a state called ketosis. In ketosis, your body doesn’t get the ample supply of carbs and is forced to turn to fats as the primary source of energy. Your body, in ketosis burns fats instead of carbs, to give you the required energy, leading to rapid weight loss. Not only the weight loss, but the ketogenic diet also helps in the reversal of various chronic weight-related issues.

The more calories your body requires, the faster the fats will burn. Thus, a ketogenic diet when combined with vigorous exercise can do magic!

Many people have witnessed and advocate thus, the benefits of a ketogenic diet. It’s becoming a trend and everyone wants to follow it for one reason or the other. It has benefits like weight loss, skin and hair care, the reversal of symptoms of Diabetes Type II, PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome), epilepsy, and more.

The ketogenic diet was in the past, predominantly used for the treatment of epilepsy and its symptoms. If you or any loved one of yours is suffering from epilepsy, you might well know how awful it feels when you see someone having those painful tonic-clonic seizures. You want to help them but you can’t!

Here in this article, we focus on the ketogenic diets’ benefits for epileptic patients. And how it helps in the reversal of symptoms. Before we move forward to the main aspect, let’s know about these benefits of a ketogenic diet:

The Benefits of a Keto Diet

#1 Weight loss 

Your Ketogenic diet primarily utilizes your body fat as an energy source – so there are obvious weight loss benefits.

#2 Control Blood Sugar

Studies have shown that the ketogenic diet is a productive way to manage and prevent diabetes compared to low-calorie diets. A pre-diabetic or Type II diabetic should consider a ketogenic diet.

  #3 Enhanced Energy 

When you give your body a more constant energy source, you will feel more energized during the day. Fats are shown to be the most active molecule to burn as fuel. Go for an energy drink. 

  #4 Control in Cholesterol & Blood Pressure

Many studies on low-carb diets also show better improvement in blood pressure over other diets. Many individuals use the ketogenic diet today to manage the symptoms of diabetes, lower triglycerides, and lose body weight. 

However, the high fat, sufficient protein, a low-carb ketogenic diet was not first utilized for any of these reasons. Rather, specialists made it help treat epilepsy in children.

Epilepsy is a central nervous system (neurological) disorder in which brain activity becomes abnormal, causing seizures or periods of unusual behavior, sensations, and sometimes loss of awareness.

Epilepsy is a disorder of the sensory system in which one encounters intermittent, capricious seizures. It is a consequence of unusual movement in the human cerebrum.Epileptic seizures can incorporate physical side effects like muscle fits, spasms and mental symptoms like abnormal conduct, irregular feelings, etc.

The ketogenic diet is an exceptionally viable treatment for epilepsy in certain children that don’t react to epileptic medications.A few children may yield better outcomes using the ketogenic diet than other children to reduce seizures.

The ketogenic diet is genuine and authentic. It works very well in numerous individuals. The catch is that it’s extremely demanding and difficult to follow.In fact, it is so difficult to follow that most doctors recommend it just for individuals who haven’t had the capacity to control their seizures with medicines.

The ketogenic diet is a high-fat diet that requires children to eat four times as many fat calories from protein or carbohydrates. To be honest, it’s a strict diet to follow.

Your kid may begin the diet in the medical clinic, so attendants and specialists can watch an initial couple of days. Your tyke will most likely need to abandon any food for 36 to 48 hours before starting the diet.This diet does not give every one of the nutrients a body needs, so your youngster will most likely need to take sugar-free vitamin supplements.

How Does Ketogenic Diet Work For Epilepsy?

Ketogenic diet and epilepsy have an age-old relation. The treatment of epilepsy with the ketogenic diet has been a century-old tradition. In fact, the keto diet was primarily and predominantly used to treat epilepsy.

Treating epilepsy with medicines takes a lot of time and vigorous medication. Treating epilepsy with ketogenic diet has been a century-old tradition and in fact, keto diet originated as a treatment for epilepsy.

By decreasing the number of carbohydrates an individual eats, the body is compelled to consume fat for energy, a procedure called ketosis.This ketosis is a similar procedure that kicks in when somebody is fasting – intentionally. Fasting has been a conventional seizure treatment for quite a long time.

There is a reduction in seizures observed in children by 90% with a Ketogenic Diet.Following a couple of years on the diet, a large number of these children never again required drugs by any stretch of the imagination.

The ketogenic diet is a viable strategy to reduce the number of seizures in children with epilepsy. If you are following the ketogenic diet to treat epilepsy, make sure to regularly monitor its effectiveness.With Ketogenic diet epilepsy can be treated and the symptoms of the same can be controlled and even reversed.