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Wikipedia wrote:
The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that in medicine is used primarily to treat difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. It is unrelated to the diets used for bodybuilding and weight-loss, which often involve much lower levels of ketones. The diet mimics aspects of starvation by forcing the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fuelling brain function. However, if there is very little carbohydrate in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood, a state known as ketosis, leads to a reduction in the frequency of epileptic seizures.
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The ketogenic diet may be a successful treatment for several rare metabolic diseases. Case reports of two children indicate that it may be a possible treatment for astrocytomas, a type of brain tumour. Autism, depression, migraine headaches, polycystic ovary syndrome, and type 2 diabetes mellitus have also been shown to improve in small case studies. There is evidence from uncontrolled clinical trials and studies in animal models that the ketogenic diet can provide symptomatic and disease-modifying activity in a broad range of neurodegenerative disorders including amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease, and may be protective in traumatic brain injury and stroke. Because tumour cells are inefficient in processing ketone bodies for energy, the ketogenic diet has also been suggested as a treatment for cancer. As of 2008, there is insufficient evidence to support the use of the ketogenic diet as a treatment for these conditions; however, clinical trials for many of them are ongoing.
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Is your child epileptic? That's the only condition that seems to be alleviated by this diet.
21 Oct 2011, 2:42 pm
