The study found that two thirds of the children benefited from being put on this diet, which included fewer carbohydrates than the standard Atkins diet.

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The children, ages three to 18, were having between four and 470 seizures a week and were unresponsive to drug therapy. They were put on the modified version of the Atkins diet for six months. Of the 16 children who completed the study, 13 had a greater than 50 percent reduction in the number of seizures, seven of them had greater than 90 percent improvement, and four were seizure-free.

Ketogenic diet
The researchers concluded that this modified Atkins diet was nearly as effective at controlling seizures as the highly restrictive ketogenic diet, which has been used since 1921 to control seizures in children.

"Our findings suggest relatively good efficacy compared to the ketogenic diet," Dr Eric Kossoff, a paediatric neurologist, said in a prepared statement. "With 20 patients, our study wasn't large enough to say patients and physicians should replace the proven, but highly restrictive ketogenic diet, but the results are encouraging and intriguing."

The study was presented Monday at a meeting of the American Epilepsy Society. – (HealthDayNews)

Visit our Epilepsy Centre for more information.

December 2005
 

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