Why Does The Atkins Diet Help People With Epilepsy?
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I have read that the Atkins diet has decreased the number of seizures in people with Epilepsy since they have been on the diet!
Anyone know why?
There is some evidence that Ketogenic Diets (high fat, low carbohydrate diets of which Atkins is just one example) may help lessen the frequency and severity of epileptic seizures.
The mechanism behind this is not completely understood, but scientists believe it may have to do with a pH shift toward metabolic acidosis, which alters brain metabolism and lessens the likelihood of seizures.
This treatment was originated at Johns Hopkins Medical Center in the 20s, but was forgotten about when modern anti-epileptic drugs began to proliferate. These days, ketogenic diets are sometimes prescribed in severe cases where drugs have proven ineffective. Some epiletics who would like to find more “natural” alternative treatments have also exprimented with ketogenic diets with success. This should be pursued with doctor supervision, however.
that is baloney, false advertisement. People on Atkins diet DIE, remember the founder of Atkins? Yeah.
It is possible that there is some connection, that is being marketed as a benefit.
If it is true, there’s probably something more fundamental going on…for example, when people aren’t eating refined carbs, they may not be getting a lot of processing chemicals.
So it might be a data point, but that’s about it.