Research Library

Efficacy of the Atkins Diet as Therapy for Intractable Epilepsy

Kossoff, E.H., Krauss, G.L., McGrogan, J.R., et al., "Efficacy of the Atkins Diet as Therapy for Intractable Epilepsy", Neurology,  61(12), 2003, pages 1789-1791.

The following information is available at Pub Med and was not written by Atkins professionals.

The ketogenic diet is effective for treating seizures in children with epilepsy. The Atkins diet can also induce a ketotic state, but has fewer protein and caloric restrictions, and has been used safely by millions of people worldwide for weight reduction. Six patients, aged 7 to 52 years, were started on the Atkins diet for the treatment of intractable focal and multifocal epilepsy. Five patients maintained moderate to large ketosis for periods of 6 weeks to 24 months; three patients had seizure reduction and were able to reduce antiepileptic medications. This provides preliminary evidence that the Atkins diet may have a role as therapy for patients with medically resistant epilepsy.

The following information was written by Atkins professionals.

A ketogenic diet (a very high fat diet) has been used to treat epilepsy in children. However, this diet is also associated with several diet restrictions including calories and protein. This study evaluated whether Induction would be an effective alternative for the usual ketogenic diet used. Six adolescents with epilepsy followed Induction for different lengths of time (less than two months to over 20 months). Results indicated that Induction has the potential to be an effective treatment to reduce seizures in patients with epilepsy.