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Review
. 2019 Jan 29:13:5.
doi: 10.3389/fnins.2019.00005. eCollection 2019.

Ketogenic Diet and Epilepsy: What We Know So Far

Isabella D'Andrea Meira  1   2 , Tayla Taynan Romão  2 , Henrique Jannuzzelli Pires do Prado  1   2 , Lia Theophilo Krüger  1 , Maria Elisa Paiva Pires  1 , Priscila Oliveira da Conceição  3
Affiliations
Free PMC article
Review

Ketogenic Diet and Epilepsy: What We Know So Far

Isabella D'Andrea Meira et al. Front Neurosci. .
Free PMC article

Abstract

The Ketogenic Diet (KD) is a modality of treatment used since the 1920s as a treatment for intractable epilepsy. It has been proposed as a dietary treatment that would produce similar benefits to fasting, which is already recorded in the Hippocratic collection. The KD has a high fat content (90%) and low protein and carbohydrate. Evidence shows that KD and its variants are a good alternative for non-surgical pharmacoresistant patients with epilepsy of any age, taking into account that the type of diet should be designed individually and that less-restrictive and more-palatable diets are usually better options for adults and adolescents. This review discusses the KD, including the possible mechanisms of action, applicability, side effects, and evidence for its efficacy, and for the more-palatable diets such as the Modified Atkins Diet (MAD) and the Low Glycemic Index Diet (LGID) in children and adults.

Keywords: diet therapy; ketogenic diet; low glycemic index; modified Atkins diet; refractory epilepsy.

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