Epilepsy is a disorder that can cause seizures. In this experiment researchers wanted to see if a diet change could help reduce the number of seizures children experienced. The researchers got most of their information from children or adolescents. The children and adolescents that were included had refractory epilepsy and were not eligible for epilepsy surgery. The patients were randomly selected for the KD or the CAU, which stands for care as usual.
Results and Discussion
The researchers found that children that were assigned to the ketogenic diet saw a drastic reduction in seizures compared to the kids that remained on their usual diets. Ketogenic diets consist of foods with high fats and very low carbohydrates. Although it is still not known why the ketogenic diet helped lower the amount of seizures experienced by the kids in the KD group it is predicted that it might be due to biochemical alterations that occur in the body when it is in a state of ketosis. Of the randomly assigned groups 26 participants were put on the ketogenic diet while the other 22 were told to remain on their usual diet. This makes for a total of 48 participants although the initial size of the sample was 57 some participants decided to drop out of the experiment. Taking in the information from the 48 remaining participants the researchers were able to find that in just 4 months the average seizure frequency was P=0.024 among the KD group. For reference when using P values as a form of measurement anything below a 0.05 means that there is a strong association between the two variables in question. This means that the researchers found that the ketogenic diet had an impact on the amount of seizures experienced by the KD group. It is even stated in the article that “twice as many patients in the KD group had a relevant decrease in seizure severity score” (Lambrechts DA, de Kinderen RJ, Vles JS, de Louw AJ, Aldenkamp AP, Majoie HJ. A).
A key disadvantage that was found in the clinical trial was the fact that people in the ketogenic group reported complications related to gastrointestinal issues at a higher rate than the control group. These symptoms are most likely related directly to the ketogenic diet since very few people in the control group reported experiencing these symptoms. Gastrointestinal symptoms seem to be the only side effect of this treatment for refractory childhood epilepsy. Overall, this treatment offers a lot more advantages than disadvantages since the reduction in seizures is connected to lower mortality rates in children suffering from this condition. Due to the fact that the sample population used consisted of only people under the age of 18 the data can only be used to treat children. Expanding the clinical trial to include people of all ages could help researchers see if these results also apply to adults and elederly people or if the ketogenic diet only works on children.
References
Lambrechts, D. A. J. E., Kinderen, R. J. A. de, Vles, J. S. H., Louw, A. J. A. de, Aldenkamp, A. P., & Majoie, H. J. M. (2016, March 29). A randomized controlled trial of the ketogenic diet in refractory childhood epilepsy. Wiley Online Library. Retrieved October 16, 2021, from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/ane.12592.
