WEDNESDAY, Oct. 29, 2014 (HealthDay News) -- Eating a low-carb, high-fat diet could help control epilepsy that is difficult to treat, according to new research.
A review of five studies found that a ketogenic, or modified Atkins diet, that focuses on foods like bacon, eggs, heavy cream, butter, fish and green vegetables, could help reduce seizures in adults whose condition doesn't improve with medication.
"We need new treatments for the 35 percent of people with epilepsy whose seizures are not stopped by medications," study co-author Dr. Pavel Klein explained in an American Academy of Neurology news release. "The ketogenic diet is often used in children, but little research has been done on how effective it is in adults."
In conducting the review, the researchers analyzed five studies on the ketogenic diet involving 47 people. The ketogenic diet consists of a ratio of fat to protein/carbohydrate of three or four to one.
The researchers also reviewed five more studies on the modified Atkins diet, which included 85 people. The modified Atkins diet has a one-to-one fat to protein/carbohydrate ratio by weight.
The researchers found that 32 percent of the patients on the ketogenic diet and 29 percent of those following the modified Atkins diet had reduction in their seizures by 50 percent or more. Meanwhile, 9 percent of those in the ketogenic diet group and 5 percent in the modified Atkins group had drops in their seizures by 90 percent or more, according to the study published online Oct. 29 in Neurology.
The benefits of these high-fat diets happened quickly -- just days or weeks after the patients began following them. The results persisted, but only if the adults continued to follow the diets. Once the patients stopped following the diets, the benefits also stopped, the researchers noted. None of the side effects of the diets were serious, and most often the patients experienced weight loss, not weight gain, the researchers said.
However, of those on the ketogenic diet, 51 percent stopped before the study ended and 42 percent on the modified Atkins diet also stopped early.
"Unfortunately, long-term use of these diets is low because they are so limited and complicated," said Klein, from the Mid-Atlantic Epilepsy and Sleep Center in Bethesda, Md. "Most people eventually stop the diet because of the culinary and social restrictions. However, these studies show the diets are moderately to very effective as another option for people with epilepsy."
Two experts said the ketogenic diet approach may have pluses and minuses for patients.
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High-Fat, Low-Carb Diet May Help With Tough-to-Treat Epilepsy