A study published in Neurology, a medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, found that a combination of a modified diet high in fat and low in carbohydrates, plus medication, may reduce the frequency of seizures in individuals with epilepsy — as a disorder of the central nervous system that causes brain activity to become abnormal and leads to seizures.
The frequency and severity of these seizures can vary greatly from person to person. The exact cause of epilepsy is often unknown, but it can be caused by a brain injury, genetic factors, or infection, reports Al-Rai daily.
The study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, revealed that treatment with medications and a modified Atkins diet significantly reduced epileptic seizures.
The modified Atkins diet mixes the Atkins diet with the keto diet, and includes foods such as soy products, cream, oils, butter, green leafy vegetables, and animal protein such as eggs, chicken, and fish. In reducing seizures, however, its strict restrictions can make it difficult to stick to while the modified Atkins diet is a more flexible alternative.
Study author Manjari Tripathi, MD, of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi, said: ‘For people with epilepsy who have not been able to find an effective treatment to reduce seizures with the help of medication, it is encouraging to see that with the help of diet. Combined with drug therapy, the number of epileptic seizures can be reduced, and our study found that this combination may reduce the chance of seizures by more than half.”
The study included 160 adults and adolescents with epilepsy for more than 10 years, who had at least 27 seizures per month, despite using an average of four anti-seizure medications at the maximum tolerable dose, and who were randomly assigned to receive either drug therapy alone, Or drug therapy plus a modified Atkins diet over a period of six months.
After six months, the researchers found that 26 percent of the drug-treated people on the modified Atkins diet had a 50 percent decrease in the number of seizures, while those on the drug alone had a 3 percent decrease. Just.
The study also looked at the six-month quality of life, behavior and side effects of the subjects. The drug-treated group on the modified Atkins diet showed improvement across the board, compared to the drug-only group, according to ScitechDaily.
“While the modified Atkins diet may be an effective treatment for controlling seizures, more research is needed to identify genetic biomarkers and other factors associated with response to this diet,” Tripathi added.
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