OTHER APPROACHES TO EPILEPSY THERAPY: THE KETOGENIC DIET

In the 1920s and early 1930s, phenobarbital and bromides were the only anticonvulsants available to treat seizures. There is an apocryphal story about the young daughter of a New York dentist who had uncontrollable seizures. She was taken to a group of disciples of Bernarr McFadden in Wisconsin, who would pray and fast with individuals for a price. Miraculously, the young lady’s seizures ceased. Prayer alone had no effect; prolonged fasting was effective but impractical. Searching for help to find an alternative to fasting, the family interested investigators at Johns Hopkins and elsewhere who were, at the time, studying infant nutrition. These investigators found that when an individual fasts, the body metabolizes its own protein, and large amounts of ketone bodies and uric acid are excreted in the urine. Erroneously believing that this had something to do with seizure control, they found that if the fast was broken by eating protein or carbohydrate, the uric acid disappeared. If the fast was broken with fat, the uric acid excretion continued. A diet was then constructed with minimal protein intake and most of the calories as fat. The diet had virtually no carbohydrates.
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admin on June 12th, 2011 | File Under Epilepsy | Comments Off -

EPISODES OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR SEIZURES: TICS

“Joshua started these funny movements a couple of weeks ago, Doctor. It’s just in his face. He sort of makes these funny faces, not all the time, but they’re getting more frequent. I’ve yelled at him to stop. They drive me crazy. He’ll stop for a little while and then do it again. Now he’s started jerking his shoulder and grunting. Do you think he’s getting epilepsy?”
Tics, like seizures, are sudden, paroxysmal movements. They are usually quicker movements than seizures themselves. While they most commonly affect the head and face, they may affect other parts of the body as well. Unlike seizures, they can be voluntarily controlled for periods of time. A tic may be simple, so that the movement looks like a twitch of a muscle or group of muscles, or it may be a complex pattern of movements. Unlike seizures, the recurrent movements are stereotyped. Seizures rarely look exactly the same from episode to episode because of the variations in spread of the electrical activity in the brain. But most tics are reproduced exactly and should, therefore, be easy to identify. Medications can be used to treat severe tics, but they are different from those used to treat seizures.
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EPISODES OFTEN MISTAKEN FOR SEIZURES: TICS”Joshua started these funny movements a couple of weeks ago, Doctor. It’s just in his face. He sort of makes these funny faces, not all the time, but they’re getting more frequent. I’ve yelled at him to stop. They drive me crazy. He’ll stop for a little while and then do it again. Now he’s started jerking his shoulder and grunting. Do you think he’s getting epilepsy?”Tics, like seizures, are sudden, paroxysmal movements. They are usually quicker movements than seizures themselves. While they most commonly affect the head and face, they may affect other parts of the body as well. Unlike seizures, they can be voluntarily controlled for periods of time. A tic may be simple, so that the movement looks like a twitch of a muscle or group of muscles, or it may be a complex pattern of movements. Unlike seizures, the recurrent movements are stereotyped. Seizures rarely look exactly the same from episode to episode because of the variations in spread of the electrical activity in the brain. But most tics are reproduced exactly and should, therefore, be easy to identify. Medications can be used to treat severe tics, but they are different from those used to treat seizures.*23\208\8*

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admin on February 25th, 2011 | File Under Epilepsy | No Comments -