New Research Offers Insight on How Ketogenic Diet Might Work

Special to EpilepsyUSA
Posted: February 15, 2006

The ketogenic diet has been used to treat medication-resistant seizures in children since the 1920s. However, its high-fat and calorie-restricted system has long left doctors scratching their heads. "Why has this diet worked when medication has failed" is a question that's haunted physicians for years - until now, possibly.

New research that may provide some answers was presented in November 2005 at the 35 th annual meeting of the Society of Neuroscience by Kristopher Bough, Ph.D., a postdoctoral student working in the laboratory of Raymond Dingledine, Ph.D., a pharmacology professor at Emory University School of Medicine.

According to Bough, Dingledine's research team discovered the diet alters genes involved in energy metabolism in the brain. This, in turn, helps stabilize the function of neurons exposed to the challenges of epileptic seizures.

"These findings support our hypothesis that a dietary regimen can dramatically affect the expression of genes and the function of neurons within the brain, which enhances the ability of the neurons to withstand the metabolic challenges of epileptic seizures," Dingledine said in a University-released statement.

To come to a conclusion, Dingledine's team studied 7,000 rat genes simultaneously. They focused on the hippocampus, a part of the brain associated with many kinds of epilepsies. After a series of tests which ruled out various possibilities for the ketogenic diet's success, the researchers eventually focused on brain tissue. They wondered if brain tissue affected by the ketogenic diet would be more resistant to low levels of glucose (an affect of seizures) because of their enhanced energy reserves. The scientists discovered synaptic communication in ketogenic diet-fed rats was more resistant to low glucose levels than in animals fed a regular diet.

"Since the ketogenic diet was first reported to be effective for treating epilepsy in the 1920's, the mechanisms by which it works has remained unclear," said William Turk, M.D., chair-elect of the Epilepsy Foundation's professional advisory board. "This research takes us one step closer to understanding how the ketogenic diet may work to prevent seizures."

It is Dingledine's hope that his team's findings help lead to the development of more effective drug treatments for epilepsy and brain damage.