Ketogenic diet improves seizures

The UCLA has already awarded license rights to a start-up company that provides funds for the development of probiotic treatment of epilepsy.

Changes in the quality of the seizures were determined in week 4 and 12 using 4-hour EEGs. In order to compare the effects, a 4-hour EEG was carried out before the treatment and 3 months after the treatment was completed. The company development scale was used to evaluate the cognitive function according to the 12 treatment weeks.

The evaluation of changes in the heavy heavy heavy is complicated. Sales can change in type, frequency and intensity. These researchers used the angel classification system that describes the response to epilepsy treatments with the following classification system:

Grade 1: Complete remission after treatment

Grade II: Rare epileptic episodes that affect the function (90 % –100 % remission)

Grade III: Increases have improved (50 % fewer seizures)

Grade IV: No significant improvement

Primary result measurement

The treatment was considered effective if the patient's seizure activity was reduced by at least 50 %.

important knowledge

The treatment was considered effective at 29 of the 52 participants (56 %) at the end of 12-week treatment. With the responders, the effect of treatment was obvious in the first 2 weeks. In 15 of the cases, advantages were observed in the first week of treatment. At the end of the study, 14 participants (27 %) were free of seizure. A significant reduction in the number of seizures was observed in 9 cases (17 %). A reduction in the number of seizures by half or more was observed in 6 cases (11.5 %). In 23 cases (44 %), the treatment was considered not effective. Keep in mind that the yardstick for effectiveness was at least 50 %reducing the number of seizures compared to the initial value (angel classification grade III or higher).

practice implications

Why is this study on ketogenic nutrition and epilepsy contained in this special edition that contains articles about human biom? At first glance you might think that this article was accidentally inserted.

The ketogenic diet has proven to be effective in the treatment of seizures in childhood. ^{1 The ketogenic diet is anything but new, even if this idea of ​​using it as a strategy in medication -resistant cases. It is new that we have learned that the effects of ketogenic nutrition on epilepsy can be related to the intestinal effect.}

The authors of the ketogenic nutrition study discussed here do not mention this in their discussion of results. In their discussion, they were not sure why the diet works for almost half of the participants. They suggested that the conversion of the brain to the use of ketones as an energy source or perhaps the calorie restriction itself could have something to do with the advantages.

The latest hypothesis for the ketogenic anticonvulsion effect is convincing enough to be presented here, even if the data comes from mouse attempts.

Earlier experiments with mice have shown that ketogenic diets prevent the development of epilepsy, 3 Improvement of the symptoms of autism, 4 Improvement of motor symptoms in Alzheimer's disease, ^{5 and the epileptic activity in the brain Reduce. 6}

In the edition of May 24, 2018 Cell , Christine Olson and colleagues in the laboratory of Elaine Hsiao on the UCLA suggested that the ketogenic diet quickly changes the intestine in a certain way, so that protection against electrically induced seizures and spontaneous tonic-clonish seizures in 2 mouse models of epilepsy offers. 7

In this mouse study, the authors showed that the ketogenic diet of ketogenic mice, which were either raised in a germ -free environment or treated strongly with antibiotics, offered no protection against seizures. But the transplanting of the mice with populations of Akkermansia and parabacteroides bacteria gave protection against seizures.

olson et al. suggest that the high -fat, low -carbohydrate ketogenic diet shifts the intestinal, reduces diversity and increases the populations Akkermansia muciniphila and parabacteroid spp bacteria. This displacement of the bacterial populations then reduces the gamma glutamyl transpeptidase activity, which reduces the gamma-glutamyl amino acids in the blood, which in turn increases the gamma amino acid (GABA) level in the brain. Increased GABA in the brain offers protection against seizures.

The laboratory from HSIAO has produced a constant current of interesting research results in connection with the intestinal and its effects on the brain of mice and humans.

2013 HSIAO reported that changes in the microbiota and gastrointestinal barrier could be corrected in a mouse model for autism bacteroid fragilis . HSIAO believes that such a modification of the intestine of autism -like symptoms could reduce. It is generally recognized today that immune disorders and digestive problems are common diseases in children in the autism spectrum.

The UCLA has already awarded license rights to a start-up company that has the funds for the development of probiotic treatment of epilepsy. The idea is that the correct wording of bacteria modulates GABA and provides the neuroprotective effects of a ketogenic diet in a pill form. Swallowing a pill would be easier than following a ketogenic diet and carries fewer risks for side effects.

There can be other strategies to increase the intestinal populations of these bacteria. Metformin, a medication for the treatment of type 2 diabetes, apparently increases the populations of these two types of bacteria in mice. ^{12 Yang et al. reported in 2017 that the chronic application of metformin in mice has a certain anticonvulsant effect. 13 of consumption of certain "resistant strengths" that are supposed to achieve the colon can also increase the populations of these bacteria.}

The relationships between different types of bacteria and diseases are far from understood. Both Akkermansia muciniphila and acinetobacter calcoaceticus were found four times more often in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) than in healthy people parabacteroides distasonis is four times more common in healthy people than in patients with MS. Akkermansia and acinetobacter are associated with inflammatory reactions at MS, while parabacteroides seems to have an anti -inflammatory effect. ^{fifteen This makes it more difficult to determine how we do the use of specific probiotics for a certain patient Mag.}

The treatment of epilepsy may be on the verge of concentrating on the change in the intestinal native with a combination of probiotics, a ketogenic diet and a supplementation with resistant strengths. If this strategy actually increases the GABA level in the brain, we are now facing a long list of other possible therapeutic goals.