The Atkins Diet as Treatment for Children with Epilepsy :: Exploratory Essays Research Papers

The Atkins Diet as Treatment for Children with Epilepsy   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Eric H. Kossoff and other scientists at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions published the article â€Å"Efficacy of the Atkins diet as therapy for intractable epilepsy† which describes their experiment using the Atkins diet as therapy to reduce the number of seizures for children with epilepsy. Along with a variety of medications, the Ketogenic diet is also used as therapy to help epileptic patients control their seizures. The Ketogenic diet is similar to starvation in a sense that it only allows patients to consume an approximate of 1,500 calories a day, which is 25% less than the recommended daily allowance of 2,000 calories. Patients that use the Ketogenic diet consume a high fat, moderate protein, and low carbohydrate diet to induce a medical condition called ketosis. This condition is caused when the body does not have enough carbohydrates to complete the metabolism of fat leaving ketone bodies and it is believed that ketosis is responsible for controlling the seizures from occurring so frequently. The Atkins diet is much more flexible restricting only carbohydrates and allowing unlimited consumption of fats, proteins, and calories; therefore inducing the same medical condition, ketosis. Since both types of diet produces the same ketotic state and serves the same function to reduce the frequency of seizures, Kossoff and the other scientist hopes that the Atkins diet can be used as an alternative than the Ketogenic diet for children with epilepsy.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Four patients under the age of 18 were involved in the experiment conducted by Kossoff and other scientists at John Hopkins to test if the Atkins diet can be used as a substitute instead of the Ketogenic diet to stimulate ketosis. In order to help all the patient transit smoothly the scientists did not change any of the medications that the patients were already on for the first two months. To assess the difference between the Ketogenic diet and the Atkins diet, scientists recorded the weight and