The Anticonvulsant Effect of the Ketogenic Diet in the Treatment of Epilepsy

1. Diet, Ketogenic 2. Metabolism 3. Epilepsy Introduction: Epilepsy has been considered a chronic brain disorder, which affects almos t1% of the world population. Among this population, about a third of epilepsy patients are considered as the drug-resis tant group who are not responsive to anti-epileptic medicaments. The ketogenic diet has been defined as a diet containing high fat, low carbohydrate, and limited protein. The ketogenic diet has a subs tantial effect on body metabolism in a way that body and brain would utilize ketone bodies ins tead of glucose. Fundamentally, this diet helps some patients who are resis tant to anticonvulsant drugs. Conclusion: Maintaining this diet for a long time causes a positive effect and has a much more efficient impact on children rather than adults, but it could lead to some adverse effects, including renal s tone, bone fracture, and hypercholes terolemia. In this s tudy, we reviewed the relationship between ketogenic diet and epilepsy disorder and discussed the potential mechanisms of action. ABSTRACT Article Info: