High-fat diet helps children with epilepsy

A radical diet for severely epileptic children that mimics the effects of starvation can "dramatically" cut their seizures, a study by Great Ormond Street Hospital has found.

Their tests have shown that the Ketogenic diet – based on a strictly controlled menu of high-fat foods – can reduce seizures in children who are resistant to standard anti-convulsant drugs by up to 90 per cent.

The study is still at a very early stage but experts at Great Ormond Street claim their initial findings already prove the diet should be far more widely available on the National Health Service.

Dr Helen Cross, a paediatric neurologist, claimed it could significantly help about 6,000 children with severe, drug-resistant epilepsy, but only seven hospitals offer the diet to a small number of children.

"The diet does actually work, with often dramatic effect, in reducing seizures," she said. "If it was introduced more widely it could have widespread benefits, by reducing the need for medication."

However, the study, which is the first to compare two versions of the diet, is still incomplete. So far, the hospital has recruited only 56 of the 120 children needed, partly because many parents are put off by the unusual and highly restrictive diet involved.

Devised in the 1920s, the diet is based on the discovery that during starvation, the body burns fat instead of carbohydrates as its main fuel by producing chemicals called ketones to provide energy. In turn, these ketones will often greatly reduce seizures.

For children using the diet, high-fat foods such as double cream, butter and eggs make up 80 per cent of the diet and become the body's main energy source, making it produce ketones. Great Ormond Street is testing two versions of the diet: the "classic" version devised in the 1920s, and the MCT version which uses a fat from coconut oil called medium chain triglyceride (MCT), and is more flexible by allowing children to eat more bread and fruit.

Children cannot eat normal foods such as sausages, potatoes, cakes, pasta, fishcakes and sweet drinks. Every food portion also has to be precisely measured, and recipes based on a fixed proportion of fats, carbohydrates and starches.

Great Ormond Street has had mixed results so far. Eight families withdrew from the trial because of its difficulties. Of the 14 children using the diet for over three months, seven have seen a cut in seizures of 50 per cent or more. Several have seen improvements only in their alertness and responsiveness.

But Karen Belony, from Luton, said her son Jacob, five, had shown real mental and medical progress since starting the diet seven months ago. His fits had been cut from 15 a day to six, she said. "He's just like a little boy now, when he was like a baby before," she added. "He just seems to have grown up a lot."