Ketogenic Diet Treatment of Epilepsy in Adults

Epilepsy has attracted the attention of physicians from the time of Hippocrates to the present day. Conservative authorities have estimated that in the United States about 500,000 persons are afflicted to some degree. These estimates, and the apparently hopeless and depressive nature of the affliction, have stimulated investigation in an effort to discover the cause of the attacks and any possible methods of improving treatment. So many hypotheses and remedies have been advanced, tried and found wanting that there is naturally a healthy disbelief in any new form of treatment. Time alone will supply facts or substantial reasons for altering what may be termed traditional treatment of epilepsy. Guelpa and Marie,¹in 1910, discussed fasting as a dietary measure in the treatment of epilepsy. Gradually, since 1921, various opinions have appeared in the literature, principally based on the suggestions of Jarloev²and Bigwood,³concerning the possibility that