Posted on 01/20/2010 4:56:07 AM PST by ButThreeLeftsDo
A trip to the doctor is all good news these days for 4-year-old Max Irvine.
Just a year ago, however, Max was enduring more than 100 seizures a day. Even a barrage of tests at the famed Mayo Clinic's Epilepsy Laboratory revealed no clear medical explanation.
Epilepsy was consuming every waking hour of Max's life.
"It got to the point where he couldn't walk or talk or function, or even eat hardly," said Max's father Troy Irvine.
Medications control epilepsy for 75 percent of children, but not for Max. His family watched helplessly as the light disappeared from his eyes. Max's playful nature vanished. Priceless intellectual developmental time was being lost.
Finally, Mayo Clinic Pediatric Neurologist Elaine Wirrell, an epilepsy specialist, proposed trading all of Max's meds for a radical change in diet. The Ketogenic Diet is very low in carbohydrates and super high in fats. Max's initial diet meal plan contained 80 percent fat.
"I just remember having tears and thinking how can I be giving my child so much fat," said Max's mother, Kristine Irvine. "The majority of his meal was bacon and butter, or oil and maybe one strawberry. It was very hard to adjust to that."
Butter as an entree. Bacon as a main course. Flavored Canola oil as a beverage. Dr. Wirrell said the strict diet is worth a try for nearly any child who does not respond to medication.
"Over half of them have a meaningful reduction of seizures and nearly a third of them become seizure free on the diet," she said.
Exactly why the diet works is unknown. Wirrell said research suggests it stabilizes brain cells and alters neurotransmitters, the brain chemicals that allow cells to signal each other. The Ketogenic Diet has actually been around since the 1920s. It was first described at the Mayo Clinic, in fact.
An obvious question the Irvines had was whether the cholesterol would create a new problem for Max's health.
"We monitor the children very carefully," Wirrell said. "We monitor their blood for cholesterol problems. And in truth very few children actually end up with cholesterol or lipid problems on the diet."
Max's remarkable improvement is documented on his EEG, an electroencephalogram. The previous lightning storm of misfiring electrical activity has now calmed. Max is taking no epilepsy medications and is seizure-free.
Wirrell said many children are able to come off the diet after getting better and their epilepsy does not necessarily return. Max's brain is thought to have recovered enough that he is being gradually transitioned to normal meals.
Well, the brain and nervous system are made of cholesterol.
Maybe the low fat diet isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Interesting and thank God they found out this worked for the little guy. I can tell you, there is nothing worse then seeing your child have seizures. My daughter has horrible ones. She’s hasn’t had one in over 3 years but, is on a very high dose of depakote which causes other problems :(
Are they for real????
The myelin sheaths that insulate each nerve consists primarily of cholesterol aka fat. Any book on the nervous system will tell you that. Just imagine how the electrical system of your house would work if the wires were not insulated.
I have heard of this diet. I tried it for my migraine headaches, but like candy bars too much!!!!
This is great news for this little boy.
Not trying to be sarcastic, just curious. Are you saying that this boy may not have had enough cholesterol aka insulation around his nerves so they were short circuiting? Isn’t that what a seizure is...basically a short circuit?
The "point" of the diet is to mimic starvation without the actual starving part. By limiting carbs it switched the metabolism over to getting energy from fats. then the diet supplies fats. It's not an easy thing. WE measured meals on a gram scale and had to keep ahead of hypoclycemia.
But it worked like a charm. Less than 2.5 years later the kid was off the diet and seizure free. This was 23 years ago.
Of course it isn’t. Although I think I would draw the line at Canola oil as a beverage.
There was a movie a few years back about the same kind of situation - woman (I think played by Meryl Streep) has a son with massive multiple seizures and this high fat diet is suggested to her. When she tries it, the conventional medical people are horrified and she even nearly loses her son to CPS...until it works. Based on a true story. “First Do No Harm” - good movie.
My niece had terrible seizures, dozens a day, and the depakote had marginal effect. She was placed on the Ketogenic diet, which helped some, but did not have a great enough overall effect. Finally, she was implanted with a Vagus nerve stimulator. Similar in size to an implanted pacemaker, it seems to interrupt the “signal storm” inherent to an epileptic seizure. Aside from an occasional pause in speech, you would never know it is there and working. She is immensely improved, thank God, and is now attending university.
Yep — this has been known for decades and yet medical researchers are acting in this story like they are surprised by it.
I’m convinced that fat is good for you. When I try high-fiber, high-carb, low-fat diets, my appetite spirals out of control, my blood sugar goes haywire, and my weight climbs the scale at rate of about 3 lbs a week. When I switch back to high-fat, low carb, it all goes away.
Agreed. Makes me think low carb detractors probably haven’t tried it themselves :) - I’m sure there are exceptions but I personally feel fantastic when I stick to a low carb, higher fat diet. Leaps and bounds better than when I’m eating carbs. My mom is a type 2 diabetic, and when she is on it, her sugar is regulated and also her cholesterol improves - a lot.
I don’t know how you feel about alternative medicine, but there is a natural healer and homeopathic doctor in Pittsburgh that I have been seeing. I never thought I would believe in alternative medicine, but I have been convinced. Dr. Winer helped when all conventional medical doctors wanted to do was give me more drugs that were harming the rest of my body. The web address is:
http://www.painreleaseclinic.com/
I’ve been using vitamins and herbs for years. In fact my daughters seizures have stopped, since I started giving her extra magnesium, and L-theanine. She is retarded, many retarded have seizure problems. Probably has something to do with the brain damage or size of the brain. Not just bad wiring. I’m not so sure that high fat diet would help. On top of that one of the side effects of depakote is weight gain and she’s put on about 60lbs. :(
Could you imagine a government doctor prescribing a diet so diametrically opposed to to conventional political wisdom?
+1....
I discovered the Schwarzbein Principle (by Dr. Diana Schwarzbein) a couple years ago. Read the book and basically, stay away from foods that spike your insulin, which is mainly carbs. After I read her book, I also bought her cookbook, which has a LOT of tasty recipes. I always feel better when I stick to fats and proteins,with plenty of fresh veggies and TRY to stay away from carbs, although I am a sucker for bread and beer! Her recipes use lots of fresh ingredients, dijon mustard, olive oil, feta cheese, cilantro, etc., and if you like to cook you can have some VERY tasty stuff!
One of the first things Dr. Winer does is start eliminating certain foods from the diet. He has helped many people with ill health by doing this. Food allergies as a source of ill health is something that medical doctors fail to recognize.
My old German grandmother used to say that fat was good for you. She would eat all her meat, including the fat! As kids, we were horrified. I now believe like you do that fat is actually good for you. And I mean animal fat, not just plant fat.
Problem is, the American Heart Association has a lot invested in the myth that animal fat is bad for you.
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