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Epilepsy’s Big, Fat Miracle
NY Times ^ | November 17, 2010 | FRED VOGELSTEIN

Posted on 11/21/2010 6:47:29 PM PST by neverdem

Once every three or four months my son, Sam, grabs a cookie or a piece of candy and, wide-eyed, holds it inches from his mouth, ready to devour it. He knows he’s not allowed to eat these things, but like any 9-year-old, he hopes that somehow, this once, my wife, Evelyn, or I will make an exception.

We never make exceptions when it comes to Sam and food, though, which means that when temptation takes hold of Sam and he is denied, things can get pretty hairy. Confronted with a gingerbread house at a friend’s party last December, he went scorched earth, grabbing parts of the structure and smashing it to bits. Reason rarely works. Usually one of us has to pry the food out of his hands. Sometimes he ends up in tears.

It’s not just cookies and candy that we forbid Sam to eat. Cake, ice cream, pizza, tortilla chips and soda aren’t allowed, either. Macaroni and cheese used to be his favorite food, but he told Evelyn the other day that he couldn’t remember what it tastes like anymore. At Halloween we let him collect candy, but he trades it in for a present. At birthday parties and play dates, he brings a lunchbox to eat from.

There is no crusade against unhealthful food in our house. Some might argue that unhealthful food is all we let Sam eat. His breakfast eggs are mixed with heavy cream and served with bacon. A typical lunch is full-fat Greek yogurt mixed with coconut oil. Dinner is hot dogs, bacon, macadamia nuts and cheese. We figure that in an average week, Sam consumes a quart and a third of heavy cream, nearly a stick and a half of butter, 13 teaspoons of coconut oil, 20 slices of bacon and 9...

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Testing
KEYWORDS: epilepsy; keto; ketocalculator; ketogenicdiet; ketosis
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To: ghostkatz
Our first neurologist at UVA Medical Center told us flatly that the diet didn't work! On the basis of his 'expert' bigotry we triad all the usual drugs and then allowed him to experiment on her, with vallium cognates

After 10 months of watching her get worse we went to Hopkins. The first thing the neuro guy there did was ask us how we felt about trying a diet. We just about kissed him!

I still think that what I think of as "Ph.D. Disease" and its variant "Expert's Disease" ought to be considered tortious when the consequences are so severe. How many other kids whose parents didn't have the oomph or the ability to drive hundreds of miles for a second opinion watched their children die because this, um, gentleman expressed his prejudice as scientific fact?

The SOB also called our kid "spoiled" because after waiting 45-60 minutes in a waiting room so crowded that we had to sit on the floor for an appointment scheduled right in the middle of nap time she was whiny when he examined her.

Yet, he is considered a great man, and a part of the hospital is named after him.

Forgiveness is one of the heaviest and hardest of the gifts our Lord asks us to take up.

41 posted on 11/22/2010 5:48:21 AM PST by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: goat granny

This isn’t me.....

Thank God we never had that problem.

Or did you intend to ping another poster?


42 posted on 11/22/2010 5:51:24 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Cricket24
I'd have to dispute distinguishing between "simple" and "complex" carbs simply because the human body (to wit, the liver) converts ALL sugars and starches ~ other than those which are indigestible ~ into the same sugar form you can use as energy.

Whether it's refined sugar, HFCs, or baked potatoes, all same thing.

My blood sugar meter reflects that every time I use it too.

White (wheat) flour is a special case ~ for many of us it's an intolerable food so we don't eat it EVER.

One pleasant way to gain vital fats and oils is to cook up salmon ~ or get some of that top grade stuff at the fish market and use it for sashimi. If you don't have any wheat free tamari available you can mix the wasabi with the Sriracha in the fridge and use that ~ cleans ALL your sinuses in seconds Fur Shur ~ what a rush.

43 posted on 11/22/2010 5:51:56 AM PST by muawiyah (GIT OUT THE WAY ~ REPUBLICANS COMIN' THROUGH)
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To: goat granny; metmom
OOOPs, in #23 you quoted from the article and I thought you were talking about your own child....sorry

I should have gone to bed instead of reading Free Republic, but am an insomniac...

MEMO TO GRANNY; read articles closer next time dunderhead...:O)

44 posted on 11/22/2010 6:04:37 AM PST by goat granny
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To: Fractal Trader
... his diet of ground animals was making him skinny ...


45 posted on 11/22/2010 6:13:33 AM PST by WVKayaker (Remember that the faith that moves mountains always carries a pick.)
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To: Mad Dawg
Dear Mad Dawg,

Johns Hopkins University Hospital, a little oasis of Heaven located in the stinking stench of east Baltimore, is a wonderful place.

My younger son has been a patient there for three years, now.

I hate the trip into Baltimore, but get warm and fuzzies when we arrive at the hospital.

A very, very special place, especially if you have children.


sitetest

46 posted on 11/22/2010 6:20:37 AM PST by sitetest ( If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: Mad Dawg

“I got so I could detect hypoglycemia by observation and taking my kid’s pulse.”

I’m curious how you did this? Did the low blood sugar cause your kid’s pulse to go up or down? It’d be great to be able to detect when my sugar is low without having to test for it. Sometimes I can tell by symptoms, but not always.


47 posted on 11/22/2010 9:26:12 AM PST by TruthSetsUFree
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To: Mad Dawg

Did you see this post?

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2631315/posts?page=22

Lots of freepers are being very negative about this piece on Axelrod and his daughter, but it’s the one thing that I’m glad he’s doing.

I think there is a lot of epilepsy ignorance in the world.


48 posted on 11/22/2010 9:43:48 AM PST by luckystarmom
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To: TruthSetsUFree

Well, of course it was context. But her pulse would be elevated, and the first time I took it the words from the old First Aid textbooks came to mind: thin and thready. It was like a shocky pulse.


49 posted on 11/22/2010 9:44:50 AM PST by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: sitetest

And then there’s that statue of Jesus ...


50 posted on 11/22/2010 9:56:31 AM PST by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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To: Hardastarboard

51 posted on 11/22/2010 10:08:14 AM PST by houeto ("You know, I actually believe my own bullsh_t," --- BHO)
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To: neverdem

The only thing I see that may be wrong with the kid’s diet is a lack of greens.

He should at least be taking a dry powered greens mix, and some chlorella and spirulina.

He’ll never have to worry about a heart attack anyway; the fats will protect him from that problem.
.


52 posted on 11/22/2010 10:08:14 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Obamacare is America's kristallnacht !!)
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To: Ruy Dias de Bivar

What exactly is an “Aura” like?
.


53 posted on 11/22/2010 10:10:54 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Obamacare is America's kristallnacht !!)
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To: Hardastarboard

.
> “The author’s handling of his son’s nutrition borders on child abuse.”

.
You have no idea what you’re talking about.
.


54 posted on 11/22/2010 10:12:47 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Obamacare is America's kristallnacht !!)
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To: Mad Dawg

“And then there’s that statue of Jesus ...”

Probably what prevents the rest of Baltimore from being entirely swallowed up into Hell.


55 posted on 11/22/2010 10:14:00 AM PST by sitetest ( If Roe is not overturned, no unborn child will ever be protected in law.)
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To: goat granny

Been there, done that......


56 posted on 11/22/2010 10:21:31 AM PST by metmom (Welfare was never meant to be a career choice.)
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To: Maven

.
> “There are no essential nutrients supplied by carbohydrates.”

.
That needs to be shouted from the rooftops!

Carbs are killing the US population rapidly.
.


57 posted on 11/22/2010 10:23:46 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Obamacare is America's kristallnacht !!)
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To: Mad Dawg

.
> “Forgiveness is one of the heaviest and hardest of the gifts our Lord asks us to take up.”

.
Yet one of the most important, and efficatious.


58 posted on 11/22/2010 10:30:22 AM PST by editor-surveyor (Obamacare is America's kristallnacht !!)
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To: SaveTheChief

In the 60’s at a neuro-rehab facility, there was a young boy who seized many times a day. His Father was a KoolAid salesman so the child drank alot of the stuff. After his admission to the facility, and withdrawl from the KoolAid the seizures stopped. In the 60’s you used lots of sugar to make a quart of the drink.. Hummm!!!!


59 posted on 11/22/2010 10:39:29 AM PST by codder too
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To: editor-surveyor
Let us then pray for grace to forgive. In everything I turn to Him. Where else would I go?

I praise Him for His never failing generosity.

60 posted on 11/22/2010 10:39:50 AM PST by Mad Dawg (Oh Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee.)
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