8 ms·

Interestingly enough, a low carbohydrate (often including a switch to artificial sweeteners) is a well-established treatment for childhood epilepsy.

vowelless 12y ago
The validity low carb diets is generally orthogonal to artificial sweeteners and probably should not be conflated.
- ethanbond 12y ago
  Thus the phrase "often including..." I wasn't attempting to disprove or contribute to his claims. Just to point out an interesting intersection of diet and seizures.
  - vowelless 12y ago
    Can you give a source for aspartame/artificial sweeteners being often included with low carb diet for treating childhood epilepsy? It doesn't seem intuitive to me that a diet to treat such a disease would often include something like aspartame.
    - ethanbond 12y ago
      Well a ketogenic diet is used to treat epilepsy, and artificial sweeteners don't generally conflict with ketosis. I didn't mean to imply artificial sweeteners are prescribed to epileptics. Maybe they're even specifically forbidden as well, I'm not sure.
    - darkarmani 12y ago
      > It doesn't seem intuitive to me that a diet to treat such a disease would often include something like aspartame. It's the avoiding carbs part that means they look to eat something sweet that isn't a carb. They don't prescribe aspartame; they just say don't leave ketosis.
darcyparker 12y ago
Really? Can you point to a source? Many people with epilepsy and migraines have discovered different food triggers. In my case Aspartame was the leading trigger. Anyone who has seizures should seek out and eliminate potential triggers to see if it helps. I suppose a high carb diet could be a trigger for someone... I didn't have a high carb diet... but I know eliminating aspartame helped me. I am still amazed how Donald Rumsfeld was able to influence its approval by the FDA.
- AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
  They're likely referring to a ketogenic diet. They were quite common in the past before anticonvulsant meds were created, and are still used in intractable cases today, particularly in pediatric care. There's lots of information out there about their use in epilepsy. Some to get you started: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898565/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898565/ http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/treating-seizures-and-epilepsy/dietary-therapies/ketogenic-diet http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/treating-seizures-and-epilepsy... http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-updates/neurosciences/pediatric-epilepsy-mayo-clinic-managing-seizures-related-comorbidities http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-upd...
  - darcyparker 12y ago
    Interesting - thanks. [Edit] - The ketogenic diet is interesting. And I can see how some would want to substitute sugar for an artificial sweetener to help achieve a low carb diet. But given Aspartame is a known trigger for many types of seizures, it should be introduced carefully.
    - AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
      Do you have a source re: aspartame and seizures? I did a cursory search and the only non-anecdotal thing I could find was a study[1] that showed there was no link in people who described themselves as sensitive. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7614911 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7614911

vowelless 12y ago

The validity low carb diets is generally orthogonal to artificial sweeteners and probably should not be conflated.

ethanbond 12y ago
Thus the phrase "often including..." I wasn't attempting to disprove or contribute to his claims. Just to point out an interesting intersection of diet and seizures.
- vowelless 12y ago
  Can you give a source for aspartame/artificial sweeteners being often included with low carb diet for treating childhood epilepsy? It doesn't seem intuitive to me that a diet to treat such a disease would often include something like aspartame.
  - ethanbond 12y ago
    Well a ketogenic diet is used to treat epilepsy, and artificial sweeteners don't generally conflict with ketosis. I didn't mean to imply artificial sweeteners are prescribed to epileptics. Maybe they're even specifically forbidden as well, I'm not sure.
  - darkarmani 12y ago
    > It doesn't seem intuitive to me that a diet to treat such a disease would often include something like aspartame. It's the avoiding carbs part that means they look to eat something sweet that isn't a carb. They don't prescribe aspartame; they just say don't leave ketosis.

darcyparker 12y ago

Really? Can you point to a source? Many people with epilepsy and migraines have discovered different food triggers. In my case Aspartame was the leading trigger. Anyone who has seizures should seek out and eliminate potential triggers to see if it helps. I suppose a high carb diet could be a trigger for someone... I didn't have a high carb diet... but I know eliminating aspartame helped me. I am still amazed how Donald Rumsfeld was able to influence its approval by the FDA.

AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
They're likely referring to a ketogenic diet. They were quite common in the past before anticonvulsant meds were created, and are still used in intractable cases today, particularly in pediatric care. There's lots of information out there about their use in epilepsy. Some to get you started: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898565/ http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2898565/ http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/treating-seizures-and-epilepsy/dietary-therapies/ketogenic-diet http://www.epilepsy.com/learn/treating-seizures-and-epilepsy... http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-updates/neurosciences/pediatric-epilepsy-mayo-clinic-managing-seizures-related-comorbidities http://www.mayoclinic.org/medical-professionals/clinical-upd...
- darcyparker 12y ago
  Interesting - thanks. [Edit] - The ketogenic diet is interesting. And I can see how some would want to substitute sugar for an artificial sweetener to help achieve a low carb diet. But given Aspartame is a known trigger for many types of seizures, it should be introduced carefully.
  - AnkhMorporkian 12y ago
    Do you have a source re: aspartame and seizures? I did a cursory search and the only non-anecdotal thing I could find was a study[1] that showed there was no link in people who described themselves as sensitive. [1] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7614911 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7614911