Addressing the International Symposium on Dietary Therapy for Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders, mother and doctor Deborah Snyder reveals her first-hand experience of the ketogenic diet and its success in curing her son’s epilepsy.  She implores health professionals to recognise the efficacy of the diet in stopping seizures and aims to dispel the myth that the diet is too difficult or not worth the effort.

One of the biggest problems for children with disabilities is a lack of compassion, support and understanding at school, not just from fellow classmates but from teachers too.  If a teacher doesn’t understand common conditions such as epilepsy or dyslexia symptoms can often be mistaken for bad behavior.

First Aid for seizures typically involves making the person comfortable, keeping them out of harm’s way and timing a seizure to ensure that it doesn’t last more than 5 minutes.  However, when a person has a series of seizures in a row without gaining consciousness or a seizure lasts more than 5 minutes, they could be experiencing what is known as status epilepticus.

Speaking at the 2008 International Symposium on Dietary Therapy for Epilepsy and Other Neurological Disorders, British Mum Emma Williams tells of her fight to get son Matthew on the ketogenic diet.  In an address that brought tears to the eyes of not only this brave Mum but many in the audience, she speaks of her rage at doctors refusal to take the ketogenic diet seriously and the subsequent brain damage her little boy suffered due to constant seizures. 

Hollywood star Meryl Streep was so moved by the Abrahams’ story that she decided to become involved in the fight to inform parents about the ketogenic diet.  She narrates and introduces the information video made by the Charlie Foundation which is available to parents across the world. 

Streep was close friends with movie director Jim Abrahams, who asked for her help to increase awareness of the ketogenic diet as a treatment for childhood epilepsy.  His son Charlie was successfully prescribed the diet and after a few days his seizures ceased completely.

Added with permission:

The Story of Bauer - a 2 yr old with Severe Food Allergies

My son has had seizures and I have connected them with food allergies! He has now been seizure free for 5-6 months. I wish I could go back to that first allergist and tell him..."you may have MD after your name, but I have MOM and that outweighs you any day. My gut instincts have been right on.

Any parent who has a child with epilepsy will know the continual worry over when and how they’ll have their next seizure, particularly when they’re in bed asleep.  It’s impossible to monitor your child 24/7 and countless parents report years of sleepless nights, getting out of bed to check on their child after the slightest noise, only to find they’ve just rolled over in their sleep.

In my last posting I reviewed some of the recent progress in research on the use of the ketogenic diet.  In this posting I’d like to follow up by reviewing an exciting study published this past February by a group of French researchers on the use of the ketogenic diet for patients with focal epilepsy (also called partial epilepsy).

One of the first reports has come out about people with seizures and epilepsy risks of drowning. The medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology reported in their August 19, 2008, issue of Neurology reported exactly how much risk people who have seizures actually have of drowning.

Researchers compared the number of people that die each year who suffer from seizures with the general population by examining and compiling information from population registries and 50 case studies of people with who suffer from seizures.

Expressions of Courage, a national contest for people with epilepsy, will be open for entries through Aug. 28. The contest helps showcase the talent and inspiration of people across the country living with epilepsy. A panel of epilepsy advocates, art industry representatives and healthcare experts will serve as contest judges and will announce the winners in November.