The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that, in medicine, is used primarily to treat difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fuelling brain function. However, if little carbohydrate remains in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood, a state known as ketosis, leads to a reduction in the frequency of epileptic seizures.
Possible therapeutic uses for the ketogenic diet have been studied for many additional neurological disorders, some of which include Alzheimer’s disease, autism, brain cancer, headache, pain, Parkinson’s disease, and sleep disorders.
