Ketogenic Diet

[Leigh]

I tuned into a cheesy Lifetime movie right at the end last night. It was about Epilepsy and patients' success with the Ketogenic Diet. People portrayed have been seizure and medication free for years! I'm no doctor, but maybe it works with the central nervous system and can help POTS? Does anyone know?

The Ketogenic Diet starts with a 24 hour fast, which obviously puts most of us under quite a lot of stress. The Web site said the same for Epileptic patients. Then it slowly introduces fatty foods instead of glucose. Hmmm...Sounds like Atkins only this is monitored and controlled by a doctor.

Just a thought...

[lthomas521]

The ketogenic diet is a desperation measure for children with seizures that don't respond to medication or for children who cannot tolerate the antiseizure medication. It basically mimics starvation imo, which has been known since Biblical times to reduce seizures. It is hard to follow, and it tends to slow growth in the children who are on it. Unless I had intractable epilepsy, I wouldn't consider it, especially since it tends to cause dehydration and constipation, which are serious problems for most people with POTS.

[Sunfish]

yes to pretty much everything lthomas wrote.

but a few other things to keep in mind.

lifetime movies are just that - lifetime movies. it doesn't mean they aren't often based on true stories, but they're still fictionalized movies. it's likely that the diet was portrayed a lot more favorably that reality would show in terms of it being a "magic" cure. that said, i know research shows that it HAS in fact worked wonders for certain people when all other options had been exhausted. and then it was/is done under very strict monitoring, sometimes while even hospitalized. and the diet is (& always has been) very controversial within the medical community.

additionally, just as an FYI, for most people POTS isn't rooted in a problem in the central nervous system. in most cases it is more peripheral in nature.

so while i can appreciate the desire to want to try anything & everything out there in the name of feeling better, imo the ketogenic diet isn't the answer for POTS &/or other dysautonomias. for reasons lthomas mentioned & more, it would likely make things worse rather than better.

melissa

[SunsetParadise49]

It wasn't a movie, I saw it too, it's really a tv show something like Grey's Anatomy and ER...it's called Strong Medicine. I know nothing about the diet either but from what the show said about it doesn't sound like it would be good for us.