Treating epilepsy through diet
Ball hockey, basketball, video games, swimming: these are the things Jack loves to do. He’s a happy, loving, typical nine year old boy. He was a typical baby, too, with two doting older sisters. At two years, two months, Jack had his first major seizure. This was when the journey of Jack and his family (mom Tara, dad Jamie, and sisters Grace and Julia) with MAE (myoclonic astatic epilepsy) began.Jack suffered different kinds of seizures – from grand mal-type seizures where he lost consciousness, to ‘drop seizures’ – where his entire body would drop like a marionette with cut strings. Different medications were tried, and Jack had an MRI, to determine if his seizures were localized in the brain – if they were, surgery might be an option. It was not.
SickKids patient Jack, 5 years seizure-free.
Jack’s parents discovered a program at SickKids that treats epileptic children with the ketogenic diet.
For the 20-30% of kids who develop drug resistant epilepsy, ketogenic diet therapy is a low-carb, adequate protein, and high-fat diet. Instead of using carbohydrates for energy, the liver converts stored fat into what are called ketone bodies, which the body uses for energy. This can help control seizures.
Results took a while. But today, Jack is five years seizure-free, and no longer on medication. Even better, closely supervised, he’s being gradually weaned off his diet. It’s research into treatments like this, made possible through gifts in your will, that give us the opportunity to tell stories like Jack’s.
