Renewed interest in ketogenic diet

Recent research has reignited interest in the ketogenic diet, a nutritional course of treatment first used in the 1920s, to control the symptoms of epilepsy in children.
In 1921, because of the lack of anticonvulsants available for children with juvenile refractory epilepsy, the ketogenic diet was created at the Mayo Clinic to treat the seizures characteristic of this disease. The diet focuses on increasing fat intake while lowering calories derived from carbohydrates, proteins and fluids.
The fats are broken down to form compounds called ketone bodies, which can act as an energy source for the heart and brain. In the absence of glucose, which is the basic component of carbohydrates and also the body's preferred source of energy, the use of ketone bodies as an energy source in the brain can rise up to 70 percent.
The diet was successful in treating epileptic seizures in approximately 50 percent of patients, but how it did so was, and still is, unknown. With the introduction of the antiepileptic phenytoin and other medications in 1938, interest in using the diet as a means of controlling the effects of epilepsy fell.
Starting in 2005, however, new research has led to resurgence in the interest of ketogenic diet treatment, except with some alterations. The resulting three diets, MCT, LGIT and Modified Atkins, use lower levels of fat and higher levels of carbohydrates and proteins.
All of these diet are less restrictive in terms of change in the levels of each food group. In the original ketogenic diet, the timing of changes in the diet was strictly regulated.
The recent research has been coupled with investigation in decreasing the side effects of these dietary therapies, including hypercholesterolemia, mineral deficiencies, acidosis, constipation and weight loss. Much of the treatment involves the use of supplements like calcium, selenium, zinc and vitamin D.
These studies have also sought to discover the nature by which ketogenic diets relieve seizures of epileptic patients. Since the diet basically applies the more beneficial effects of fasting, tests were done to identify the effect of fasts on seizures in mice.
Moreover, investigations are underway to determine whether it is the lack of glucose, or the plethora of fats, that causes the relief from seizures. This involves determining the exact concentration of ketone bodies in the brain over the course of the diet.
Finally, it is possible that the diet acts in an indirect way, either by altering the activation or repression of signal pathways in the brain, or by affecting neurotransmitters and the other proteins that facilitate their function.
If these questions can be satisfactorily answered, it is possible that ketogenic diets can be used to treat other diseases of the brain.
They have already been shown to have effects on migraines, autism, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, lateral sclerosis and brain injury caused by trauma.