Children with persistent and drug-resistant seizures treated with the high-fat, low-carbohydrate ketogenic diet may get an added therapeutic benefit from periodic fasting, according to a small Johns Hopkins Children’s Center study.

The results, published online Dec. 3 in the journal Epilepsy Research, suggest the ketogenic diet and fasting can work in tandem to reduce seizures but appear do so through different mechanisms — a finding that challenges the longstanding assumption that the two share a common mechanism.

In the study, six children, ages 2 to 7, and all on the ketogenic diet, were asked to fast on alternate days. [Read more...]